The Laughing Dead (1989) User Reviews (19)

Messy Mayan madness.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 23 May 2021]

After the initial mean-spirited sacrifice of a little girl by Mayan cultists, The Laughing Dead spends an excruciatingly dull forty minutes on build-up: a bunch of obnoxious characters (including a loud man who tells bad jokes, his irritable friend, a troubled teen stowaway, and a new-age hippie couple) join Father O'Sullivan (Tim Sullivan) on his annual archaeological expedition to a Mexican town celebrating the 'festival of the laughing dead'.

On the way, they coach stops to pick up a woman, Tess (Wendy Webb ), and her potty-mouthed son Ivan (Patrick Roskowick). Father O'Sullivan recognises Tess - an ex-nun with whom he had a love affair - and realises that Ivan is his son. Nothing of any real interest happens until the halfway point, when the group finally arrives at the town and settles in at a hotel, at which point it's as though someone has slipped some peyote into the drinks of everyone involved - the film suddenly goes completely bonkers, with lots of gory, surreal deaths, the bloody action culminating in a game of basketball with zombies and a battle between two Mexican kaiju! It doesn't make much sense, but at least it's entertaining.

The splattery fun starts with a woman ripping open her bare chest, pulling out her still beating heart, and swopping blood pumps with Father O'Sullivan, who becomes possessed by the 'death god'. The next fun effect is the (none-too-soon) decapitation of one of brash joker Dozois (Raymond Ridenour), his severed bonce flying out of a window to land in a basketball hoop; meanwhile his headless torso spurts claret from the neck wound. And there's a juicy moment when the group's coach - driven by supernatural forces - rolls over a man's head. Meanwhile, the cult's leader, Dr. Um-tzec (played by director Somtow) is busy ripping the hearts out of numerous blue-faced kiddies, with his eye on Ivan as the ultimate sacrifice. Perhaps the most memorable scene of all involves the possessed priest going crazy in the hotel lobby: he punches his fist through a woman's skull, squelching her brains in his hand, and then pulls off a man's arm and pushes it down the guy's throat, the fingers visibly twitching in his neck!

The crazy finalé involves the survivors fighting the forces of evil by trying to throw a basketball through a stone hoop, their opponents being a team of mouldy reanimated corpses. As the game plays out, Dr. Um-tzec and mulleted research assistant Cal (Ryan Effner) transform into giant rubbery creatures and duke it out. In the end, Ivan takes responsibility and throws the winning shot, and Father O'Sullivan is returned to normal when Tess declares her love for him, at which point I imagine the effects of the peyote wore off and everyone wondered what the hell they had been doing for the past few days.

5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb. It's totally nonsensical, but packs in lots of impressive practical special effects. If anything, the film answers that burning question 'What should I do if I find Mayan graffiti scrawled on a wall in what looks like fresh blood?'. Why, dip your finger in it and taste it, of course!

Rise of the Blood Star

[Vomitron_G · 4/10 · 27 December 2011]

Mayan horror movies don't exactly come in spades, so it's always interesting to dive into one. Even if it's such a ridiculous affair like "The Laughing Dead". Some priest - currently in conflict with his own faith because he impregnated a luscious nun once - organizes an excursion towards the Mexican boarder to introduce a varied bunch of travellers to some ancient Mayan festivities. The first half of the film mainly consists out of dull character drawings and some inexplicable nightmare sequences. Then, once arrived at the small Mexican village, things start to get amusing as the group encounters some evil Mayan doctor who loves to sacrifice kids to some ancient Death God in order to inherit the powers of The Bloodstar. Or something, 'cause it's all a heap of nonsense anyway. Now, the main reason to watch The Laughing Dead is for the special effects by Magical Media Industries (featuring one John Carl Buechler in their ranks). They manage to concoct several awesome effects & gory killings... There's a bit of demonic possession. A woman rips open her naked chest and tears her own heart out. A guy gets crushed by a bus. Another dude's head gets decapitated & used as a basket ball. The best kill is probably that of one guy who's arm gets ripped off and shoved down his own throat. During the movie's climax the undead come stumbling around and two people even magically transform into two giant, dinosaur-like monsters & proceed to duel each other. You won't hear me labeling this a 'good movie', by far not, but it sure is a fun, demented ride.

Gory horror comedy tries it's best.

[zxdex88 · 5/10 · 18 November 2021]

Truly one of the worst movies I've ever seen but that doesn't mean it has no redeeming value. I love how Patrick Roskowick's character is a totally over the top out of control ADHD brat who swears like a drunken sailor all the time. In other words, a typical American teenage boy. The kid is feisty, obnoxious and self absorbed but you know that deep down he has a heart of gold. (Just kidding!) When "Ivan" (the terrible) dons his special Aztec (or is it Mayan?) ceremonial sacrifice costume he changes his attitude.

The gore and blood spatter are ridiculously over the top and the "special effects" are as good as in any 1960s 8mm home movie shot with Dad's Kodak by a nerdy teenage boy in the AudioVisual club at school. In other words: Bad! But who cares?

I read an online review that said: "The child actor in this movie gave the all time worst performance by any child actor in history." Clearly the person who wrote that knows nothing about really bad child acting! Patrick's "Ivan" was the Sir Laurence Olivier of child acting compared to some bad child actors I've seen (yes, I'm looking at you, Jake Lloyd!) All in all, The Laughing Dead is a movie I would have never even remotely considered watching but gave it a chance. This movie actually has a few laughs in it. It really does try to be a horror/comedy. Sometimes it's funny when it didn't mean to be but that's beside the point. So, it's bad, but not all bad. As predicted, this was Patrick Roskowick's one and only movie. Too bad. I wanted to see him in The Laughing Dead 2 - Ivan's Revenge.

Just skip it to 40th minute

[sharerIMDB · 19 April 2003]

Well, actually this movie is not so bad. But the first 40 minutes are just boring. After that movie starts to focus on the real plot. It's biggest mistake is its too long. You'll have to watch a lot of nonsense parts. And there is a really stupid & boring love story included. Special FX are good especially the scene with a hand in the throat. For the acting, well the cast did their best to drag this movie down. Especially the Mexicans. And the music, well half of the movie there plays a romantic melody, the other some mexican music, and on action scenes o rip-off of Nosferatu's soundtrack.

Well this movie's biggest drag is its just a soup of genres. You have love stories, splatter, Basketball, Monster fights, Zombies with sport shoes, possessions, devil worshippers. There is one thing i cant figure out, did they made this movie to be funny or they were really trying to make a horror movie.

Not much to laugh about...

[Coventry · 3/10 · 18 November 2004]

The Laughing Dead is an incredibly cheesy low budget film without any value. It handles about a bus-load of social misfits (guided by a priest who lost his faith and impregnated a foxy nun) on a sightseeing tour around Aztec ruins in Mexico. There, they're awaited by a bunch of demons, zombies and mad-raving creatures in order to kill them during the 'Death Festival'. The first 45 minutes of 'The Laughing Dead' is very tedious viewing since they're presenting us a character drawing nobody really cares about. The priest and the nun are re-united and he learns he's the father of a bratty kid. There's no intrigue and the acting is very lame so the first half is very tough to sit through. After that, The Laughing Dead turns into a joyful splatter movie with cheesy make-up effects and a repulsive amount of blood. People's heads are chopped off (and used as a basketball), buses drive over torsos and one poor bastards even has his own arm shoved down his throat!! The film is bad and extremely amateurish, but there's a market for this kind of crap. So, if you're in to gory nonsense you can check this one out.

I laughed one minute, yawned the next

[Stevieboy666 · 5/10 · 30 January 2020]

A bus load of tourists, several oddballs amongst them, travel to Mexico to learn about the ancient Aztecs and Mayans, but end up fighting zombies, human sacrifice, etc. I first saw this years ago on a bootleg VHS, now just revisited it on DVD. The film does boast some pretty good splatter but not until the second half. It's also pretty funny at times. However it also suffers from bad acting, a fairly dull first half and a plot that just confused the hell out of me. Admitably I felt tired at the time, perhaps that's why I was losing a grip on what was happening. If you like bad, gory movies then be sure to check out this one.

Somtow's Laughing Dead - the cult begins HERE!

[marblemadness · 1/10 · 12 July 2002]

I have seen a lot of films, including some of the more legendarily poor ones. But this, an alternative-stylee poor film, is infinitely worse than anything that I have ever seen in my entire life.

I am not going to spoil it for you, but the end will make you think that you are under the influence of some form of halluconogenic substance. Not the frequently-mentioned baskebtall match, but there is another element that beggars belief, more so than any single event in any other film ever.

There is so much that can be said about this film, but I'm going to keep it brief. If you can find it, get it. It is so bad it's pricelessly funny. I have been trawling the bad film archives for awhile now, and nothing can top this.

Even if you have never delved into bad films before, try renting this, and prepare for the time of your life. It might sound like a hollow recommendation coming from one small man on the internet out there somewhere, but I guarantee when more people see this film, it will become a legendarily cult bad film, in the same way 'Troll 2' and 'Manos' are now. It deserves that status, but isn't popular enough, so I implore all bad horror fans and good comedy fans alike to search out this film and give it an opportunity, since it will change the way you view films forever.

I've tried to omit spoiler content, because I fear that extended spoilers may ruin the fun! So go out, take a chance (just this once!) and pick up a copy of 'The Laughing Dead'.

I guarantee you won't regret it, and I don't know what further guarantee I can give than that.

Cheesy and gory.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 7/10 · 11 October 2002]

"The Laughing Dead" is a typical 80's horror film filled with blood and gore.The acting is abysmal,the atmosphere is completely non-existent,but for the gore-hounds there are some nasty splatter scenes including decapitation,head smashing etc.The make-up and special effects are pretty good.All in all I quite enjoyed this one,so if you like obscure horror movies give this one a look!Recommended.7 out of 10.My favourite gore scene is where the guy has his own torn off arm shoved down his throat!

so bad,that it's actually "good"

[Panos_Dragonlord · 1/10 · 13 November 2003]

yep.i gave it a 1/10,but in a good way-if you know what i mean..well this is a totally rotten movie,splatter with funny things happening all the time..call some friends,get drunk and have the time of your life watching this monsterpiece

arrghh...

[agrajag-4 · 1/10 · 10 July 2000]

i haven't felt so much pain just by gritting my teeth and sitting through a movie in a long, loooong time. i've seen worse movies - movies that were less inspired and movies that were more wholly inept - but only a handful, if that, were even nearly as painful. i think what really ruined this for me is that it had some vaguely good/okay concepts, but they were so horribly fleshed out that i just kept yelling at my vcr. the dialog was horrible, the acting was pretty damned bad, and the general premise was fairly weak (though if anything else had existed to keep this movie afloat, maybe it would have been salvageable).

there's nothing i hate more than when characters in horror movies catch on too quickly, and these people were freaking savants in that regard, especially toward the end. oh, wait, there's one thing i hated more than that - the characters themselves! i've rarely seen a more unlikable bunch. i hated them all. even worse, the only two good actors (well actor and actress) in the film had the two most annoying characters out of all.

the dialog hurts, it's so bad and so contrived (did i mention poorly delivered?). the only good points are 1) it ended before 90 minutes were up, and 2) the zombies, which appeared for about ten minutes at the end to play basketball, at least had good makeup. i don't think i can really give unmitigated credit to this movie for anything else.

Poor horror movie is fun if you know the background

[fkelleghan · 8/10 · 6 August 2003]

The delights of this movie lie in the fact that so many of the characters are played by writers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror rather than by professional actors. Somtow's talents as a popular writer are hardly in evidence here, though he is clearly a gifted musician and composer; that really is him playing the piano. The scene in which he rips out the hearts of children one after another is hilarious rather than grotesque. Tim Sullivan brings as much soul-tortured emotion and dramatic range as he can to a silly script; his flailings and roars while being possessed are delightful. Gregory Frost, whose fiction is noted for comedic rage (much like the work of John Cleese and Carl Hiaasen), exudes a haughty if inexplicable fury at everyone around him, while real-life jokester Raymond Ridenour has a great time being himself (while named for science fiction editor Gardner Dozois). Larry Kagen, at the time a bookstore owner,is fervent and rather sweet as a doting husband who rises above his wife's attempts to henpeck him. Krista Keim, as his wife, is totally believable as a crystal-worshipper; according to Frost, she really did believe in the powers of crystals at the time the movie was shot. Premika Eaton delivers every line poorly and was cast because she is Somtow's sister, not for any innate talent; she is, however, pretty. Ed Bryant, a great favorite among horror fans, steals every scene he appears in; Sullivan reports that they had to shoot the 'great big armadillo' scene several times because the two of them couldn't stop laughing (and adds that Bryant was squicked by the scene of his own death). Tim Powers is barely visible as a zombie; look for his red flannel shirt in the zombie scene near the end.

the story of 4 guys that fell asleep....

[Walle-2 · 1/10 · 4 October 2002]

This is the 1hr 30min story about 4 guys that fell asleep watching a movie they never could imagine falling asleep to. Well this movie was all that it shouldn't be: 1.Good story 2.Good acting 3.Good special effects (well they weren't tha bad actually)Well anyway just a lame excuse for a movie, splatter movie, horror movie, you name it. The thing is: WE ALL FELL ASLEEP! Alright you get that? Not a good review for a movie when you can say that. 1/10

Who's Laughing Now?

[gf-18 · 1 September 2004]

Christian fell asleep...Hell, I was in it and *I* fell asleep. As Ms. Kelleghan states, most of the actors were not actors, we were writers who knew Somtow and were invited to play characters, some of which he named after us (Ray Ridenour's character is named "Dozois", because award-winning sf writer/editor Gardner Dozois was originally slated to play the part). Me, I channeled equal parts of Roddy McDowell and Thurston Howell III; but Ed Bryant (damn his eyes) stole the movie simply by being Ed. Nobody could top the delivery of "big IL' armadiller." The crew in general seemed to like us a lot, mainly I suspect, because we were all giddy idiots thrilled to be making a film in Hollyweird, unlike, say, actors, who are usually fighting over who has the biggest RV.

However...you watch this thing at your own peril. GF

Sure, why not? This was so very cheesy...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 17 November 2021]

Right, well I can't exactly say that I was expecting a whole lot from this obscure 1990 horror movie titled "The Laughing Dead". I mean, just the title alone is bad. But still, I opted to sit down to watch what writer and director Somtow Sucharitkul had to deliver with "The Laughing Dead".

And it wasn't a whole lot, let me just be the first to tell you. This movie was all over the place, and the storyline was just a heap of incoherent things. It felt like writer and director Somtow Sucharitkul wanted to put elements from every possibly thinkable horror subgenre into this movie. And the end result just wasn't a satisfying movie. In fact, the storyline just failed miserably.

The acting performances in Somtow Sucharitkul's 1990s horror movie "The Laughing Dead" were wooden and rigid at best. Some of the acting performances were downright cringeworthy to witness. So yeah, you are not in for a particularly extraordinary foray into the horror genre if you sit down to watch "The Laughing Dead".

Visually then "The Laughing Dead" was a mixed bag of nuts. Some of the effects were ludicrously bad and fake, while others were actually fair enough, still managing to pass as watchable and good enough in 2021. My personal favorite was the scene were a woman was pushed onto the floor and came to land against what was supposed to be a rock wall. But the wall moved and it was so obvious that it was just a foam wall. That scene made me laugh so hard.

For a horror movie then "The Laughing Dead" was a swing and a miss, especially since the storyline was all over the place and never really sticking to one concept. So there was an unnerving lack of a red thread throughout the course of this movie.

My rating of "The Laughing Dead" lands on a generous three out of ten stars. If you haven't seen "The Laughing Dead" already, there is no need to rush out to get to watch it.

Laughing Dead

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 22 November 2021]

The Laughing Dead is the kind of movie that you need to make a commitment to.

Not long. Like 35 minutes or so, so that you get through the slow stuff like meeting everyone on the vacation bus tour and discover who they are, but trust me, it's worth it because before all that long, a disgraced priest has done an exorcism that opens the world of the Aztec demons and we're playing a game with a severed head and brains are being smashed by buses and somehow a kaiju battle ensues.

Yeah, The Laughing Dead has the movie drugs you're looking for, you just have to act cool and chill for a bit and once everyone straight and boring leaves, we're all going to get really, really messed up.

Thai born filmmaker Somtow Sucharitkul directed, wrote, produced, scored and acted in this Category 3 film transported by Mexico and man, what a United Nations of wonderment this all is. He also wrote Burial of the Rats, which has this same strange energy.

The humor may fall flat, the plot may not make any sense, but you're here for wild things. This movie will deliver those. You just need to forgive some things.

Some inspired weird moments, not much else

[udar55 · 4/10 · 16 October 2012]

Faith-losing Father O'Sullivan (Tim Sullivan) takes a bus of folks down to some visit some Aztec ruins. Also along for the ride are Tessie (Wendy Webb), his former nun love that he got pregnant, and her foul- mouthed son Ivan (Patrick Roskowick), who is O'Sullivan's illegitimate son. It all makes for perfect timing for some sort of sacrifice to the Blood Star for evil Dr. Um-tzec (writer-director-composer S.P. Somtow). This film gained some notoriety back in the day thanks to a gore-filled spread in (naturally) Gorezone. And while the film looks great in stills, it has many, many problems unspooling at regular speed. Somtow certainly doesn't lack creativity, but his staging and pacing leave a lot to be desired. He will have bits like the trapped characters seeing two people squashed to death by a bus, but they will act like nothing is wrong in the next scene. And there is some REALLY bad comedy going on here. The acting (most of the talent are Somtow's writer friends) leaves a lot to be desired too and the film offers quite possibly one of the worst child performances ever captured on film by Roskowick. When on, the film is pretty fun with some great make up work by John Buechler's MMI company. Interestingly, despite have a wealth of gore, this film is still unreleased in the United States.

i was on the set of this movie when i was 8

[kevan45 · 10/10 · 26 March 2005]

well the cool thing about this movie was that my aunt was in the movie. I went to the set when i was 8 and played with all the zombies while they were in makeup. i went down all the slides and wrestled with my brother. I watch this movie with my friends when we need an "its so bad its funny" movie night. you can see in one scene the time change from day to night to day again. just like plan 9 from outerspace. also there is a bleeding heart where you can see the wires for the mechanism. It took them a long time to film the struggle over the knife in the final scene, they shot it the whole day i was there. were fate a bit different, I would have been a stand in for the kid during the basketball scene with the zombies. Love this movie for sentimental and just plain stupidity.

one of the moist hysterically cassock-spoiling carnage classics since Peter Jackson's intestinally inventive 'Brain Dead'!

[Weirdling_Wolf · 8/10 · 29 October 2022]

This mesmerizingly mental, membrane mastacatingly macabre freakshow remains a mandatory, audaciously visceral experience, no true 80s horror fan should miss! A dispirited, faithless, nun-plugging priest leads a colourfully kooky coachload of disparate misfits on their sightseeing visit to a historically hateful Aztec burial ground, hoping to enjoy the local exotic festivities, only to fatefully discover that evilly lurking beneath this increasingly unholy site, these ancient Mayan dead rest anything but peacefully! Rabid, splatter-seeking gore hounds are sure to lap up the lurid eviscerations, dastardly decapitations, and amusing assemblage of eccentric nutballs in Somtow's beguilingly bizarro B-Movie Bloodbath! If you haven't got the heart to watch the gleefully gruesome 'The Laughing Dead', it's only because some murderous Mayan death god has just bloodily torn it out of your chest!!!

S. P Somtow's delightfully sardonic 80s Schlock-fest is arguably one of the moist hysterically cassock-spoiling carnage classics since Peter Jackson's intestinally inventive 'Brain Dead'! About as subtle as a shark's tooth enema, the gloriously gut-shredding antics of these apocalyptically antisocial Aztecs makes for a frightfully fascinating festival of phantasmagorical, flesh flaying fun! If the 'Video Dead' gave you 'pause for thought', then the fabulously FX-heavy, head-spinning savagery of splatter sensation 'The Laughing Dead' will send you straight to the funny farm!!!! With its Tromatizingly theatrical thesping, gallows humour, and generously gloopy gore, only the most twisted terrornauts should mark a date on their Mayan calendar to watch the grossly under-celebrated, gallopingly grisly, splendidly shock-saturated, corpse-clotted celluloid chunkblower, 'The Laughing Dead'.

Mayan zombies and the basketball game of death

[etale · 9/10 · 17 May 2000]

This film may not be one of the greatest horror films of all time, but for a film that had only two professional actors in the film, this isn't all that bad. The real interesting thing about this film (as a writer) is that several of the top roles were played by SF/horror writers (including director Somtow himself (currently the president of the Horror Writers Association) who played the villian. And that basketballl game near the end… Highly recommended-as long as you have a sense of humor.