EDITOR’S NOTE: Back from the Dead was on Chiller Theater on Sunday, May 17, 1964 at 11:10 p.m.

Charles Marquis Warren directed this and the film it played double features with, The Unknown Terror, before creating Rawhide and adapting Gunsmoke to television. It was written by Catherine Turney and was based on her book The Other One.

Dick (Arthur Franz) and Mandy Anthony (Peggie Castle) are on vacation with her sister Kate Hazelton (Marsha Hunt) when Mandy passes out and loses the child in her womb. She also refers to Dick as Dickens and will only answer to Felicia, the name of the dead wife that Dick never told his second wife about losing.

She demands to be taken to her parents, Mr. Bradley (James Bell) and Mrs. Bradley (Helen Wallace). Dick tells Kate that the Bradley women were all evil. So evil that when Mr. Bradley says, “God will punish you for this,” Mrs. Bradley answers “You believe in your God. I’ll believe in mine.”

Felicia then tries to murder Kate, who only wakes up when she hears the voice of her sister, and then kills Copper the dog, who hated her and adored the new wife. Kate decides that she needs to know more and follows Nancy Cordell (Marianne Stewart) to the coven run by Maître Victor Renall (Otto Reichow), who was in love with Felicia and is angry that her mother did magic without him.

Dick’s friend John Mitchell (Don Haggerty) is able to save Kate through his love for her when she’s attacked by a spell created by Mrs. Bradley. He feels like he causes Felicia’s death, as she said that she would kill herself if he didn’t make love to her. She backed up and fell off a cliff, but now she’s in Mandy’s body and runs to Renall after her mother kills her father and Renall’s spell kills Mrs. Bradley.

You know who finally stops the devil cult leader? Nancy. She was in love with him and even in death, he loved Felicia. She shoots him and Mandy comes back to her body. Her sister tells Dick that her sister should never learn the truth, which is kind of not women staying together.

The sales guide for this movie had this advice: “Have a woman dressed as a zombi wander about the streets near the theatre bearing a sign with the picture’s title, such as: I am Back from the Dead. Come and see me at (name of theatre).”

I loved this, as you can imagine, because it’s so rich in its occult wackiness. In 1957 there were devil cults in the suburbs and people’s moms were in them. It’s also terrifying because I do not want my ex wife showing up in my wife’s body.

You can watch this on YouTube.