Burial Ground (1985)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I've often said that I prefer Zombi 2 to Dawn of the Dead - at least if I am looking for a more fun movie - because it skips the political allegory and gets right to what the zombie splatter that I really want to see.Burial Ground (also known as Le Notti del terrore, Nights of Terror, Zombi Horror, The Zombie Dead and most confusingly, Zombi 3) raises you that lack of Romero's restraint and storytelling, doubles down by ripping off Fulci's work which is in itself a ripoff (but a masterful one) and piles on the sleaze. No, really. This is a film that is ready to outright offend everyone.The film starts with a professor accidentally unleashing an evil curse that reanimates the dead. He's instantly killed. Meanwhile, three "jet-set couples" (I've heard them referred to this way several times and it always makes me laugh) and a creepy man child named Michael (who was played by Pietro Barzocchini, who was 25-years-old at the time...more on that soon) arrive at a nearby mansion, invited by the professor. We catch Evelyn (Mariangela Giordano, The Sect) stealing lingerie that she found in the mansion, to which her boyfriend James replies, "You look just like a little whore, but I like that in a girl." At that point, that creepy manchild of hers, Michael, comes in and freaks out while his mom absentmindedly just stands there, nude.It doesn't take long before the dead attack. A maid is decapitated with a scythe because these living dead can use tools. Why are they more evolved than Romero or Fulci zombies? We never learn.The zombies break into the mansion and attack everyone. This leads to that young creep, Michael, becoming totally shell-shocked. Evelyn, his mother, attempts to confront him, so he becomes to fondle her breasts. As he kisses her, he tries to get his hand between her legs. She slaps him as he runs away, shouting "What's wrong? I'm your son!" He runs right into one of the party guests, Leslie, who is now a zombie. Like a Fulci librarian, he stares at her as she makes her way toward him.At this point, everyone reasons that they should just let the zombies into the house, because they are slow and it will allow them to escape. Sure. That always works. Evelyn goes to find her son, who has been killed by Leslie. She flips out and smashes Leslie's head against a tub, screaming as loudly as possible all the while.Everyone runs toward a monastery, where the film decides to become a Blind Dead film. The zombie monks chase everyone to a workshop where they kill Mark with power tools. Creepy Michael has now become an even creepier zombie. Evelyn has lost her mind and thinks it's a miracle, so she bares her breasts for her son to suck on. He replies by eating her breast off in graphic detail.Finally, Janet is menaced by multiple zombie hands as the film ends with the Profecy of the Black Spider. Yes, that's how they spell prophecy. "The earth shall tremble, graves shall open, they shall come among the living as messengers of death and there shall be the nigths of terror." And yes, they also spelled nights incorrectly.Director Andrea Bianchi isn't one for subtlety, which films like Strip Nude for Your Killer and Confessions of a Frustrated Housewife on his IMDB credits. If you're looking for unrepentant gore (Fulci's through the door eyegouge is repeated her with a window), bad special effects (the latex zombie heads are near Troll 2 in their quality), playing with guts and gore ala Blood Feast and a total lack of storyline or sense, then I'd advise you watch this one.Of course, Severin Films is the place to grab it. They claim they are "improbably proud to present the definitive version of this gorehound/sex-fiend favorite." They've even completely restored a print of the film that they found beneath the floorboards of a Trastevere church rectory. You'll get a ton of extras, including a Q and A with creepy little Pietro Barzocchini! Plus, they made "Smells of Death" shotglasses and shirts. And the artwork - which accompanies this article - is amazing. Keep in mind, this isn't an ad. I just love that Severin is spending more time and energy restoring and packaging these films than their creators did making them.This is the kind of film you can say, "But yeah, did you see Burial Ground? That one is totally insane." And I love Berto Pisano's atonal goofy soundtrack that blares any time the zombies show up. But if you're looking for a movie with any class, well, don't say I didn't warn you.

Intelligent zombies, nudity, gore, awesome Italian villa, terrible (dubbed) dialogue, creepy Oedipal man- child... So worth the $1 I spent to buy the DVD. If you have any appreciation for cheap Italian movies, this up your alley. Set-up is straight forward-Scientist poking around animates corpses, they attack him, then go after a pack of visiting couples who mostly have sex with each other or run from zombies. You owe it to yourself to find this movie, at as low a cost as possible, and dig deep into this flick with some friends and some drinks. And since IMDb thinks I haven't written enough, I'll compliment the film on the creative ways the living characters die, but dock the flick a couple points for an abrupt ending.

I recently caught up with this film and was moderately impressed. Lucio Fulci's Zombie has been gripping me and I would not place Burial Ground on that level or on the same level as George Romnero's movies but it is quite entertaining. One of the aspects which most impressed was the apparent intelligence of the zombies who quickly work out ways to outwit the human protagonists, witness one memorable death involving a scythe which would be hard to imagine with dumber creatures being the menace. Another aspect which I liked was the sudden and extremely hopeless ending in which everything really does look lost, I can't imagine how they could possibly survive that situation which came as a bit of a surprise as I had been hoping that somehow someone would escape but then they don't I will say no more except that it came as a rather nice jolt and a really good way to end, I wish more films were just as ruthless. The child character played by an adult actor is also quite bizarre and for me this added something to the film, especially when he begins fondling his mother and then later when he does something rather different to her I will say no more but his demise and eventual fate were particularly bizarre and added something to the film. The story did seem somewhat downbeat as not amount of running away or struggling did any good whatsoever in the end for anyone. No problem with that grimness and nihilism is what I hope for in a good horror and that is something they got right here. Alright conceivably the last two characters might just survive their ordeal although how it might happen would boggle the mind considering where they are left.

these films are the things that make me be proud to be Italian ... movies to watch in brain off ... trashy , fun, bloody scenes in rivers , sex and drama enough ... Veteran horror director Andrea Bianchi is a little shaky, mind-boggling ZOOM and hastiness in turn but compensated by the excellent special effects master Giannetto De Rossi ...so the blood spilled in this film between decapitated heads , torn nipples bitten by a fantastic dwarf zombies and undead rotting between filthy worms ... if you like old horror movies artisan Italian is a must this cult , for everyone else there is always Shining to watch ... passed with flying colors ...