Taglines: “Let's play hide and go kill...!”
“Some girls play with dolls. Rosalie plays with zombies”.
Legendary Exploitation producer Harry Novak released this real cool ‘bad’ kind of zombie outing that is trashy fun you would have found in the gutters of the Grindhouse and Drive-In. Probably not really for the causal horror consumer looking for the next “Saw” film, but I find it to be mandatory Drive-In crud. It’s one of those forgotten classics [??] that would have never seen the light of day again if it wasn’t for the fine folks at Something Weird Video.

Laurel Barnett gets more than she bargained for when she takes a job watching over ‘The Child’, a strange morbid 11 year old Rosalie Cole who draws freaky pictures of her family, plays in the cemetery and uses her psychic abilities to summon zombies [she calls her friends] to kill those she believes are responsible for the death of her mentally ill mother. Like that neighbor lady, she’s a gossipy bitch that needs to die. But it doesn’t stop there; she blames every one, even her father and is out for revenge as this culminates into a pretty taut “Night of the Living Dead” like final reel.

Way low on budget, which really helps in this case, “The Child” has a lot of really good atmosphere with the remote location, howling wind, foggy woods and cemetery all of which is enhanced with a very drugged out trippy, even creepy score. Despite being badly acted and badly dubbed, I find it to be quite the warped little number, with chunks of cheap gore, interesting camera shots, ‘70’s B movie charm, a few unintentional laughs, and above all a demented feel & creepy tone as well as very passable crusty skull faced mummy zombies. Director Robert Voskanian accomplishes a lot with the little he has to work with in his one and only film. With alternate titles “Kill and Go Hide” and “Zombie Child” what are you waiting for?

Another day is saved thanks to Something Weird Video DVD who loaded this one with Xtras:
“The Child” is presented Fullframe, digitally re-mastered with sharp colors in a clean print that does have it’s share of [welcomed] scratches here and there. Over all very watchable.
A second feature in the form of Del Tenney’s ultra stinker “I Eat Your Skin”, that was made as “Voodoo Blood Bath” in 1964 and shelved until 1971 when it was re-titled and double billed with vastly superior hippie-satanic-meat pie extravaganza “I Drink Your Blood”;
The Original Theatrical Trailer;
Original Theatrical Trailers for: Axe, Behind Locked Doors, Booby Trap, Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks, Kidnapped Coed, The Mad Butcher, The Toy Box, and Toy’s Aren’t for Children;
2 50’s Short Subjects: The Outsider and The ABC of Babysitting
Gallery of Horror Drive-In Exploitation Art;
Horror-rama Radio Spot Rarities.

Original Australian 13” x 30” Daybill