The Dead Are Alive (1972)

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Archaeologist Jason Porter (Alex Cord) becomes the prime suspect after a series of brutal murders at the site of an ancient Etruscan tomb.The first double murder in director Armando Crispino's giallo The Etruscan Kills Again is sufficiently bloody, a couple beaten to death with a big metal probe (a piece of Porter's archaeological equipment); however, the scene is shot with little of the pizazz one expects from the genre.Subsequent deaths only disappoint further, the actual acts mostly occurring off-screen, the victims' bodies discovered once the killer has left the scene. The Etruscan Kills Again also suffers from an overly complex and dialogue heavy script that is difficult to unravel and features a rather unlikeable protagonist (a sexually aggressive alcoholic).A well executed car chase adds a much needed jolt of life to proceedings, the lovely Christina von Blanc delivers the requisite gratuitous nudity, and the final fight scene between hero and killer is well handled, but there's way too much drudgery involved to qualify this as an essential giallo.

Amando Crispino's L'ETRUSCO UCCIDE ANCORA aka. THE ETRUSCAN KILLS AGAIN is an interesting and somewhat unusual Giallo from the greatest Giallo-year 1972. 1972 was the year of several of the greatest genre masterpieces including Sergio Martino's YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY, Fulci's DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING, Massimo Dallamano's WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE and Emilio Miraglia's THE RED QUEEN KILLS SEVEN TIMES. While L'ETRUSCO UCCIDE ANCORA is not as essential as these aforementioned titles it is highly interesting and creepy as the sight of this Giallo's mandatory murder series is an ancient Etruscan burial ground, which gives this particular Giallo a supernatural atmosphere.The American archaeologist Jason Porter (Alex Cord) is head of a team that has discovered an ancient Etruscan burial ground including fascinating and mysterious pieces of mural art. Shortly after the discovery, a young couple is murdered in the same manner as depicted in the Etruscan tomb, which had not been opened for 2,500 years. It seems as if someone is trying to point out Jason, a womanizer with a drinking problem, as the murderer. Is the culprit one of the eccentric people in Jason's surrounding, or has an Etruscan fiend risen from tomb to perform his bloody deeds? As in most good Gialli, almost every character in the movie is a suspect.L'ETRUSCO UCCIDE ANCORA is elegantly filmed in nice Northern Italian locations and accompanied by a very good and intense score from the great Riz Ortolani. The murders are quite bloody and well-made, most of them being Giallo-typically filmed from the murderer's perspective. The female cast members are all lovely to look at, especially Samantha Eggar and Christina Von Blanc, who is known for her mostly exhibitionist roles in some of the Spanish Exploitation-icon Jess Franco's movies. Besides Alex Cord, the cast includes several other well-known actors including John Marley (THE GODFATHER) as a sadistic elderly orchestra conductor and the always-sinister Horst Frank who plays a flamboyantly homosexual designer here.Overall, L'ETRUSCO UCCIDE ANCORA may not be an outstanding Giallo-masterpiece, but it is definitely an elegant and creepy specimen of the genre that should not be missed by my fellow Giallo- and Eurohorror fans. My rating: 7.5/10

Just a quick note to all my fellow zombie aficionados out there.. the title of this movie is misleading. While the movie itself is not too bad, sadly there are no living dead here. This movie is actually an early 1970's murder mystery, the dialogue at times is very dry, although not bad the whole way through. The directing is o.k however the editing is really quite sketchy (you know the kind where all the sudden an actor is in a new position instantly, or they've abruptly cut to a new scene.)So if like me you planned on watching this to add another notch onto your undead movie collection belt let your search continue.

In Italy, a series of murders occur at a newly discovered Etruscan burial ground and when a tomb is opened, wall murals of sacrificial killings depict the current deaths ...but how could that possibly be? An American on the site, Professor Jason Porter (Alex Cord) -a violent alcoholic who also suffers blackouts- finds himself not only in the midst of a mystery, but a suspect as well. Was an ancient demon god unleashed when the burial grounds were disturbed -or are the murders the work of a mere (maniacal) mortal?Armando Crispino's clever and classy entry from the Golden Age of the Giallo (1968-75) has nearly all the conventions one expects from the genre: an innocent (?) American abroad somehow connected to a string of violent crimes, ineffectual police detectives, quirky suspects, nubile victims, red herrings, brutal bludgeonings, suicides, and an insane killer that may come as a surprise. There's also a shoe fetish, a homosexual, a bottle of J&B Whiskey, a wild car chase, and Riz Ortolani's score to hold viewer interest. One of my favorite gialli plot devices is used here to good effect: the protagonist had a clue to the killer's identity all along if only he had interpreted a certain event correctly. All that's missing are the ever-present black gloves -but you won't miss them. This colorful, well-made thriller, based on a short story by Bryan Edgar Wallace, was released in the U.S. as THE DEAD ARE ALIVE. Rounding out the cast are Samantha Eggar, John "Death Dream" Marley, and guest-star Nadja Tiller.