Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things is a grave worm wringing ‘n’ coffin lid creaking blend of dark comedy and ghoulish horror- with a keenly sinister at points damn eerier atmosphere. The 1972 film was the second directorial feature from Bob Clarke- who will be known to genre fans for his excellent proto-slasher Black Christmas,  and popular 50’s set teen sex comedy Porkys. Here from VCI Entertainment is a new fifty-anniversary release of the film- which is available in three separate editions- DVD, Blu-Ray, or 4K Ultra HD- with each featuring a new 4k scan of the film, and a good selection of extras.

Appearing five years after his directorial debut cross-dressing comedy drama She Man: As Story Of Fixation, Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things feels(mostly) a game of two halves- as we move from eerily edged and creepy comedy, onto ghoulish drama, and zombie horror. The film was clearly influenced/ inspired by Night Of The Living Dead, though it (largely) adds its own quirky ‘n’ ghoulish twists to the living dead formal.

The film's pre-credits see a man tramping by torchlight through a graveyard, coming across a hunched figure- he taps it on the shoulder for the body to suddenly snap round and bloody bite at the man. As the fitting ghoulish dark green credits roll, we see a boat moving past night time 70’s cityscape- and fairly soon it docks. Off the boat gets Alan( Alan Ormsby- who also co-wrote the film with Clark) a very pompous and full of himself, goatee bearded, and jazzy clothed theatrical troupe leader- and six of his performers. He tells his thespian comrades that the plan is to dig up a body and perform a ritual with the body.

The group make their way through the graveyard- moving towards the subtle lights of a building, this Alan reveals is the caretaker's house- he tells the group one caretaker killed his whole family, and the other more recently hung himself in the rundown and rickety house. As the first half of the film moves on, we get playful banter between the group, within time the group goes out to dig up a body- and I’ll end my plot detailing there.

From the off Clarke creates a great feeling of creepy unease- this is nicely enhanced by the film's score that moves from ghoulish and animalistic like moans, lo-fi electro spectral electro texturing, and more jarring to noise bound unease ‘n’ discord. Ormsby is great as the smug, at times decidedly unpleasant theatrical troupe leader.  The rest of the troupe features a few memorable characters- with for the most part the acting being good to passable.

On the whole, Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things is a 1970s ghoulish treat- I guess you’d say it’s more comedy drama for most of its hour and twenty-some minute runtime. Yes, more clear and defined horror tropes appear in its last quarter including some damn creepy shots of the walking dead in touched light, and fleeting bits of gore- but I think if you’re here for an all-out zombie picture you might be disappointed.

Moving on to this two Blu-Ray set. And on the first disc, we get two main things- firstly the film, and this looks largely nice, crisp, and clear- with even the nighttime footage coming out nicely.  The other thing here is 2022 doc Dreaming Of Death( one hour and twenty minutes) which covers all of Bob Clarke's horror output- Children Shouldn't Play with Dead(1972), Death Dream(1974), Black Christmas (1974), Murder By Degree(1979), and Deranged: Confessions of a Necrophile(1974) which he was due to direct, but in the end, he just helped with the film's production. Each film gets around twenty minutes of screen time- with both actors and crew interviews for each( aside from Children.. where we just crew interviews). This is an excellent documentary really highlighting Clarke, as a focused and talented but always approachable director. Otherwise, on the first disc we get an archive commentary track with Alan Ormsby, Jane Daly and Anya Cronin.

On the second disc we get the following extras- a new skype interview with actor/co-writer Alan Ormsby(33.32), the sound quality is a little shaky on this, but Ormsby answers some interesting questions- like talking about the possibilities of a sequel and where the groovy get up he wears in the film came from-so well worth a play. Otherwise, we get the following archive extras- Confessions of a Grave Digger: Video Interview with Ken Goch (9.05), Q& A with Bob Clake from 2007 screening of Children (11.27), Memories of Bob Clark: A video tribute to the late Director (10.08), a selection of music videos, trailer and image gallery. The set comes in eight pages of liner notes by film historian/ home video columnist Patrick McCabe.

I’ve been aware of Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things for the last twenty or so years, so it is great to finally get to see it. And all in all, it’s a memorable blend of dark humour, drama & horror. This VCI Entertainment fifty-anniversary release is excellent- with a great 4k scan, and some neat extras to boot.