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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

I Eat Your Skin (1964)

Starring William Joyce, Heather Hewitt, Betty Hyatt Linton, Dan Stapleton, Walter Coy
Directed by Del Tenney
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A publisher coaxes his star novelist into traveling with him to a tropical island for inspiration, but when they get there, voodoo sacrifices and zombies make it a hazardous vacation.

An efficient thriller from independent producer Del Tenney, who also made The Horror Of Party Beach and The Curse Of The Living Corpse, this doesn't have the depth or shock value of some other voodoo/zombie pictures, but it's fun and doesn't overstay its welcome.  IMDB says the original title was simply Zombies, but it wasn't released until 1971, and then renamed I Eat Your Skin, probably to capitalize on the popularity of 1968's Night Of The Living Dead- there's no actual skin-eating in this movie as there was in that film.  The zombie makeups are distinctive if not groundbreaking, with decaying skin and crusted-over eyes, the voodoo rituals are well-staged, and Tenney's script mixes in enough humor and romance to keep things moving at a nice pace.

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