It's been almost two decades since I saw this film so I knew I had to go back and reevaluate it. It was right after Halloween and my oldest amigo picked it up and then passed it on to me. We were in the middle of matching each others flicks from the Anchor Bays series of VHS horror films (more on that beloved company later) and I had recently shown him Dawn of the Dead. While I don't need to tell you which of the two had more of a life altering effect on us both, I had very fond memories of watching Let Sleeping Corpses Lie and gorging myself on my stash of candy from my Halloween haul. It was time to give the classic zombie flick another gander.
The story begins simple enough where two individuals are forced to travel together through rural England where nearby new tests are being conducted using radioactive waves to kill insects. The waves resurrect the dead who then eat or pass through their blood the infection on to other corpses. Our protagonists George and Edna are blamed for the murders and at the same time have to withstand attacks from the walking dead. They attempt to stay alive as they are prosecuted by a crusty old Sargent who along with other officials believes they may be Satan worshiping drug addicts from the big city. Worse still is that while our two heroes dispatch the living dead, the scientists keep increasing the distance that their dead rising radio waves can reach!
How does the film hold up? Well as a post George Romero classic zombie film, I would say pretty darn well. I really like the eerie English backdrop and spookyness that the first half of the flick conjures up, while the second half of the flick became a bit more routine for me (although the breast ripping scene will always stand out in my mind). I also found it unique but also not touched on adequately how or why the resurrected dead were able to maintain enough cognition to go after specific individuals after they had died. I personally rather they be void of deeper thinking if the explanation for them rising be more scientific (Romero's series) and if their coming back to life is based on vengeance or the occult (Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things), then they can retain memories from their past life and have an agenda. But that's just a personal preference. Either way, I would still place it on a best of zombies flick list of the decade, as it has way more of a coherent narrative than a lot of other Italian zombie pictures.
3 caskets out of 5.
P.s. I noticed that a best of White Zombie CD collection I own is named after the title of the film. Those chaps keep popping up in connection to these films. One day, I'll do a review on their legacy.
Notice the tagline. This film was paired with The Last House on the Left in the States back in the day.
The story begins simple enough where two individuals are forced to travel together through rural England where nearby new tests are being conducted using radioactive waves to kill insects. The waves resurrect the dead who then eat or pass through their blood the infection on to other corpses. Our protagonists George and Edna are blamed for the murders and at the same time have to withstand attacks from the walking dead. They attempt to stay alive as they are prosecuted by a crusty old Sargent who along with other officials believes they may be Satan worshiping drug addicts from the big city. Worse still is that while our two heroes dispatch the living dead, the scientists keep increasing the distance that their dead rising radio waves can reach!
How does the film hold up? Well as a post George Romero classic zombie film, I would say pretty darn well. I really like the eerie English backdrop and spookyness that the first half of the flick conjures up, while the second half of the flick became a bit more routine for me (although the breast ripping scene will always stand out in my mind). I also found it unique but also not touched on adequately how or why the resurrected dead were able to maintain enough cognition to go after specific individuals after they had died. I personally rather they be void of deeper thinking if the explanation for them rising be more scientific (Romero's series) and if their coming back to life is based on vengeance or the occult (Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things), then they can retain memories from their past life and have an agenda. But that's just a personal preference. Either way, I would still place it on a best of zombies flick list of the decade, as it has way more of a coherent narrative than a lot of other Italian zombie pictures.
3 caskets out of 5.
P.s. I noticed that a best of White Zombie CD collection I own is named after the title of the film. Those chaps keep popping up in connection to these films. One day, I'll do a review on their legacy.
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