No, this doesn't have anything to do with STARGATE SG1 or AMERICAN MOVIE.Marcel Marceau portrays 'Shanks' a puppeteer deaf-mute who lives with his remarried sister-in-law and her alcoholic husband. They have him start working (and bringing home money) for the richest man in town at his mansion. This guy is ancient-looking (portrayed by Marceau in a duel role). He's hired Shanks as his assistant because of his experience with puppets. The old man is experimenting with reanimating the dead with electricity, which is shown first when they animate a dead frog and make it jump around. When the old man dies of natural causes Shanks gets the idea to apply the same principle to him. Via these remote electrical devices placed at certain points on his body, Shanks is able to make the old guy walk around his old mansion. It is creepy.Later, he animates his sister-in-law and brother-in-law after they are killed. There's also this young woman who is interested in Shanks and poses a potential love-interest that never quite materializes. She freaks out when she realizes Shanks is controlling these zombies.During the last quarter of the movie the mansion is taken over by a nasty biker-gang when one of them wipes out and is killed. Shanks tries to scare them off with his reanimated bodies but they take the remote-control away from him. The young girl is attacked and raped by them. In the end Shanks gets his revenge and kills the entire biker gang. I thought it interesting that some of the things in this movie parallel the events in DAWN OF THE DEAD, which was made two years later. This is the last movie directed by William Castle.
No, this doesn't have anything to do with STARGATE SG1 or AMERICAN MOVIE.Marcel Marceau portrays 'Shanks' a puppeteer deaf-mute who lives with his remarried sister-in-law and her alcoholic husband. They have him start working (and bringing home money) for the richest man in town at his mansion. This guy is ancient-looking (portrayed by Marceau in a duel role). He's hired Shanks as his assistant because of his experience with puppets. The old man is experimenting with reanimating the dead with electricity, which is shown first when they animate a dead frog and make it jump around. When the old man dies of natural causes Shanks gets the idea to apply the same principle to him. Via these remote electrical devices placed at certain points on his body, Shanks is able to make the old guy walk around his old mansion. It is creepy.Later, he animates his sister-in-law and brother-in-law after they are killed. There's also this young woman who is interested in Shanks and poses a potential love-interest that never quite materializes. She freaks out when she realizes Shanks is controlling these zombies.During the last quarter of the movie the mansion is taken over by a nasty biker-gang when one of them wipes out and is killed. Shanks tries to scare them off with his reanimated bodies but they take the remote-control away from him. The young girl is attacked and raped by them. In the end Shanks gets his revenge and kills the entire biker gang. I thought it interesting that some of the things in this movie parallel the events in DAWN OF THE DEAD, which was made two years later. This is the last movie directed by William Castle.
