Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things (1973)

Micro-budget independent schlock classic about some bickering young longhairs who raise the dead one night via black magic rituals in the woods. This is most memorable for its charming underground vibe. Everything is cheap and covered in shadows and the actors look like they’re having a blast. Like a hippie take on James Whale’s The Old Dark House from 1932, most of the cast gets a moment or two to chew the scenery and act like weirdos. Also, true to its title, the film has a sense of humor about itself. The downside is that while writer/director Bob Clark takes direct inspiration from Night of the Living Dead, he doesn’t take after that film’s fast pace. Today this is slow-going and it survives the years not as a great horror film, but as an oddball time capsule piece of the period.