Curse of the Living Mario Bava

In digging into the film Kill, Baby…Kill! (which we cover on our most recent episode of the Crestwood House podcast), I was amused to discover that the film was released multiple times here in the States throughout the 60s and 70s under a series of different titles. Though the film was released as part of a double feature in 1967 under its original title, in subsequent years it was renamed Curse of the Living Dead and packaged with two other Italian films (Fangs of the Living Dead and The Murder Clinic – billed as Revenge of the Living Dead in the triple feature.) This triple feature hit drive-in theater screens in 1972 and was billed under the name Orgy of the Living Dead. Now there’s nothing super exceptional about this repackaging as it’s pretty common for foreign films to be re-titled and released ad nauseam over here, but what I absolutely love about the Orgy of the Living Dead triple feature is the marketing, in particular the one-sheets and trailers for the event.

Europix International brought on designer Alan Ormsby to create the imagery and design for the print portion of the promotion. He illustrated the “Living Dead Head” seen in the poster above, as well as the vampire vixen. You might be more familiar with Ormsby’s script work for films like My Bodyguard, Porky’s II, the remake of Cat People and Popcorn, but he also wrote and illustrated a seminal monster makeup effect book in the mid 70s called Movie Monsters!

Getting back to Orgy of the Living Dead though, I absolutely love the call out on the bottom right of the poster showcasing one John Austin Frazier who was driven bat-shit crazy by sitting through the triple feature of films. The blurb warns (and reassures)…

This is John Austin Frazier. It has been reported that he now resides at a Mental Hospital, the result of attending a showing of “Orgy of the Living Dead!” Because of this tragic event, we, the producers, have secured an insurance policy, insuring the sanity of each and every patron. If you lose your mind as a result of viewing this explosion of terror, you will receive free psychiatric care, or be placed, at our expense, in an asylum for the rest of your life! We urge you to take advantage of this protection! The insurance is free – anyone entering the theater without it does so at his own risk. Remember: WE WARNED YOU!!!

I love these kinds of William Castle-esque gimmicks and this one in particular. Not only was this warning on the main one-sheet, but there were also individual posters made up of just “Frazier’s” insane mug screaming with the insurance policy blurb underneath. He is also the main focus of the trailer for this Orgy of the Living Dead triple feature…

I mean come on, is that not the best trailer for a film ever put to celluloid? By the way, ignore the incorrect title and info in that youtube video as they have this trailer mixed up with another exploitation film named Orgy of the Dead from 1965. I had to embed this one though as it is by far the best quality of the trailer I’ve seen.

There’s a whole pressbook that was printed up for theater owners to help promote the film and you can scope it at the great Zombo’s Closet blog. This triple feature traveled around the United States for years, and sometimes it was accompanied by Night of the Living Dead to make it a full quadruple feature. Sometimes these drive-in’s went all out and opened the night with the burial of an actual living person as seen in this newspaper ad from the Tar Heel Drive-In in High Point North Carolina back in 1975!