Well, although I don’t have time to write a “proper” film review, I just have to talk about this movie! It is literally THE most laugh-out-loud “so bad that it’s good” unintentionally hilarious corny zombie movie I have ever seen 🙂
I am, of course, talking about Andrea Bianchi’s 1981 film “Burial Ground” – also known as “The Zombie Dead”. This film is late-night unintentional comedy perfection in so many ways!
I should probably add a SPOILER WARNING here.
Seriously, I love how melodramatic the titles of old zombie movies are. And how they often had more than one title as well. This film is more well-known as “Burial Ground” apparently.
I’ve been going through a bit of a “1980s Italian horror movies” phase recently and, whilst shopping online, I stumbled across a second-hand copy of this film on DVD for about £3 including postage.
It’s the 2002 “Vipco’s Vaults Of Horror” UK DVD edition (with the title “The Zombie Dead”). I remember seeing these Vipco DVDs in the shops all the time when I was a teenager during the early-mid 2000s – back when all of the old 1980s “video nasties” were finally being un-banned and/or allowed to be released without cuts from the censors. And now I’m finally getting round to watching some of them!
The BBFC, in their over-protective zealousness, gave this film an “18 certificate”. I can theoretically understand why – it’s a gory splatter film with gratuitous nudity and some transgressive humour in it too – but this is one of those brilliantly silly and immature films which I would have enjoyed even more if I’d watched it when I was about thirteen or fourteen.
Anyway, onto the film itself. It begins with a bearded archaeologist stumbling across an old Etruscan tomb. He chips away at a plaque on the wall and, as you would expect, it isn’t long before the stone coffins start opening and the zombies start lurching.
Meanwhile, a group of eccentric aristocrats have decided to spend the weekend at a local villa. Of course the villa doesn’t have a telephone, one of them even says that the lack of a phone is very relaxing. There are a couple of couples and a family with a hilariously creepy teenage son. Naturally, it isn’t long before the zombies shamble towards the remote rural villa and brilliantly funny melodrama ensues!
I say! How splendid! Wouldn’t it be absolutely beastly if this weekend was ruined by shambling hordes of the risen dead?
Seriously, this film is just so much FUN. It is the film you picture in your mind when you imagine a “cheesy zombie movie”, but in the very best possible way 🙂
Everything from the gloriously corny English dubbing and ultra-polite dialogue (even in the most horrific situation, the strongest expletive the characters use is “damn” and this is just too funny!), to the genuinely brilliant melodramatic acting that is so wonderfully “over the top” that it instantly alchemises any hint of fear into pantomime comedy.
Seriously, the film often can’t go more than about five minutes without a ridiculously loud theatrical scream from one of the characters. There are also the wonderfully low-budget “Paper mache, offal and stage blood” special effects too.
No, that isn’t a statue, it is a zombie. The “paper mache mask and old artist’s smock” variety of zombie, to be precise. It moves almost as slowly as a statue, but this certainly doesn’t stop the actors from screaming and fleeing in the most gleefully hammy and melodramatic way possible. This is too funny!
Oh my God, and then there are the random “WTF?” moments! The fact that the zombies have somehow evolved the intelligence to use tools… including scythes and battering rams! The “We can set them on fire!” scene! The fact that two of the aristocrats are doing random target practice with a pistol… in a room filled with historical statues… before the zombies show up!
Oh and how could I forget? The ZOMBIE MONKS! This film has zombie monks and I couldn’t stop laughing throughout the whole scene. Then, to cap it all off during the final couple of minutes, there is the “breast-feeding” scene – a moment of transgressive gross-out humour which was so funny that I actually went into a light-headed stupor from laughing so much at it.
Yes, this film has ZOMBIE MONKS in it! I mean, when the characters find a random monastery, you can kind of guess what will be in there… but the sheer predictability of it – combined with the complete “Oh, these friendly monks will help us!” obliviousness of the characters – just make this scene about twice as funny as it already is!
This isn’t a “horror” movie! It is an unintentional comedy film in the very best possible way! And I haven’t had THIS much fun with a zombie movie since I watched Lamberto Bava’s “Demons” (1985) about two or three years ago.
Best of all, this movie made me think of the original 1996 Playstation version of “Resident Evil” in so many ways! Ok, given that this film was released fifteen years before “Resident Evil”, it was either ahead of its time or maybe even an influence on “Resident Evil” (though this is unlikely). Still, it reminded me of this old game a lot. Whether it is the ridiculously “wooden” way that the zombies walk around. Whether it is the contrast between the beautifully opulent mansion and the decaying, lurching zombies.
Whether it is the gloriously… and I mean gloriously… corny dubbing! Seriously, it’s almost “Jill Sandwich” levels of cheesiness at times and it was an absolute JOY to watch 🙂 Seriously, if you played the original PS1 version of “Resident Evil” back in the day, you HAVE to watch THIS film!
“Stop! Don’t open that door!” Ooops! Wrong thing! But, this film from a decade and a half before “Resident Evil” does include some fixed camera angles….
Then there’s also the music too – the film begins with some absolutely amazing chilled out 1980s synthesiser/electric guitar music with is both retro and cool in the best way possible. But even the music ends up being comedic after a while due to the way that the film uses melodramatic “organ trill” type music during virtually every “scary” moment, and this just adds to the unintentional comedy.
All in all, this film is FUN. It is literally THE perfect example of a laugh-out-loud low-budget late-night zombie film and I had eighty-one minutes of pure, solid FUN watching it! It is literally “so bad that it’s good” in the sort of way that ONLY a corny zombie movie from the 1980s can be! This review really doesn’t do it justice. If you want a good laugh, and aren’t prudish or easily-shocked by stage blood and/or offal, then watch it!
If I had to give it a rating out of five, it would get a solid five. It is “so bad that it’s good” 🙂
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