Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things (1972)

Film details

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DirectorBob Clark
Year1972
CountryUSA
GenreZombie
TypeMovie
Runtime87m
CastAlan Ormsby, Valerie Mamches, Jeff Gillen, Anya Ormsby, Paul Cronin, Jane Daly, Roy Engleman, Robert Philip, Bruce Solomon, Alecs Baird

Review

"Many people have written this film off as, like I mentioned above, campy, but there's something deliberate in the tone that the director crafted for this film. He loaded the script with silly lines and inside jokes that you would traditionally hear when in close quarters with a theatrical group such as this one, yet offsets that harmless scenario with the hauntingly macabre idea of a group of kids desecrating a cemetery and then walking off with one of it's inhabitants to just goof off with it. I think the combination is both fun and demented and I enjoy those ingredients each and every time I view this film. The characters are so off the wall and have such different personalities that you just enjoy listening to the ridiculous things that come out of their mouths. There's enough one liners and quotable lines in this one that it's hard to get bored and that's not including the hauntingly vibrant soundtrack." - Jay Shatzer, The Lucid Nightmare

Ranking history

The 1,000 Greatest Horror Films

EDITIONS IN TOP 1,00011
HIGHEST#5562015
LOWEST#9142026
Top 1,000Outside Top 1,000Missing ranking data

Dashed lines indicate missing ranking data. Select a point to view that year's published list. The 1,000 Greatest Horror Films list was not updated in 2022.

Lists featuring this film 26 lists

Combustible Celluloid's Essential Horror Movies2024Unranked—
Cult Labs' Community Top 100 Horror Films of All Time2014Ranked#272
DayoftheZombie's The 25 Best Zombie MoviesRanked#9
Dr-Faustus' GREATEST HORROR MOVIES OF ALL TIME2018Unranked—
Drew Hunt's 100 Greatest Horror Films2013Ranked#87
Fiction Horizon's Hrvoje Milakovic's The 50 Best Zombie Movies of All Time2025Ranked#48
Final Girl Shocktoberfest Poll2017Ranked#262
Goregirl's Favourite Horror Films of the 1970s2013Ranked#123
Goregirl's Zombie Films2012Ranked#41
groo-8's Top 200 Horror films Ever2012Unranked—
Hollie Horror's 1970-19792021Ranked#87
Hollie Horror's Favorite Zombie Films2019Ranked#20
HorrorMovies.ca Forum's Top 300 horror films that MUST be seen before you die2012Unranked—
Jamie_Shannon's Best Horror Films2016Ranked#228
JarvisCity's 50 Greatest Zombie Movies Of All Time2016Ranked#16
Mark H. Harris' Notable Zombie Movies2017Unranked—
Mike Mayo's VideoHound's Horror Show - 999 Hair-Raising, Hellish, and Humorous Movies1998Unranked—
MSN's Zombie movies that will leave you hungry for more2015Unranked—
ReelRundown's Sam Shepards' The 67 Best Zombie Movies Ever Made2019Ranked#47
Rue Morgue Podcast's 100 Essential Alternative Horror Films2012Unranked—
Satanic Pandemonium's 1970s Horror - 100 Films2013Unranked—
The Bloody Pit of Horror's The 20 Best Zombie Films [1950-1990]2013Ranked#17
The Orlok's Top 5 of 19722015Ranked#8
The Orlok's Top 5 of 19732015Ranked#5
TheLastDriveIn's Top 175 Classic Horror Films2013Unranked—
Total Film & SFX's The Top 66 Zombie Films of All Time2016Ranked#35