''House of the Living Dead'' (''Skaduwees Oor Brugplaas'', or ''Shadows over Bridge Farm''), also known as ''Doctor Maniac'', is a 1974

science-fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

horror film directed by Ray Austin. The film, an international co-production between Great Britain and South Africa, takes place on a

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

in South Africa and deals heavily with the occult.

Plot

The storyline follows a white family running a plantation farm on the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. 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 Shirley Anne Field (born Shirley Broomfield; 27 June 1938) is an English actress who has performed on stage, film and television since 1955, prominent during the British New Wave. Early life Broomfield was born in Forest Gate, Essex (now in ...

) 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 Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

neighbors, and murder.

Awards

Mark Burns was recognized as Best Actor at the 1974 Sitges Film Festival.

Content

The film contains very little gore and no

zombies A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in wh ...

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 *

... Mary Anne Carew *

David Oxley David Oxley (7 November 1920 – 30 October 1985) was an English actor who made many film, television and stage appearances over a 28-year period. He is best known for portraying Gilles de Rais in '' Saint Joan'' (1957), Sir Hugo Baskerville in ...

... Dr. Collinson * Margaret Inglis ... Lady Brattling * Dia Sydow ... Lina * Lynn Maree ... Annie *

Bill Flynn William Flynn (13 December 1948 – 11 July 2007) was a South African actor and comedian, perhaps best known for playing Tjokkie. Early life Flynn was born William Frederick Flynn in Cape Town and matriculated from Plumstead High School. He ...

... Simeon * William Baird Clark ... Capt. Turner * Ronald France ... Col. Pringle * Don Furnival ... Brand * Pieter Geldenhuys ... Shoemaker * Ben Dekker ... Jan * Limpie Basson ... Hugo de Groot * Amina Gool ... Aia Kat

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

Plot

Awards

Content

Cast

See also

External links