Touches You

Such a frustrating disappointment

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Once again, disturbing Indian burial grounds turns out bad for concupiscent teenagers, as students awaken an angry Indian mummy with the capability of transforming itself into an animal. Shot on a minuscule budget, using 'domesticated' predators (or stock footage), and 'starring' less than stellar thespians, "Death Curse of Tartu" is really only of interest to fans of bargain-basement horror films (or 'bad movies'). For the most part the film moves at a languid pace, as victims run from menacing but slow-moving animals (that still manage to keep up with their prey) only to be eventually caught and killed in a drizzle of very bright-red blood. The implacable mummy (which can also turn into a vigorous 'Indian' warrior) slowly eliminates the interlopers while the survivors try to stop the carnage. The titular monster is (for the nano-budget) reasonably well done but pretty much everything else in the film is borderline unwatchable (or in the case of the score, unlistenable). There are some 'camp' interludes, such as the groovy (a word actually uttered in the film) rock'n'roll bikini dance sequence, but overall, the film is neither weird enough nor imaginative enough to attain cult status and is destined to remain an obscure celluloid relic from the '60s.

Another dubious "classic" to file away at the back of the brain under "What the hell was i thinking watching this? - What the hell was anyone thinking filming this?!!?"This is another of those films that hold a rancid but special place in my black and evil heart due to repeated viewings via worn-out old VHS in the early 90s. Some annoying American students decide to trip out, drop out, and - thanks to our undead friend - check out in the Florida Everglades of the 1960s. Tartu himself is - so far as memory serves - a mummified Native American (can we say that these days?), who periodically lolls back and forth in his tomb in a spectacularly unmenacing fashion, before taking on such forms as a crocodile etc., to despatch the defilers of his tomb, like a z-grade mummy meets Manimal on acid. Only crapper than that sounds, because that actually sounds cool.Seemingly filmed on the '60s equivalent of camcorder on a budget of booze and jellybeans, this is film that i love to hate, and hate to love.With thanks to the now defunct Spotlight Videos of South Shields for causing me to suffer this circa 1993. I have never fully recovered. Thank you.:)

Death Curse of Tartu is set in the Florida Everglades where Ed (Fred Pinero) & his wife Julie Tison (Babette Sherrill) are anthropology teachers who are educating some teens out in the field. They are supposed to meet up with Ed's mate Sam Gunter (Frank Weed (!) who is also listed in the credits as 'Animal Trainer') who isn't where he 's supposed to be, like a typical woman Julie begins to worry for no reason but it seems that she might be right to worry as they discover an ancient tablet of rock with some ancient writing on it which talks about an incident some 400 years ago when some local witch doctor named Tartu (Doug Hobart) died & put a curse on the land (well, he probably put the curse on the ground before he died), the curse states that anyone who violates his burial ground will meet a horrible death at the hands of an animal, or something like that. Ed, being the level headed guy that he is, thinks it's nonsense but when two of his students Tommy (Gary Holtz) & Joann (Maurice Stewart) are attacked & killed by a shark he might have to rethink...Written & directed by William Grefe Death Curse of Tartu is quite simply one really bad film, it's as simple & straight forward as that. The script is a joke, it's awful it really is. For a start it is incredibly boring to sit through, there are so many drawn out scenes & sequences here it's conceivable the term 'padding' was coined for this film while most of it is just dull people walking through the Everglades getting from 'A' to 'B' & not doing much when they eventually get there either. The 60's inspired dialogue is embarrassingly bad, did people really talk like this even in the mid 60's? I have my doubts with lines like 'Cindy your a real drag' inspiring bouts of laughter from me. Damn, I hate this film. The character's are poor, the whole film is utterly predictable & without any sub-plots extremely one dimensional & dull. Nothing is explained that well, the whole nature theme is muddled & has little impact & it lacks any decent exploitation elements. Death Curse of Tartu is an absolute waste of time with no redeeming features, do yourself a favour & don't bother.Director Grefe sure knows how to put his audience to sleep, this thing is so boring it makes a party political broadcast look exciting. There are constant boring shots of the Everglade area & some of it's wildlife. The murders are all committed by animals as in the curse but don't expect much violence or gore. There is one funny bit at the start though when a huge Python literally jumps out of a tree & wraps itself around someone, I didn't know snakes had the ability to jump sideways out of trees, did you? I also have to mention the almost constant sound of drums in the background, after about an hour of it it was really getting on my nerves.The budget for this might not have been as low as one thinks, I mean it was hot in colour wasn't it. Then again considering what ended up on screen I'd imagine that's where most of the money went. It's a pretty shabby film set almost entirely in the Everglades & it has an awful soundtrack as well. The acting was poor & there's nothing else to say.Death Curse of Tartu is one seriously crap film, it's just that it's so slow & tedious to watch. The stupid, dull, boring & one track storyline doesn't help much either when I think about it. Not good folks, not good at all. Probably best to avoid this one.

I have wondered for years exactly what budget this film was made. Mmmmmmmm...not tooooo bad...Actually, if you think about it, I don't know of any other similiar story-line from that time period in such a film, good or bad. I HATED the spider! Totally uncalled for! The webs and the psychotronic colors reflected in the cave interior was all that was really needed, and the Rise of Tartu in the climax was pretty good. The atmosphere was truly creepy, and the background drums could have been more subtle, though I have always believed effective. I really liked the final scene, corny as heck but the quicksand and the skull were right up my alley! The film obviously could have been done better, but HEY: it's a wonderful tool for the small-budget film maker to learn from and expand on. Great drive-in style flick!