The Laughing Dead (1989)

Dir: Somtow Sucharitkul (S.P. Somtow)

Many years ago at a Fangoria convention I was hanging out at a dealer table with a couple of people with whom I'd traded bootleg films on VHS. They were telling me about a fun film called THE LAUGHING DEAD. The film hadn't been officially released yet but somehow it was leaked and that's how the bootleggers had gotten their hands on it and were now selling it at the convention. Along comes a man to the table with his son and I presumed his son's friend seeing as they looked nothing like one another. The man asks the peddlers of obscurity on VHS about what they have that's new and exciting. The one dealer starts gushing about a gory low budget film called THE LAUGHING DEAD. The other dealer is nudging the first because he has noticed that the man is wearing a jacket with the name S.P. Somtow on it, the same name as the director of the film. The man was indeed the director. Somtow did not seem angry, and as far as I know never reported the bootleggers. As the film was in limbo and no distribution deal on the horizon, Somtow stated that he was just happy to know that someone was able to watch and enjoy the film.

Father O'Sullivan (Tim Sullivan) has been plagued by strange dreams involving Mayan gods and sacrifice. He is haunted as well by an affair he had years ago with a nun, the guilt and stress prompting him to question his faith. But all that isn't going to stop him from leading a party of oddballs on a trip to Oaxaca Mexico to take in the Festival of the Laughing Dead. Along for the bus ride are troubled teen Laurie (played by the director's sister Premika Eaton), a quarreling new age couple who constantly chant and fondle crystals, a loud mouth who enjoys telling terrible jokes at top volume and his stuck up traveling companion. Unknown to the Father, his former forbidden love and her son have signed up for the tour, she thinks it is time to let the boy know who his father is.

Director Somtow looking very Mayan

Once in Mexico, a trip that appears to take two days of driving non-stop on a bus without a bathroom due to messed up day for night shots, the group checks into a hotel on the edge of the village holding the festival. In order to get in some bonding time with his crotch fruit, the Father takes the boy into the village. While buying treats created for the celebration, an old woman approaches the priest begging for his help to save her possessed grand daughter. Reluctantly, he agrees and follows the woman to her home. There he meets the daughter's father, Dr. Um-tzec (Somtow), who is more interested in playing piano than fretting over his demon possessed, screaming daughter. Saying a few words over the Linda Blair like writhing and gnashing daughter, the Father is shocked by her casual response of tearing open her chest cavity, ripping out her heart and offering him the still beating organ. She then proceeds to tear out his heart and in the process curses the Father to start down the road to becoming the next Mayan death god (the current one wants to retire).

Have a heart father!

The good father is always willing to lend a hand, an elbow, an entire arm

Mayan death gods are nothing to sneeze at as they can imbue one with the ability to wretch an arm from the socket, punch a fist through a human's skull and conjure forth a Mayan zombie basketball team. It's up to the holiday makers to save the fallen Father from the prophecy that will change him into a god when he sacrifices his son. Why yes, it does involve a climatic basketball game between zombies and humans.

Sci-fi, horror novelist Somtow wears many hats on his first film, musician, writer, actor and director. He cast family, fellow writers and friends in most roles so don't expect much thespian prowess on display. Instead expect an incoherent  plot that blends comedy and horror, non actors having a blast making a film and outrageous gore. The gore was provided by John Carl Buechler's team and is often inventive. And that's the reason to watch this film, the FX. The film starts out slow, taking its time to build up characters (it doesn't work), then takes off in a demonic, zombied frenzy of blood, gore, rubber monsters and basket ball.

** out of ****