Necromania

Necromania
Directed by	Ed Wood
Produced by	Ed Wood
Written by	Ed Wood
Starring	Maria Arnold Rene Bond
Editing by	Ed Wood
Distributed by	Stacey Distributors
Running time	51 min. (R-rated) 54 min. (X rated)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$ 5000

Necromania (sometimes subtitled A Tale of Weird Love) is a pornographic film by Edward D. Wood, Jr., released in 1971.

Production and rediscovery

Thought lost for years, it resurfaced in edited form on Mike Vraney's Something Weird imprint in the late 1980s, then was re-released on DVD by Fleshbot Films in 2005. Opening titles indicate "Produced & directed by Don Miller. Our cast wish to remain anonymous."

The plot (based on Wood's novel The Only House) involves a couple, Danny and Shirley, who visit necromancer Madame Heles for a witchcraft solution to Danny's erectile dysfunction.

Cast (uncredited)

• Maria Arnold as Madame Heles
• Rene Bond as Shirley
• Ric Lutze as Danny

Behind the scenes

The Amazing Criswell's coffin makes an appearance in the film, the second of Wood's films in which it does. (Night of the Ghouls is the other one.) Criswell's family was in the mortician business.

In Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr., (p. 135) Maila Nurmi, who played Vampira on TV and in Plan 9 from Outer Space, tells how she declined Wood's offer to do a nude scene, sitting up in a coffin, as Madame Heles.

Rediscovery

The film magazine Cult Movies (issue #36) printed a detailed article about the rediscovery of Wood's Necromania and The Only House in Town. The piece was written by Rudolph Grey, author of the Wood biography Nightmare of Ecstasy.

References

• The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1996), documentary film directed by Brett Thompson
• Rudolph Grey, Nightmare of Ecstacy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1992) ISBN 978-0922915248

External links

• Necromania at the Internet Movie Database
• Necromania at AllRovi
• Necromania at Rotten Tomatoes