Any fans of those Italian zombie movies from the 80's here?

**Zombie369** · 13-Jul-2013

George A. Romero's movies inspired a lot of Italian-made zombie movies during the 80's, which some were kind of deliberate rip-offs but were still very entertaining in my opinion. I was just wondering if anybody here likes them too? A couple of my favorites were Nightmare City and Hell of the Living Dead, but there's some I haven't seen yet that I want to see like Zombie and City of the Living Dead.

**MinionZombie** · 13-Jul-2013

Yeah, I dig the 'Euro Zombi' flicks ... "Zombi 2" aka "Zombie Flesh Eaters" (aka a bunch of other stuff) is a good flick. I loved it, then hated it, then loved it again. Zombi 3 (ZFE2) is a real mess, but it's kinda fun in a 'so bad it's good' way ... and Zombi 4 (ZFE3) is just nonsense. "City of the Living Dead" is a stylish flick, but it's a bit plodding in the pace department ... but it's got Giovanni Lombardo Radice in it, so that's one (of a few) good reasons to watch it. I've not watched "Hell of the Living Dead" yet though - I have it, but haven't sat down to watch it ... likewise with "The Zombie Dead", which I've skimmed through, but never properly sat down to watch.

An excellent one to track down is The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue (aka Let Sleeping Corpses Lie) - it's a crackin' flick. I highly recommend checking it out.

I've also seen some lesser Euro Zombi fare like Zombie Lake (jolly good fun with lots of T&A silliness), or Oasis of the Living Dead (again, rather silly and cobbled together, but kinda charming as a result) ... Nightmare City is a good flick. Again, it's utterly bonkers, but in a good way ... while these flicks (and more) often lacked lasting cultural impact and deeper thought (or technical talent), there's a vibe to them that's really attractive. They're a fun-filled (and sometimes sleazy) 'other side of the coin' answer to legendary entries like GAR's trilogy.

**Geizeh** · 13-Jul-2013

No offence, mate, but "Hell of the living dead" is more of a comedy to me, however other movies I really enjoyed.

**MoonSylver** · 14-Jul-2013

Yo, yo, yo. Loves me some Eye-talian Zombie Horror. They don't get much love around here, but I dig on them. Fulci's "Zombie" is WELL worth seeing. "Gates of Hell" (aka "City of the Living Dead") is as well. It's not heavy on zombies, but has a cool, bizarro, race against time to stop the end of the world story, & some great gore & set pieces. Repeat the same for "The Beyond", but crank it up a notch. It just might be Fulci's masterpiece.

Another great one is "Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror" featuring some really great crusty zombies by Giannetto De Rossi, who did FX for Fulci's films.

As MZ says "LDatMM" is well worth seeing as well (actually it's a SPANISH production, so not Italian, but Euro enough

)

The "Tombs of the Blind Dead" series might be worth your while. As MZ said, "Zombie Lake" & "Oasis" are good for a larf too.

Good mention on "Hell of the Living Dead" & "Nightmare City". I like them both.

Zombi 3 is a guilty pleasure. That movie is bat shit crazy.

**EvilNed** · 14-Jul-2013

I love me some Italian / Euro horror flicks. In general, 60's, 70's and 80's Italian cinema has a special place in my heart. It all started with zombie films, but now I watch any Italian horror films I can get a hold of, plus some of the more serious stuff. I just got a hold of "Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion", which even won an Oscar back in 1971.

I think Lucio Fulci's stuff is a bit overrated, but I love Dario Argento. To bad he never tipped his toe into the zombie pool. Fulci still made some good films, however.

I've seen (using international VHS release titles for clarity):

Zombie Flesh Eaters - A classic. I keep returning to this one. I got a Steelbook Blu-Ray edition that looks sweet.
Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 - AKA Zombi 3. Likewise here, I like this one. It's way over the top and energetic at times, but good fun.
Zombie 4: After Death - Zombi 3 on drugs, pretty much. With voodoo thrown in.
Zombie 5: Killing Birds - Boring. There's nothing really of interest here. Only for the completist. There's not much, if any, zombie action going on here. Mostly just creepy shots of a house.
The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue - I love this one. Another one that I've watched several times. A must see! (I believe it's a spanish/italian co-production?)
Tombs of the Blind Dead-series - Technically spanish, but still worth checking out. The first one in particular is interesting. The three sequels are mostly more of the same. The third one takes place on a boat, and is pretty creepy. But the SFX are laughably bad.
Oasis of the Zombies - Not much to see here. It's very slow, and while the zombies crop up in regular intervalls, they look like shit and they never actually do anything. Only for the completist.
Dawn of the Mummy - A US/Egyptian/Italian co-production. I like this one a lot. Plenty of action, whacky over-the-top acting and some killer "the dead rising from the ground"-scenes.
Zombie Lake - Fuck this one in particular. If Plan 9 from Outer Space raped Manos: Hands of Fate and Manos tried to have an abortion at an early stage, but the kid turned out to be alive but all deformed: Then this would be it.
Burial Ground - Good fun. I like this one. Eerie soundtrack. Gotta love those Moog synths.
Nightmare City - Good fun as well. Lots of action. Actually, the action starts in the very first scene and then just never lets up. I love that.
Hell of the Living Dead - Filled with archive footage of jungle, and Goblin's music from Dawn of the Dead and Contamination, this one feels so cheap. But there's a decent amount of action in it, and somehow it manages to present a world spinning out of control. A doomed world which is going to get devoured by the living dead. I appreciate that.
Zombie Holocaust - Pretty interesting. A cannibal / zombie mix-up. No rapes or anything like that, like it's Holocaust-siblings, but some decent zombie action. And a crazy scientist to boot! Feels like a Tin-Tin adventure on drugs.
The Beyond - Takes some getting used too, but once you're in the groove you're hooked. Very atmospheric. Little to no plot.
City of the Living Dead - Ditto, more or less. Very dark and end-of-the-worldish.
Cemetary Man - Interesting take on the zombie genre. It's sort of a zombie comedy. The production values are high, there's plenty of great zombies and some other weird supernatural stuff. But in the end, the zombies take a back seat to a love story. Weird. But a good film nonetheless.
Black Demons - A pretty shitty film set in Brazil. A couple of teens go to a grand mansion and are eaten by the former slaves. This is the only italian horror film from the era (although it is from '91 or something like that) that actually uses sound from location rather than looping it in a studio. You'd think it sound good, but the voices are so god damn low compared to everything else. It's a chore watching this one. Otherwise it's meh. It's OK. The zombies are of the "teleporting" kind, which is rarely interesting cause then there's suddenly no point in running from them.

I've yet to see The Hanging Woman and a film called Horror Rises from the Tomb, which I both believe are spanish zombie films. I'm pretty sure they're both shit, however. Or at least very boring.

Also, let's not forget Lambarto Bava's Demon films. I like them.

**MinionZombie** · 14-Jul-2013

Oh yes - I'd forgotten about The Beyond (one of Fulci's best), and Zombie Holocaust (pretty good - I prefer the first part, which earned the alternative titled of "Dr Butcher M.D.", which could have been it's own movie, but it's definitely worth watching).

Agreed on Cemetery Man, too - I only saw that for the first time last year and it was fantastic - here's my review of it: http://deadshed.blogspot.co.uk/2012/...oavi-1993.html

Strangely though, I didn't much care for Demons 1 and 2, especially the latter. It was just a bunch of shit happening, and I didn't get invested whatsoever ... it's very stylish, but there's nothing else to it that grabbed me ... like I said, strange really, as I've really enjoyed other such films.

Ned - an Argento zombie flick? Now that would have been something to see ... it would have been cool to see what he would have done with the genre, had he ever had the inclination to dip his toe in there during his heyday.

There's some great Italian/European horror/genre flicks out there - I'm chipping my way through various giallo and poliziotteschi movies ... I just got "The Bloodstained Shadow" (a giallo), so I'll have to check that out. I suppose watching Argento flicks (the man did a handful of giallos), and various Euro horror exploitationers were feeding lines that brought me to some superb Italian genre fare like "The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh" and "The Case of the Bloody Iris" ... although, of course, those aren't zombie-related, but this is all partly how I wound up there.

**EvilNed** · 14-Jul-2013

I remember reading your review of "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh". I managed to find a copy -ahem- somewhere... And I loved it. And last christmas, when I was in Chicago, I went too a store called "Odd Obsession" (http://www.oddobsession.com/cutty/) and I found it on DVD. It was 40 bucks, so I passed on it, but a cousin of mine picked it up as a christmas present later.

That's also where I got Oasis of the Zombies, Black Demons, "Demons III: The Ogre", (Both Black Demons and The Ogre are advertised as Demons 3, btw...) and some other nice stuff. If anyone is in the area, I recommend you to check that place out. Damn, what a fine selection they had.

Throw any other Giallo recommendations my way. I've not gone into the deep end in that genre.

**shootemindehead** · 14-Jul-2013

'Zombie Flesh Eaters', 'The Beyond'. That's it really.

**MinionZombie** · 14-Jul-2013

Originally Posted by EvilNed

I remember reading your review of "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh". I managed to find a copy -ahem- somewhere... And I loved it. And last christmas, when I was in Chicago, I went too a store called "Odd Obsession" (http://www.oddobsession.com/cutty/) and I found it on DVD. It was 40 bucks, so I passed on it, but a cousin of mine picked it up as a christmas present later.

Throw any other Giallo recommendations my way. I've not gone into the deep end in that genre.

I'd love to have a cool shop somewhere nearby that stocked less mainstream fare, catering to different tastes, but alas we don't even have a mainstream entertainment store in my town - we are quite out in the sticks, mind.

I'm glad you dug Mrs Wardh - it's a brilliant highlight of the giallo movement.

Anyway, I've done a bunch of reviews of various Italian genre flicks as-and-when I see them:
http://deadshed.blogspot.co.uk/2012/...nment-dvd.html

Some particular highlights would be: Sergio Martino (who directed Mrs Wardh) also did "Torso", which I really rather enjoyed - although it's more exploitational than Wardh, it has a similar structure and sublime undercurrent. If you've not yet seen "The Case of the Bloody Iris", then I highly recommend checking that one out too - it was superb. I also thought "Who Saw Her Die" was a really good entry as well, pre-dating Don't Look Now, and incredibly atmospheric in the alleyways of Venice. "What Have They Done To Your Daughters" and "Almost Human" are in the 'poliziotteschi' sub-genre, but both are well worth seeing for their twisted tales inspired by the socio-political landscape of 1970s Italy - likewise the rape/revenge/thriller "Night Train Murders" is a superb slicing of 70s Italian society, wrapped up in a Last House on the Left-inspired tale.

For full-on sleazy giallo, but very stylishly made, there's "Strip Nude For Your Killer" - the sexual politics are dated, but it's an effective giallo that borders on sexploitation, with Edwige "Mrs Wardh" Fenech as the leading lady.

I'll report back on "The Bloodstained Shadow", but I've heard good things about it - very atmospheric, apparently.

I'm taking the thread a bit off-topic here, being that these aren't Euro-Zombi flicks, but they're very much worth investigating.

**triste realtà** · 14-Jul-2013

Horror....Tomb is one of the best Spanish horrors ever. If you are not watching Naschy flicks you are missing out on a good chunk of euro horror.

The latest euro 3 pack that I got is The Euro Sleaze Collection from Severin. Ursula and Hanna D are Italian while Dwarf is Danish and they are very enjoyable as far as Italian Sleaze/Giallo goes if you are looking for something to buy.

Blue Underground have packaged a lot of their giallos in the Midnight Movie 3 pack series also but stuff like Bloody Iris is low bitrate NTSC version since it is only 3.5GB for a 90+ min movie. Kind of soft but watchable. I'm just putting that out there in case you want a better encode.

Argento only half counts since he is a half breed.

Oasis zombies are horrific.

**krisvds** · 15-Jul-2013

There's nothing quite like those seventies/eighties Itallian films.
The last really good one was Soavini's Dellamorte Dellamore, which I think got released in the States and Britain as Cemetery Man.

Minion; Have you seen 'The HOuse With The Laughing Windows'? Very good Giallo!

**MinionZombie** · 15-Jul-2013

Originally Posted by krisvds

Minion; Have you seen 'The HOuse With The Laughing Windows'? Very good Giallo!

Not yet, but it's on the list...

**triste realtà** · 16-Jul-2013

Excellent list Ned. I was somewhat aware of Dawn of the Mummy but didn't know it was part Italian. I haven't seen a decent dvd to buy yet though.

Adding two more to the list:
Erotic Nights of the Living Dead: Zombies are well done and I love the soundtrack but the porn, acting and script may put some off cause it makes it almost 2 hours long. There is a soft core version available.
Zeder: Excellent movie with excellent music, only two living dead, more of a giallo by the same director of House with Laughing Windows. Neither has a decent NTSC release.