Also known as Barn of the Naked Dead and Nightmare Circus, this is one of those movies where no one is even sure who made it. Sure, Alan Rudolph is listed as the director, but stuntman Gerald Cormier — also the leader of the film’s distributor CMC Pictures — is credited. Some say that he’s Rudolph. Star Andrew Prine says that two other directors made this before Rudolph and Cormier was one of them. Writer Ralph Harolde could also be Rudolph.
Andre (Prine) has built a circus in the desert, located right on top of a former atomic test site, and keeps kidnapping showgirls like Simone (Manuela Thiess), Sheri (Sherry Alberoni) and Corinne (Gyl Roland) and even female scientists, training all of them to perform for him. He also has a cougar that he lets loose on them and there’s something inside the barn that loves to kill women.
Simone is worshipped as the lost mother Andre can’t have, as he tells her of his past. That’s better than Sheri, who has been picked to be the new Reptile Girl as Andre flings snakes at her. Then, the girls free Andre’s father (Gerald Cormier) from the barn. Nuclear fallout has made him into a crazed psychopath and he kills everyone in his path with only two girls escaping. That’s the scene that the agent of the Vegas girls, Derek Moore (Chuck Niles), and the cops discover when they get there.
Andrew Prine said, “This is the only movie I ever regretted making.”
He should embrace it. I love the circus tent in the middle of the desert and the sheer lunacy of this movie. It’s just so out there and it shouldn’t work yet it does just long enough to rush to its bloody end.
Here’s a drink.
Barn Door of the Naked Dead
- 1.5 oz. vodka
- 5 oz. pineapple juice
- .5 oz. cranberry juice
- Pour the vodka into a glass filled with crushed ice.
- Top with pineapple juice and float cranberry juice to complete.
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