''House of the Living Dead'' (''Skaduwees Oor Brugplaas'', or ''Shadows over Bridge Farm''), also known as ''Doctor Maniac'', is a 1974
science-fiction horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
directed by
Ray Austin. The film, an international co-production between Great Britain and South Africa, takes place on a
plantation in South Africa and deals heavily with the
occult
The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...
.
Plot
The storyline follows a white family running a plantation farm on the
Cape Colony in
South Africa. The family consists of a mother (
Margaret Inglis) and her two sons, Michael and Breck (both played by
Mark Burns). Michael runs the house while Breck spends his time alone in his room, deformed and insane, conducting experiments to try to prove the soul is an organic object able to live outside the human body. Michael's fiancée Mary (
Shirley Anne Field) arrives to marry him, much to the mother's dismay as she wants the family to end so the long history of madness can stop. Meanwhile, strange things begin to happen at the plantation, such as
voodoo, which is assumed to be the work of the local
black neighbors, and
murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...
.
Awards
Mark Burns was recognized as Best Actor at the 1974
Sitges Film Festival
The Sitges Film Festival ( ca, Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya, links=no) is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Spain, specialized in fantasy and horror films, of which it is considered one of the world's foremost in ...
.
Content
The film contains very little
gore and no
zombies at all, as would generally be expected of a title containing "Living Dead". It is sometimes confused with the substantially more popular video game series ''
House of the Dead''. It is 86 minutes long (85 in the UK cut version) and is rated Australia: R (and UK PG). It goes under various names – ''Doctor Maniac'' in the UK and US, ''Curse of the Dead'' also in the US, and ''Kill, Baby, Kill'' when released to video.
Cast
*
Mark Burns ... Sir Michael Brattling / Dr. Breckinridge Brattling
*
Shirley Anne Field ... Mary Anne Carew
*
David Oxley ... Dr. Collinson
*
Margaret Inglis ... Lady Brattling
*
Dia Sydow
DIA or Dia may refer to:
Government establishments
* Defense Intelligence Agency, United States foreign military intelligence agency
* Defence Intelligence Agency (India) Indian foreign military intelligence agency
* Department of Internal Affa ...
... Lina
*
Lynn Maree
Lynn may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Lynn (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Lynn (surname)
* The Lynns, a 1990s American country music duo consisting of twin sisters Peggy and Patsy Lynn
* Lynn ( ...
... Annie
*
Bill Flynn ... Simeon
*
William Baird Clark
William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conques ...
... Capt. Turner
* Ronald France ... Col. Pringle
* Don Furnival ... Brand
*
Pieter Geldenhuys
Pieter is a male given name, the Dutch form of Peter. The name has been one of the most common names in the Netherlands for centuries, but since the mid-twentieth century its popularity has dropped steadily, from almost 3000 per year in 1947 to ...
... Shoemaker
*
Ben Dekker ... Jan
*
Limpie Basson ... Hugo de Groot
*
Amina Gool
Aminatu (also Amina; died 1610) was a Hausa Muslim historical figure in the city-state Zazzau (now city of Zaria in Kaduna State), in what is now in the north-west region of Nigeria. She might have ruled in the mid-sixteenth century. A controver ...
... Aia Kat
See also
* ''
Night of the Living Dead''
External links
House of The Living Dead at RottenTomatoes.com*
House of The Living Dead at AllMovie.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:House Of The Living Dead
1974 films
1974 horror films
British science fiction horror films
1970s science fiction horror films
Films set in farms
Films set in South Africa
Films shot in South Africa
1970s English-language films
Films directed by Ray Austin
1970s British films