Ghosts That Still Walk

[crabapple]

I am inspired to write a little bit about this odd, extremely obscure mid-70's movie. Has anyone here seen this?

This is a weird flick about an archaeologist studying the culture of the ancient Hohokam Indians. She takes a (really fake looking) mummy out of a burial cave and brings it home to study it. Well, pretty soon she starts acting weird and talking to this mummy. And shortly thereafter her son becomes possessed by the spirit of the mummy. Even stranger events take place as the spirit then tries to destroy the woman's family. This is actually REALLY BORING and it will make you fall asleep the first couple of times you try to watch it. But if you stick with it, you may just make it to the end.

The way I have described the story is much clearer than the jumbled way the film lays the story out. But if you like boring 70's films that are photographed mainly in sunlight, this could prove utterly fascinating. Can a boring movie really be fascinating? Well...somehow this one achieves that.

Fans of "Spider Baby" will be interested to know that a couple of music tracks from that film are used in this one (including an instrumental version of the theme song).

Featuring one frightening and fairly well-done sequence showing possessed boulders and rocks rolling around by themselves and eventually attacking some people in a camper. Some of these boulder effects were done with reverse photography and are fairly easy to figure out...and some of these effects were done in some clever way I still don't understand. You should check this movie out! Because, you know, I said so.

[Elvis_Christ]

Where did ya pick this up from dude?

[crabapple]

Well, I should start at the beginning. One day when I was home sick (I should have been in school but I had a cold, or maybe I just pretended to have a cold) I was watching Channel 11 and here was this movie. Weird title, so I was ready to watch it. And I liked it mainly because it was strange (it's not really "good"). There was a bloody scene early on with the kid putting his hand through a piece of glass and getting cut; and this definitely stuck in my mind. Anyway, for years I remembered this film. I remembered the lame mummy, the boulders, and a few other things.

And like the best obscure movies, no one ever mentioned this movie to me, and I never saw it again on TV. Never saw it in a video store either. This movie slowly began to take on a strange importance in my mind. Just like the unattainable woman who is all the more desireable because she is never within reach. A lost dream....a dream of 70's boredom! Maybe seeing this in the early 80's (the 80's were basically a pale echo of the 70's) had something to do with it. I knew it was bad when I was watching it that first time. But just as surely, I was developing a taste for certain kinds of bad films at that time. "Encounter With The Unknown" is another movie like this...somewhat incompetent but with a strange power to hypnotize and unnerve.

Cut to: Many years later (about a year ago) I notice this film is available from Amazon.com and also on Ebay. And guess what--it's so obscure and so, oh, UNREMARKABLE, let's say, that copies are fairly cheap! Nobody wants these things! So I buy one and wait excitedly for it to arrive in the mail.

You should get one too! There's several for only $1.60 on Amazon.

But it gets better. There's a dude at Ebay Stores, he has one for 99 Cents plus 2 dollars shipping! Spend three bucks and this thing will probably be there in 10 days.

I looked this up on imdb just now and there are several people who have written weird testimonials to this movie.