Death Curse of Tartu

Director - William Grefe (The Jaws of Death, The Naked Zoo)

Starring - Fred Pinero (The Devil's Sister, La Virgen de la Calle), Babette Sherrill (The Devil's Sister), and Bill Marcus (Scrooged, Married...with Children)

Release Date - 1966

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "This is horror"

Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

      When I received the He Came from the Swamp: The Films of William Grefe set for review I was really looking forward to revisiting the first two films in the set along with the rest of the movies I had never seen.  I had previously watch Sting of Death and Death Curse of Tartu several years ago when I grabbed a double feature DVD from Something Weird I believe.  Sting of Death was a great revisit and I couldn't wait to rewatch Death Curse but it would deliver different results that I had originally remembered.  

     The film follows a group of amateur archeologist who are uncovering a n indigenous burial ground in the Florida everglades.  That night they throw a party mistakenly on the grave site of their priest Tartu who is awakened by their disrespectful act.  Taking the form of the local wildlife, he extracts his revenge on the group one by one.

     I originally thought that I had enjoyed Death Curse of Tartu when I first watched it but after revisiting it I found myself very underwhelmed.  It wasn't as campy or as fun as Sting of Death and the story left a lot to be desired.  I wanted to have fun with it but I couldn't.  The acting in this one is similar to Sting of Death but the characters are not as fun.  The cast was mostly inexperienced and the rushed filming and writing doesn't give them a lot of time to actually create characters for their roles.  They go through the motions but that's about it.  Such a huge disappointment.  The story for this one has a great set up that is not fully explored.  Native American burial grounds has always captivated movie goers and the horror genre has seen many attempts at this over the years but Death Curse seriously drops the ball by having Tartu controlling animals instead of resurrecting and killing them one by one.  It's the perfect premise for a slasher but was half-hazardly explored.  Instead, its a story that's started only to rush through to people dying in unimaginable ways.  Finally, the film has a body count with some fake blood but no real memorable effects for genre fans to enjoy.  Overall, Death Curse of Tartu was one that I thought I enjoyed but that was not the case.  It was dull, half-written, and obviously rushed.  This is one I would skip.