Necromania 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

Something Weird Video

Something Weird Video is an American publisher of video tapes and DVDs, based in Seattle, Washington. They specialize in exploitation film, particularly the works of Harry Novak, Doris Wishman, David F. Friedman, and Herschell Gordon Lewis. SWV videos are available on demand to Comcast subscribers...

 imprint in the late 1980s, then was re-released on DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 by Fleshbot Films

Fleshbot

Fleshbot is a sex-oriented weblog, published by Gawker Media. It was launched in November 2003 as the third online title from Gawker. The range of subject matter includes everything from amateur sex blogs and thumbnail gallery posts to news about sex in popular culture and advertising...

 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

Necromancy

Necromancy is a claimed form of magic that involves communication with the deceased, either by summoning their spirit in the form of an apparition or raising them bodily, for the purpose of divination, imparting the ability to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge...

 Madame Heles for a witchcraft

Witchcraft

Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...

 solution to Danny's erectile dysfunction

Erectile dysfunction

Erectile dysfunction is sexual dysfunction characterized by the inability to develop or maintain an erection of the penis during sexual performance....

.

Cast (uncredited)

• Maria Arnold as Madame Heles
• Rene Bond
  Rene Bond
  Rene Bond was a pornographic actress. Bond began her career in softcore exploitation films produced by Harry Novak in the late 1960s before moving on to hardcore films in the early 1970s...
  
   as Shirley
• Ric Lutze as Danny

Behind the scenes

The Amazing Criswell

The Amazing Criswell

Jeron Criswell King , born Jeron Criswell Konig, and known by his stage-name The Amazing Criswell , was an American psychic known for wildly inaccurate predictions...

's coffin makes an appearance in the film, the second of Wood's films in which it does. (Night of the Ghouls

Night of the Ghouls

Night of the Ghouls is a 1959 horror film written and directed by Ed Wood. It is a sequel of sorts to the 1955 film Bride of the Monster...

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

Maila Nurmi

Maila Nurmi was a Finnish-American actress who created the campy 1950s characterVampira. She portrayed Vampira as TV's first horror host and in the Ed Wood cult film Plan 9 from Outer Space...

, who played Vampira on TV and in Plan 9 from Outer Space

Plan 9 from Outer Space

Plan 9 from Outer Space is a 1959 science fiction film written and directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr. The film features Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson and Maila "Vampira" Nurmi...

, 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.