"You're invited to Orville's 'coming out' party... It'll be a scream... YOURS!"
Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things is a 1972 American Horror comedy film directed by Bob Clark.
A group of actors come together for their director's party. Said director is an odd duck, and proposes an unusual game: Dig up a corpse from the nearby cemetery and try to resurrect it with magic! They do so, but it seemingly fails. Unfortunately, it actually resurrects all the dead...
This film contains examples of:
- Blood Magic: The resurrection spell requires the blood of an aborted foetus.
- Chekhov's Gunman: After the resurrection spell goes off, the corpse the group nicknames "Orville" is left to sit in a corner while they deal with the newly-animated dead. Alan retreats into that room when he's the last one left. Turns out the spell did work on Orville after all, it just took a while to kick in.
- Collective Death Glare: Played for Laughs. Near the end, as the zombies are closing on Alan and Anya, Alan throws Anya to the zombies to save himself. Everyone - zombies included - shoot Alan a look of disgust.
- Developing Doomed Characters: It takes an hour for the zombies to show up.
- Dirty Coward: Alan, near the end.
- Downer Ending: The zombies kill our main characters, and take a boat to the mainland to continue the madness.
- Gone Horribly Right: Our heroes cast an Animate Dead spell on some corpse they dug up for funsies. Unfortunately, it resurrects every corpse on the island.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The zombies are resurrected by invoking Satan himself.
- Jerkass: Alan, the head of a theatre company who will fire anybody who questions his shenanigans.
- Our Zombies Are Different: These ones are your standard shambling type, resurrected by the Dark Lord himself.
- Prima Donna Director: Alan— just another one of his stellar qualities.
- Pushed at the Monster: Alan throws Anya to the zombies as they close in on the pair.
- World of Snark: Every makes jabs at each other, often in the most over the top way they can. They are actors, after all.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Alan throws Anya to the zombies, everyone - including the zombies - gives Alan a dirty look.
