A bunch of longhairs go on a hunting party from hell, arguing over petty nonsense and incurring the wrath of some undead Civil War zombies. The Curse of the Screaming Dead (1982) is one of the single most annoying films I’ve sat through in quite a long time. The story is disjointed and tedious, and the acting is abysmal and whiny. The characters laugh too hard at each other’s non-jokes and generally treat each other like shit to the point where it’s just unpleasant to watch. Usually, I find movies that are as bad as this entertaining, but Curse is an unlikable mess. Batshit crazy gore effects and stupefyingly wretched acting couldn’t save it.

What could be worse than Curse of the Screaming Dead? The same director’s earlier slapdash nightmare called Night of Horror (1981), an even slower and shittier prototype for Curse. This film has less whining (barely), but once the Civil War reenactment footage kicks in, my mind evaporated. In this film, a group of scuzzy goofs in a Winnebago running afoul of some restless Civil War spirits. Yep, same plot as Curse, but so little action that I could hardly believe my eyes. Zombie makeup and splatter is replaced with raspy voiced narration and harmonica playing. Yikes.

I’ve never made a feature length film. I’m just a mega dorkus on his recliner who never did anything, so I respect writer/director Tony Malanowski for actually accomplishing not one but two amazing feats. But hot damn, I struggled with these friggin’ films. I’ve seen so many Night of the Living Dead (1968) homages -have any horror movie fans not seen any?- but Curse of the Screaming Dead made me wish George Romero had made Night of the Loving Bread, a romantic drama about a sexy baker instead of his zombie masterpiece.

The story goes that a distributor gave the director money to film some gore inserts for Night of Horror. Instead of doing that, Malanowski took that money and made Curse of the Screaming Dead. Good for him for not wanting to change his original film, but either way, I wish I’d never heard of this guy or his brutally bad films.

Vinegar Syndrome did their best with these two films, and they look just fine to me. The original audio of Curse of the Screaming Dead was lost and had to be source from a less than stellar copy of the film. But I didn’t notice anything amiss. I was too busy trying not to swallow my fist. The extras are where this double feature generates any interest for me. Each film has an audio commentary, one with Malanowski and one of the actors, and another with just Malanoski going solo.

There are Making Of documentaries for both films which are really interesting if you’re into low budget regional horror. My favorite extras are an interview with twin fans recounting how they discovered Night of Horror when they were kids and another interview with Stephen Thrower who sheds some fun insights into the films. There’s also outtakes from the film filming of Curse of the Screaming Dead and an original trailer.