HELL
OF THE LIVING DEAD (1981)Director: Bruno Mattei
Anchor Bay Entertainment
HELL
OF THE LIVING DEAD (1981)In the early 80s, a smorgasbord of spaghetti gut munchers inspired by the enormous European success of DAWN OF THE DEAD were unleashed upon the world. Bruno Mattei's slapdash attempt is a direct rip-off in more ways than one. An Italian/Spanish co-production, this effort was shot in Spain and also goes by titles like "Virus," and "Night of the Zombies," when it was released in the U.S.
After a chemical leak at an industrial plant in New Guinea, a dead rat is found in a sterile area, but then comes back to life to devour the poor guy that found it. Not long after that, a number of the plant's employees emerge as a horde of charcoal-faced ghouls. Elsewhere, a gang of longhaired terrorists hold hostages at an American consulate building. Much like in DAWN's terrorists taking over a ghetto tenement, a SWAT team wait outside until it's time to literally go in for the kill. Four of these SWAT persons are sent to the jungles to investigate the leak, and treat the assignment as some sort of macho vacation.
Strange things are happening in the area, as a family of three will soon learn. The mom is attacked by a zombie priest (played by Spanish horror fave Victor Israel, the baggage man in HORROR EXPRESS) and her bloody body is hung in a desolated chapel. Meanwhile back in their jeep, the young son (now undead) rips his pop's stomach open and feasts on his intestines. At this point we are introduced to a cute female journalist (Margit Evelyn Newton) and her cameraman, who is a dead ringer for New Age musician Yanni. This guy pukes after seeing the kid eating his dad, so if you want to know what it's like to see Yanni throwing up, watch this film. Anyway, after one of the SWAT team blasts the flesh-starved boy away, the four of them join the journalist and the cameraman and they embarkdeeper into the jungle.
After hearing native drums, Newton takes it upon herself to strip off her clothes (in front of five guys!), paint herself up and run to the village as a peace offering. We are then subjected to some ugly documentary footage of natives and jungle animals that's clumsily edited in to the mix (and throughout the rest of the picture!). After our heroes make friends with the primitive tribe, some of their people come back as zombies dipped in cake batter and a cannibal massacre commences. After barely escaping, the SWAT guys, the journalist and the photographer encounter more packs of zombies, and the token nutty guy is the only one that can figure out that you have to shoot these things in the head to kill 'em. The wimpiest SWAT character is the first to go, getting ambushed while doing a Gene Kelly impersonation wearing a tutu!
Marred by excessive stock footage, bad acting (enhanced by New York accents on the dubbed male actors), recycled Goblin music from DAWN OF THE DEAD, and zombie makeups of varying quality, HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD is a low-end, trashy re-hash of Romero's first two zombie flicks (the ending shot clearly recalls a scene in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD). But if you can get past that, it's enjoyable nonsense and will most likely please the legions of gore-yearning zombies out there. Highlights include a plagued black cat emerging from the stomach of a granny, and a character having her tongue torn out and her eyeballs shoved out from the inside of her head!
For anyone used to the dark Vestron VHS tape (as "Night of the Zombies") released straight from its brief theatrical run, Anchor Bay's DVD transfer is overdue compensation. Letterboxed at 1.85:1 and 16x9 enhanced, Anchor Bay has used the original negative materials, making for a completely uncut, beautiful DVD presentation of the film. Colors now look bold with solid black levels, and images that were unclear in past video transfers now have proper contrast. The Dolby Digital mono audio track (English-dubbed only) is also impressive.
Extras include a featurette entitled "Hell Rats Of The Living Dead," a new 9-minute video interview with Mattei. Mattei discusses both this feature and RATS: NIGHTS OF TERROR (also available from AB) and speaks in Italian (with English subtitles). He mentions how he considers his films as his children (yet he claims that he would remake all of them!), acknowledges the obvious George Romero influence, and explains how he got the pseudonym "Vincent Dawn." Other supplements are a Mattei bio, the theatrical trailer, a poster and still gallery, and a collector's booklet insert. (George R. Reis)