Castleofevil

DEATH CURSE OF TARTU
In the Florida swamps there is an Indian burial ground that is protected by Tartu,a 100 year old dead"witch doctor".He will leave his tomb in the form of an animal of nature to kill defilers of
the grounds.
You just know that some white men are going to defile the grounds with an archeological dig.The point man and a professor, his wife and 4 young fools dismiss an Indian's warning about the curse of Tartu.So they go deep into the swamp to the burial grounds.There the obnoxious students make out, dance to bad rock and swim in the swamp. Yeah, that is always a smart move. Tartu gets mighty upset with the gang and starts to bump them off one by one.The creepiest kills are via snake(yuck).
There are really not many sympathetic people in this movie.You actually hope a few of them die violently because they are stupid/whiny etc.Being a goober is a requirement in these movies
but this is pushing it.While the snake kills were scary, a freshwater attack by shark is kind of goofy (although gory for its time).The music is irritating and distracting.
On the flip side there are great location shots. The swamp and its denizens are creepy. The Seminole wind out of nowhere is pretty creepy too.Tartu is a nasty looking specimen.
While this isn't all bad it isn't all great either.The curse of being average..

CASTLE OF EVIL

This movie was on seemingly four times a year on the afternoon show of Sir Graves Ghastly back in
the late 60's and early 70's.It starred one of the oldest casts in exploitation(ie will work cheap) with the likes of Virginia Mayo, Hugh Marlowe and Scott Brady.
Six people are ferried to what looks like an island somewhere near Cuba during a violent storm.They
are very well acquainted with the rich genius named Kovic.It seems that he was horribly disfigured with phosphorus salts(whatever) and is dying a slow death.Upon their arrival the six find out that Kovic is dead.He will leave his fortune to any of the survivors
provided they discover who murdered him.And the catch is the killer is one of them.And everybody
has a grudge against Kovic as he was a stone prick that screwed each of them over severely.
Kovic created a robot that looks just like him down to the heavily scarred face.The robot has
been programmed with his memories or his evil or some hokey hogwash.Well the castle is rife with secret
tunnels and passageways.The robot starts knocking off a few of the cast.One grisly touch is the
robot puts a few bodies into a sort of gas chamber that destroys all flesh and organs and it leaves behind just the skeletons.The robot is impervious to bullets and just may lay waste to the cast.In some cases, that wouldn't be a bad idea.
This movie is hokey, cliched,easy to figure out, downright stupid at times and a lot of fun to watch.
Guess I just have a thing for secret passageways and revenge from beyond the grave.

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