AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

ferbs54 When C.M. Eddy, Jr.'s infamous short story "The Loved Dead" first appeared in the April/May/June 1924 issue of "Weird Tales," with its necrophilic protagonist, it so shocked and scandalized readers that--or so it is told--sales of the beleaguered pulp magazine rose dramatically, thus rescuing it from financial failure. The better part of a century later, the subject of necrophilia is no less taboo and discomfiting. I have reviewed several films on this site that I have almost been embarrassed to admit having watched (such as "The Worm Eaters," "The Double-D Avenger" and "Please Don't Eat My Mother," among many others), and I initially thought that the necrophilia horror film "Love Me Deadly," from 1972, would surely be another. But no...to my great surprise, I can say proudly that I really did enjoy this tasteful, suspenseful and quite involving picture.In the film, we meet an attractive blonde named Lindsay Finch (excellently portrayed by Mary Wilcox, in a role that would surely be a challenge for ANY actress). Lindsay's unusual pastime consists of going to the funerals of middle-aged men--total strangers in her hometown of L.A.--so that she can gaze rapturously at them in their caskets and maybe even sneak a kiss on them on the sly. Via flashback, we discover that Lindsay, as a little girl, was extremely close with her now-deceased daddy, and infer that this must have something to do with her current, uh, taste in men. But complications enter Lindsay's life as she simultaneously joins a necrophilic club of sorts (a bunch of REAL deadheads!) that operates out of a nearby mortuary, AND falls in love with and marries a man named Alex (hunky dude Lyle Waggoner, whom many may recall from his extensive TV work in the 1970s), who is perfect in every way except for the fact that he is, well, still breathing...."Love Me Deadly" is a genuine horror film, not just because of its distasteful subject matter, but because something horrible happens to practically every major character in it. Though fairly restrained, it DOES feature several shocking bursts of violence; the first, in which the owner of that mortuary lures a "midnight cowboy" to his doom via a little instantaneous embalming, is kinda hard to watch (I. William Quinn, as the screaming hustler, is outstanding here, and frighteningly convincing). Some may dock the film some points for pushing credulity to the breaking point as regards Alex' beyond-human patience with his frigid wife, but this viewer had no problems there. The film becomes extremely suspenseful as Alex grows suspicious of Lindsay's increasingly whacky behavior and gets closer to discovering her secret, and we are treated to a fairly devastating finale, as--again via flashback--we learn the shocking truth about Lindsay's past. Writer/director Jacques Lacerte turns in a highly professional bit of work here--this is not at all a shoddy B picture--and composer Phil Moody's background music is just superb. Indeed, his "Love Me Deadly" theme song, as sung by Kit Fuller, could almost be the theme for a Bond movie! All this, and a happy ending, too, of sorts, for poor Lindsay, although how long that happiness will endure is anybody's guess. One more thing: This great-looking DVD from Media Blasters features coming attractions for nine other remarkable-looking "psychotronic" films. The picture entitled "Shadow: Dead Riot"--a women's prison/zombie mashup flick--looks just unbelievable!

Scarecrow-88 Weirdo Lindsay Finch(Mary Charlotte Wilcox), with serious "daddy issues", is sexually impotent due to a past trauma involving the death of her father. Lindsay is a "funeral nut" who is obsessed with attending services for the dead, particularly of those men who resemble her father. Alex Martin(Lyle Waggoner, who favors Rock Hudson)is an art dealer who falls in love with Lindsay after seeing her in a funeral for his father. Martin and Lindsay eventually court and marry but he is frustrated that she won't put out. Lindsay soon becomes involved with a bizarre necrophilia cult led by mortician Fred McSweeney(a creepy Timothy Scott)using his funeral home as the place where their sex rituals take place. A friend of Lindsay's, Wade Farrow(Christopher Stone, future husband of scream queen Dee Wallace), who had an interest in her at one point, follows her to the funeral home, becoming one of many victims at the hand of Fred and his followers.I imagine many will find LOVE ME DEADLY somewhat interesting as it touches on necrophilia, a taboo subject, and one wonders if there was even some incest hinted at between Lindsay as a little girl and her father. I doubt the incest, but it's easy to see that Lindsay worshiped her pops and his presence has never left her. She must visit his grave site almost every day, and is compelled to eventually "molest the dead", something that may conclude that there was a sexual component alive between Lindsay and her dad. I guess that's for the viewer to decide. All I know is that she approaches bodies prepared by Fred for her and each time she's about to take to the corpse, someone interrupts. It's a disturbing aspect which might repulse some. But, most of the time, I was bored out of my mind, as the filmmakers insist on long musical interludes overlapping time spent together between Lindsay and Alex, or Lindsay and Wade; you know picnics, walking the streets, hand in hand, all smiles, warm and fuzzy. Soon Wade picks up another girl(he's a bit of a player), with Alex and Lindsay continuing their blossoming romance. From start to finish, Lindsay is shown to have a few screws loose, never stable, always drawn to dead men who carry a resemblance to her father. Fred just makes things worse by offering her a room with those men, inciting her desires, inviting Lindsay to follow her compulsions to fruition.

EyeAskance A grueling, peculiar little item which denotes the unnerving tale of a lovely young housewife coming to terms with her compulsive longing for intimacy...with deceased men(um...does rigor-mortis set in down there?). Through frequent off-hand visits to the local mortuary, she networks into a clandestine society of like-minded individuals. Unfortunately, her husband(Lyle Waggoner!) is unaware of her warped desires, and can't understand why he's not "getting any". What I personally feel is the key issue making LOVE ME DEADLY such a memorably divergent trinket is the prudent sensitivity with which it approaches its grotesque premise. It's like watching a melodramatic LIFETIME CHANNEL movie which has replaced its topic of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome with necrophilia. Amazingly, this ambilevous wonder-work actually delivers in an ascetic, misfit sort of way...it's not a great movie, or even an especially GOOD movie, but considering the distasteful subject-matter, it's a surprisingly well-groomed production(and for sheer novelty, what more could you possibly hope for?).5.5/10

white pongo This great, sadly neglected piece of 70's sleaze is much better than the later, more well-known NEKROMANTIK.For me, the most disturbing scene was not the corpse sex, but the blood draining sequence. This must have turned heads back in '72. Recommended.