"Life to the dead... and death to the living!"
Every now and then, an actor just needs to take home a pay check. Even great actors, like Ben "Bloodrayne, Love Guru" Kingsley. Late in his career, even Orson Welles had to dial a few in.
Somewhere between Citizen Kane and his turn as a planet-eating planet in Transformers: The Movie (and when he wasn't drunkenly filming wine commercials), Mr. Welles took a part in Bert I. Gordon's b-horror flick Necromancy. From what I can tell, Bert Gordon was the era's equivalent of Joel Schumacher - his b-movies were popular if not necessarily good.
I hope Orson was payed well, at least.
Here's the plot synopsis taken from AllMovie:
A wicked necromancer controls an entire town, forcing its residents to make the special "toys" he needs to cast his evil spells. This horror outing follows what happens when the dastardly wizard, hoping to revivify his dead son by stealing the soul of another, sets his sights on the wife of his new employee.
Orson Welles plays the wicked necromancer, of course. Ze trailah:
At 0:04 - Campbells' Psychedelic-flavored Soup.
At 0:10 - Santa Clause? Jerry Garcia?? Orson Welles!
At 0:31 - That's the easiest-to-read Tarot I've ever seen.
At 0:34 - Was she falling at us?
At 0:57 - Gratuitous, unnecessary nudity for the win.
At 1:10 - "Excuse me while I set up Satan's hookah."
At 1:15 - WTF? Was that a squirrel?
Trivia: The film was originally released as "Necromancy" in a PG-rated cut. When the flick hit home video in the 1980s, they added more nude scenes and retitled it "The Witching". So, word to the young directors: If your movie turns out to be bad, adding naked people isn't going to make it any worse.
"Everyone... wants to be happy."
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