After dropping out of the University of Maryland in 1975, Tony Malanowski pursued a career in independent filmmaking. He started Little Warsaw Productions and made his first feature film, Night of Horror, in 1981. Before directing, Malanowski had a small part in Don Dohler’s 1978 sci-fi horror film The Alien Factor. He later was an associate producer and a second unit director on Dohler’s 1982 follow-up Nightbeast. Malanowski decided to remake his 1981 film that same year but with some extra gore, much like Dohler’s follow-up. Most of the cast and crew from Night of Horror returned for this pseudo-remake, including Steve Sandkuhler and Rebecca Bach. Malanowski’s film was released in 1982 as The Curse of the Screaming Dead before Troma acquired the rights decades later. They retitled the movie Curse of the Cannibal Confederates for their 2004 Toxie’s Triple Terror DVD.
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Synopsis
Mel (Christopher Gummer), Wyatt (Steve Sandkuhler), and Bill (Jim Ball) are driving on a hunting trip in the southern US. They’re accompanied by their girlfriends Sarah (Rebecca Bach), Lin (Judy Dixon), and Blind Kiyomi (Mimi Ishikawa). While making a stop, Blind Kiyomi hears some strange noises and wants Mel to investigate, leading him toward a graveyard. He finds several items left behind by former Confederate soldiers and takes a diary from one of them. The group sets up camp at night when suddenly several Confederate soldiers rise from the grave as zombies. As the group fights off the Confederate zombies, they run into Deputy Franklin (Bumb Roberts) and Captain Fritz (Richard Ruxton). Neither of the police officers believes their story, but soon the Confederates catch up to them and eat them. Why are these Confederate zombies attacking, and who will survive the Curse of the Cannibal Confederates?
Review
Curse of the Cannibal Confederates is a brutal movie for me to review because there isn’t much to discuss. I make no exaggerations when I say that this is one of the most boring movies I’ve ever seen. Even Lloyd Kaufman has called this one of the five worst films in the Troma library, which is saying something. I’m not sure what the other four are, though I bet Igor and The Lunatics is one of them. Part of what makes this film so dull is that many shots last longer than they should. Moments like these show how the filmmakers are trying to reach the 90-minute mark. It doesn’t help that there’s no backing music or what sounds like a broken Casio keyboard droning endlessly. The acting is what you’d expect from this kind of movie: either flat or trying too hard to emote.
This is also a hard movie to watch, either due to the film being overexposed or needing more light. Plus, the audio mixing is so bad that it’s often hard to understand what certain characters are saying. The zombies are pretty laughable; most have tons of white face paint plastered on and wear contemporary clothes. The gore effects aren’t the best, but they’re about on par with a low-budget horror film. Honestly, you could only get some enjoyment from this movie if you had some friends to suffer with. I understand that Night of Horror is even worse, but I don’t want to find out for myself. I agree with Lloyd that this is one of Troma’s worst movies, though I’m not sure why he’d release it. Overall, Curse of the Cannibal Confederates makes Redneck Zombies look like Night of the Living Dead by comparison.
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