Johan Louwet I had no idea what to expect from this movie. Given that it takes place in Africa I expected it that it would be about zombies driven by voodoo rituals such as White Zombie and I walked with a zombie. This movie has a different take though on the zombie phenomenon. Rather than driven by a ritual from some witch doctor they are cursed men. They do not age, cannot be killed, don't feel pain and they can hardly be wounded. They don't have a will of their own their only purpose protecting a treasure of jewels laying at the bottom of the sea near the wreck of a ship. The zombies are fearless with only fire keeping them at a distance. It's all explained in the movie by an old lady what can be done to stop them and remove the curse. That's right these zombies are more like restless souls than evil flesh eating monsters they would become in later zombie movies. Yes the action scenes look cheap even though the underwater scenes look very nice. With a running time under 70 minutes everything was explained and the motivations of the protagonists all cleared. Too many movies spend too much time sidestepping focusing on things who don't really matter. Not this movie, straightforward right from the start until the end.

Scott LeBrun An expedition is launched to loot the treasure of a sunken ship off the African coast. But what the participants don't know is that their expedition is just the latest in a long line of failed attempts to obtain these highly coveted diamonds. The ships' long undead crewmen now exist as zombies and will kill anyone who comes near. Among the people on this trip are pragmatic hero Jeff Clark (Gregg Palmer), Dr. Eggert (Morris Ankrum), a professor who's writing a book, George Harrison (!) (Joel Ashley), ostensibly the man in charge, and Georges' wife Mona (Allison Hayes). Area local Mrs. Peters (Marjorie Eaton) knows the score, but George and company are just too stubborn to listen.To start with, this viewer agrees that it's stupid how the surviving characters remain pretty clueless about the fate of one of them, despite Mrs. Peters' words. And those "underwater" sequences aren't exactly convincing. But otherwise, this is "good" goofy fun for lovers of silly schlock from this era. It might not have enough action for some audience members, but it has an irresistible midnight movie appeal and a sufficient amount of low budget black & white atmosphere. The zombies themselves are never too threatening. The cast gives the proceedings very straight faced performances; Palmer is a decent hero, Autumn Russell is pretty as his leading lady, Ashley is an amusing jerk, Hayes (otherwise known as the 50 foot woman) is hilariously bitchy in her part, and Ankrum as always is a delight to watch. It's a hoot to note the fact that these particular zombies are like Frankensteins' monster and have an aversion to fire.Overall, this is deliciously daft horror, guided by prolific B director of the era Edward Cahn, that at least only goes on for a fairly trim 69 minutes. Ray Corrigan, who played the alien in Cahns' well regarded "It! The Terror from Beyond Space", appears here as a sailor.Seven out of 10.

vtcavuoto Sam Katzman's "Zombies of Mora Tau" is a decent film. There is enough action and suspense to keep your attention. It has a good cast(Morris Ankrum, Gregg Palmer and Allison Hayes), tight direction and a chilling musical score. An expedition heads out to recover some diamonds. Previous attempts have lead to the deaths of those who have tried over the years. They are guarded by the Zombies and anyone attempting to retrieve them meets a horrible death or in the case of Allison Hayes, turns into a Zombie as well. The ending has a nice twist to it. I'm not into Zombie movies but this was fun to watch if not a bit hokey in some parts. Still, a nice little gem of a film.

Death_to_Pan_and_Scan Some amateur reviewers will excuse anything in a movie and give 5 stars minimum simply for the crew having been able to load film-stock into a camera without exposing it to sunlight. After sitting through all 69 minutes of Mora Tau (that I will never have back) I began to really wish that this bad movie had somehow become a 'lost film' instead of films I'd actually like to see -- such as "London After Midnight" starring Lon Chaney or the original 9 hour version of von Stroheim's silent film classic "Greed".As a devoted fan of zombie films who has seen more than 70 films in the genre from the brilliant to the downright awful, even I must admit that most voodoo zombie movies aren't very good -- aside from Halperin's White Zombie and Gilling's Plague of the Zombies (for Hammer Studios) and to a lesser extent, the entertaining if somewhat offensive 1941 Mantan Moreland minstrel show that is King of the Zombies. Even by that guideline for diminished expectations, Mora Tau is probably one of the worst of the voodoo zombie genre and might make me think better of Halperin's 1936 followup disaster Revolt of the Zombies. Zombies of Mora Tau is so insultingly stupid and lame that it almost made me long for the 'good ole days' of the 1940s when Abbott and Costello were busy ruining the Universal Monsters franchise (though A&C enthusiasts still refuse to admit how unfunny those films were). If you want a good underwater horror film from that era watch any of the three 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' films instead or maybe even (horror of bad TV horrors) the Godzilla Power Hour cartoon with Godzookie. If you want underwater zombies, try Wiederhorn's 'Shockwaves' instead. This film is a reminder that not all old black and white films are 'classics' and I can think of any of a number of cheesy 50s horror films that are 10 times more entertaining. The atomic age sci-fi silliness of Invisible Invaders is another better recommendation than Zombies of Mora Tau. Maybe the 3 stars out of 10 that I gave Mora Tau was too generous. I'm now glad there wasn't a DVD of this for me to buy and that TCM showed it to me for free.PLOT: The basic plot sounds like something the "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl" might have pilfered some basic ideas from: There is a sunken treasure of $1 million of uncut diamonds that has attracted treasure hunters for decades and lead to the demise of many a diver. It seems that the original thieves of the treasure all met an untimely demise and 10 zombies now guard said treasure (though why they live in 10 lined up coffins in a cave like Snow Whites dwarfs is anyone's guess) and will not rest until said treasure is 'destroyed' as the old lady says. The sailors dream of riches and ignore her warnings and try to get the treasure anyway...These are also among the least scary voodoo zombies I've seen in a movie. If all the reels of this film were at the bottom of the sea, I think I'd voodoo up some zombies to guard them and ensure that they were never retrieved so that movie audiences would be spared the horror of seeing this film.**SPOILERS**I have several issues with this film and its lazy writing:*The dive crew/sailors are too dumb to realize that the woman is not 'ill' but now has become one of the zombies and is exhibiting all the same traits. These characters are obviously much dumber than your average horror movie morons.*Sure the old lady claims the zombies are indestructible, but that doesn't stop the sailors from using knives and other weapons on them ineffectively. None of the sailors/divers ever thinks to try lighting a zombie aflame after they display an obvious fear of fire? You've gotta be kidding me. Maybe it wouldn't destroy them, but you'd think someone would at least try it.*Don't establish rules for the zombies and then proceed to break those rules later in the film when it seems convenient to do so.*So the diamonds must be 'destroyed' for the zombies to rest, right? So why does dumping the diamonds into a couple feet of water not 10 feet from the shore of old lady's property count as 'destroying them' and end the curse? It's as if the writers forgot that someone could just bend down and pick retrieve the diamonds 5 minutes after the 'zombies' dematerialize out of their clothes.