Ed Wood's Necromania

NECROMANIA 1971 directed by Edward D. Wood.

By Steve Stones

For many years, Ed Wood’s adult feature Necromania was thought to be a long lost film. Rudolph Grey, Wood’s biographer and author of Nightmare of Ecstasy, was even willing to offer a $20,000 reward for discovery of the film, even though he would never have been able to pay the reward. Then, in the early 1990s, Mike Vraney, founder of Something Weird Video in Seattle, was offered to buy a handful of lost 16mm sex films not shown on movie screens in over 20 years. He made a telephone call to film director Frank Henenlotter ("Basket Case") and asked him about a list of films that were being offered to him for sale.

One of the films on the list happened to be Necromania. Since Vraney was not familiar with the film, he still doubted whether or not it was an Ed Wood film. The opening head title and the end credits were missing from the film. Henenlotter asked him if the film starred Rene Bond. Sure enough, the film starred her, and a long-lost Ed Wood film was now discovered. I recently bought a copy of Necromania on amazon.com for $40.

The film is now one of Wood’s most sought after and collected films. I was a bit hesitant at first to pay this price for an adult sex feature, but after viewing the film, I’m glad I purchased it. The film was shot in just two days and cost only $5,000 to produce.

Caballero Films distributed the film. Criswell’s coffin used in Night of The Ghouls was also featured in Necromania, and used in a sex scene that is now missing from the film (see page 134 of Grey’s Nightmare of Ecstasy.). The plot of Necromania is very similar to a sex novel Wood wrote entitled The Only House. Two other adult features Wood directed about the same time as Necromania, Young Marrieds and The Only House In Town, were lost but have since been rediscovered by Grey.

The film involves a couple (Rene Bond and Rick Lutze) going to a strange house to help Lutze deal with potency prolems. The house is run by a Vampira-type character, "Madam Heles." Wood's love of the occult and haunted houses is evident in the film. There is a skull, and holes for eyes to peep at others. There is a kaleidoscope, very colorful, of lost souls engaging in sex.

Besides Criswell's coffin, there are other Wood traits. Bond's name is "Shirley," which was Wood's transvestite name. Much of the set is decorated in red, a favorite color of Wood's. Lutz, early in the film, makes a deliberate reference to former Wood actor Bela Lugosi. According to Grey's Nightmare of Ecstasy, Wood wanted Vampira to play Madam Heles, but she, understandably, said no. Wood's pal John Andrews helped around the set.

Necromania quickly evolves into a typical sex film, which involves one sex scene after another. In Grey's book, an ad for it playing in New York's Times Square area is shown. It did not have a long release time, and was, as mentioned, lost for many years. Its strength is spotting the personality touches of its director, the inimitable Wood.

Necromania was made before the Deep Throat craze of 1972, so that may be a reason why we do not see very explicit sex scenes in most of Necromania like we would today. Deep Throat literally blew the door wide open for that genre. Alas, it was not Ed Wood who was able to cash in on this new form of entertainment.