It all started back in 1983.
Little did my poor, single-parented ass know it was about to be traumatized beyond its ability to recover. Our town was getting cable television for the very first time, followed soon by our first VCR and access to a video store less than 100 feet from our home. All together, this trifecta would end up propelling me from being forced to watch seven channels of swill on a console TV with rabbit ears, to blowing the doors open to a dark labyrinth of movies that would blow my mind like tinfoil origami in a microwave.
Soon after that, I began overhearing the ramblings in the schoolyard about the cable movies my peers had watched the weekend before. One movie in particular was especially disturbing to hear about - so much so that I convinced myself that the kids were embellishing it just to freak me out. There was absolutely NO WAY that even a horror movie would actually SHOW all of that carnage they were gloating about…ON SCREEN!. Surely all of this hyperbole was just embellishments from the novice mouths of babes, right?
After thumbing through the cable guide after school, I finally found a listing. The movie they were talking about was called “NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES”, and it was on Cinemax Friday night at 10pm. How bad could an unrated (then considered X Rated), renegade, cannibalistic, zombie movie be for an eleven year old who thought he was post-pubescent just because he had seen A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN and HALLOWEEN II? Well here we go!
WHY THE LONG FACE, … SOMTHIN’ EATIN’ YA?
Immediately following my doom-fated, maiden voyage into the lower colon of Italian exploitation cinema, my nerves were so shot that I was afraid to move. I was petrified of the very house I lived in. I saw zombies EVERYWHERE! And for the next 15 years, my fear of the living dead would become my Kryptonite, beating out ANY movie monster. Full Stop!
I’ll go into the specifics on just how low this movie travels to deliver you the shlock that it does, but before we rummage through the guts, …check out the trailer for yourself!
“Hold up, Rook! …’HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD’? You said the title was…” Ahem. First of all, “Thinking” won’t do you any good here. Hang that diploma of yours over the toilet and take a seat, because explaining the convoluted ball of diverticulated intestine that is the Italian movie industry is worse than passing a kidney stone. Italian films of that era were almost exclusively made to sell to outside markets around the world, hence why most of them were rip-offs of popular American films, cashing in on a built-in audience. In this case, George A. Romero’s DAWN OF THE DEAD, the movie that launched 1000 zombie films. These films were usually shot silently with all sound effects added in post. Part of the marketing deals allowed other countries to ADR their prints in their own respective language, and to re-edit, or re-title the films to comply with censorship laws …and this movie has more titles than Daenerys Targaryen. Check out some of these doozies!
I go with NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES (not to be confused with the Joel M. Reed film), because that was the American title when it was released in the States, and you never forget the first time you were made to wear a blazer to your own assault and battery.
IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN SEEING THIS FILM FOR THE FIRST TIME, DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS POINT. I’M GOING TO SPOIL THE WHOLE DAMNED THING! SCROLL DOWN UNTIL YOU SEE THE EYEBALL POPPING GIF (you’ll know it when you see it)…then you can read on. If this article is the closest you ever want to come to this breached birth of a movie, I’ll spare you the Hour and 40 minutes of screen time and synopsize the entire movie for your reading displeasure. Gather ‘roud the camp fire with a shot of your favorite voodoo liquor, kids! “Angry” D’s gonna’ tell you a story…
THAT’S NOT POLITE, … I GET THE FIRST SHOT!
NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES (AKA HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD) opens at an industrial compound off the coast of New Guinea, later coined as “HOPE Center One”. We open with the structure already on high alert with scientists and emergency personnel, spearheaded by Lead Professor Barrett, scrambling against time to stop a dangerous chemical leak with grave consequences if not soon contained.
Down in the bowels of the building, two hazmat-suited technicians find a dead rat “in the most sterile sector of the module”. As he’s holding it, the rat springs back to life and attacks one of the technicians which (for reasons) results in a full breach and release of an ominous green poisonous gas that engulfs the entirety of the facility – killing most of the inhabitants instantly.
Professor Barrett and a rag-tag team of survivors don gas masks and begin an impromptu tour of the HOPE Center, to inspect the damage and loss, and to search for any survivors. To their dismay, they soon discover that all the dead employees have now become bloodthirsty zombies, infesting the entire plant and preying on human flesh. Barrett’s team is murdered one by one but Barrett manages to dodge the ghouls and make his way back to the head office. He manages to record one final cryptic message before the gas engulfs the rest of the sectors and escapes into the atmosphere.
Barrett - “Experimental project, “Operation Sweet Death”, must be considered a complete failure. Some kind of degenerative process has begun which may be catastrophic for everybody. May God forgive us for what we have produced here and pardon us for this evil we have created.” And with that verbal epitaph, the gas takes him too.
Meanwhile, at the US Embassy in Barcelona (where everyone curiously speaks English in an American accent) an Echo - activist / terrorist group has held a slew of Consulate members hostage, demanding that all HOPE Centers (how many we are unaware) are shut down with a confirming statement to be delivered from the UN. Outside, news reporters and law enforcement surround the building in a stand-off. A crack team of commandos (Zantoro, Osborne, Vincent and Lt. Mike London) are deployed to dispatch the terrorists and save the hostages. They make short business of the terrorists, but not before the leader delivers (another) cryptic message on his dying breath. Terrorist Leader – “You’re all doomed to a horrible death. Doomed to be eaten up. First they’ll kill you, then afterwards, you’ll be eaten. Be Eaten - devoured by men like you. Your brothers.”
After the Embassy incident, the commandos are dispatched to Papua, New Guinea with a trajectory to HOPE Center One. Mission Classified. At a nearby abandoned village, a team of news reporters, sent by American news centers to investigate increasing reports of violent attacks amongst the natives, have stopped to contemplate their situation. (Lia Rousseau and her cameraman / fuckboy Max, Josie, her husband and young son) argue in a jeep over the health and welfare of the child, who was bitten - “wounded by a native lunatic”. The child is barely conscious and fading fast. Outside the sun beats down hard on the wary crew.
As Lia and Max search the area for water, Josie explores the empty buildings while her husband tends to his now unconscious son. Josie is attacked and killed by a zombie priest, while Max and Lia are pursued through the woods by a group of zombies, who they mistake for drunk-drugged-lepers. When they arrive back to the jeep, they are met by the arriving commandos who quickly split up to secure the area. Max peers into the news jeep to discover that the little boy has killed his father and is devouring his flesh. Vincent extracts the boy from the jeep and shoots him several times to no avail. The child will not die. Osborne and Zantoro figure out that the ghouls can only be killed by shooting them in the head (information that is conveniently forgotten for the rest of the movie). The pursing zombies, including the zombie child, are put down by the commandos. Lia and Max team up with them and the two vehicles drive off to the next destination on the trip into a seeming hell.
Meanwhile stateside, Lia’s news station broadcasts that “certain sources have reported an increase of incidents involving cannibalism but the government has denied this, categorically”, implying that the number of incidents are rapidly increasing throughout the country. A TV executive laments - “You understand what happened in the American Consulate tends to confirm our worst suspicions. And everything going on down there (in New Guinea) – the frightened natives – the mass hysteria, is further proof. You know, in their last ultimatum, the terrorists demanded the dismantling of the HOPE Centers, and that request was suppressed. We’ve got far beyond idle speculation now. The HOPE Centers are working towards something that bridges on genocide.” If Lia can just make it there first, they can break the world on a major catastrophe. One that the Executive retorts (yet another cryptic message), “a catastrophe so great, there may be no one to report it to.”
Back in New Guinea, Lia and Max arrive at an indigenous village with the commandos in tow. London tells Vincent in confidence that he plans to ditch the reporters there and continue on their mission to the HOPE Centers. Vincent, who has magically become smitten with Lia, argues this decision but is shut down by London. The caravan stops just outside the village where Lia insists to go on ahead of the team, as she has studied and lived amongst this tribe before. This involves Lia getting naked and prancing into the village bearing similar affectations of the natives in order to bond with them and earn safe passage for the team.
The team is welcomed by the tribe, and for the first time, our protagonists are allowed to rest. As day falls into night, It’s soon revealed that the natives, incapable of understanding what’s happening globally, have not buried their dead. Instead, they’ve strewn the bodies among the village like ceremonial décor. The realization comes too late, and the village is overrun by the resurrected dead. Lia, Max and the commandos barely escape in their vehicles into the uncertain night.
The next morning, Lt. London commandeers Lia’s news jeep after the engine seizes in their own. He orders that all news equipment and film reels be discarded so there will be room for everyone. Max fights back to protect their compiled film and records but is quickly beaten down by London. Lia steals London’s gun in the scuffle and discloses that she suspected the commandos plans to abandon them all along. Her gun is taken away and she and Max are taken, now as prisoners, until they can properly be discarded at the next available village.
In their travels through the jungle trails, the team is held up by the evidence and threat of zombies up ahead. As the zombies emerge out of the jungle, Max attempts to film the creatures in action. Zantoro begins to behave erratically – throwing himself into a heard of zombies and taunting them repeatedly before shooting at them wildly.
At a United Nations summit , it grows apparent that neighboring countries are slowly spiraling into chaos over the growing threat of a pending apocalypse.
Back in New Guinea, the commandos, with Lia and Max in tow, come across a seemingly abandoned Plantation and decide to investigate. Zantoro, Osborne, Vincent and London split-up to secure the house room by room, leaving Lia and Max to explore the on their own. On the basement level, Osborne lets his guard down (by wearing a woman’s dress, a top hat and cane while doing a Gene Kelley impersonation … not even kidding) and is accosted by several zombies who begin to feast on him. Upstairs, London opens up a room door to reveal a dead elderly woman in a rocking chair. Her stomach ruptures and a cat rips its way out …distracting London. The old woman’s corpse opens its eyes and attacks him to the floor. After a short scuffle, London shoots it in the head, killing it. On the central floors, Lia notices that the house is being surrounded by a hoard of zombies and the remaining team go on the offensive. The zombies are flooding in from every window and entranceway in increasingly overwhelming numbers.
Again the team flees to the jeep, but not before Zantoro further begins taunting the zombies and taking unnecessary chances with his life and the lives of the remaining members of the team. Together, they narrowly get away and escape into the night.
By morning, the team is experiencing the extreme fatigue and stress of their experiences. The jeep is running low on fuel, provisions are fleeting, ammunition is running out and still they are relentlessly pursued by the persistent hoard of the undead. Our protagonists decide to abandon the jeep, and manage to haul an inflatable motor boat to the ocean and escape out to sea.
At nightfall, London, Vincent, Zantoro, Max and Lia make it to their final destination. The place that both parties have suffered through their entire trip to achieve. The boat docks at HOPE Center One, “where it all began…the whole thing.”
The team stays close together, making their way from the outside into the heart of the plant. Although seemingly abandoned, the building reeks of impending doom. The team makes their way through the hallways to a service elevator, but when the doors open, a heard of zombies grab Max and pull him into the elevator and begin eating him alive. What’s left of Zantoro’s sanity snaps at the sight and he begins shooting randomly into the pile of zombies (no headshots). The zombies grab Zantoro too, but before he can retaliate, the elevator ascends upward, trapping him inside with the living dead. The elevator shaft begins echoing screams and raining blood down on Lia, Vincent and London, ensuring that Max and Zantoro are doomed and their journey ends.
The remaining trio makes their way to the upper floors of the facility. London is attacked and bitten on the jugular by one of the zombies. Vincent kicks the zombie off and bludgeons its skull in with the butt of his rifle, but he is too late to save London, who persists on going through with the mission. Still alive but fading fast, London is escorted to the office of Professor Barrett with the help of Lia and Vincent. London goes in alone, while the two wait for him outside the door.
Inside the office, London plays the recording of Barrett (from the beginning of the film) confessing to the chemical spill and the root cause of the zombie outbreak. After doing so, a dying London proceeds to burn the tapes and the all recorded materials pertaining to “Operation Sweet Death”, and in doing so, reveals his true mission: To protect the integrity of the HOPE Centers and assist in the government cover up of the catastrophe it caused. Humanity be damned.
Outside the office door, Lia overhears the recording which confirms what she suspected all along. Defeated, she begins wandering aimlessly to the subterranean levels of the facility. Vincent, soldiers on next to her while she theorizes aloud.
Lia Rousseau – “All these high-powered installations, like a factory from a future world, safely hidden on an island, isolated and remote. It all begins to make sense. Now I can piece together the whole puzzle. They were called HOPE. They were centers of chemical research for the good of mankind. To help countries that are still under developed. That was the cover. The official story, while the reality was terrible. Unbelievable. They were working on a solution to the problem that most torments the industrialized countries – the overpopulation of the world. Dispose of the weak elements, the most defenseless, the most numerous in the simplest possible way. Just cause them all to eat each other.” (One last cryptic message.)
While lost in thought, neither Lia nor Vincent notice that they are being flanked on both sides by hoards of the HOPE scientists and technicians – now zombies, and led by Zantoro and London, who were now walking corpses as well.
As the sea of living dead closes in on them both , Lia lets out one last hopeless, blood curdling scream! Vincent is taken by hungry hands and is slowly turned into broken bone and torn meat. While in mid-scream, zombified hands reach into Lia’s mouth and pull out her tongue, leaving a vacuum of tattered flesh along with the hiss of escaping air. The sound leaving her invites the rest of the dead to reach in and dig up into her upper palate and pull out food, eventually dislodging her eyes from their sockets from inside, before devouring the rest of her completely….along with her unreported secrets as well.
EPILOGUE: On an evening soon after, the television programming in a New York tavern is interrupted with news reports of the dead coming back to life. A couple leaving in a drunken stupor mocks the news report and patrons who believe what they think is a hoax.
Once outside, the couple begins to make out under the streetlights. The woman turns cold, opting to have a cigarette instead. She asks for a light but he says, “No”, out of spite.
Being coy, she teases that she’ll just “go ask that guy over there”, pointing to a figure sitting alone on a bench in the adjacent park. The boyfriend encourages her to leave the guy alone, as “he’s probably drunk …or sleeping”, but the woman insists. She walks up and taps the figure on the shoulder, trying to get his attention. The figure slowly turns around (like Mother in PSYCHO) to reveal the partially devoured face of a corpse, before slumping over, lifeless on the bench.
The woman screams as she is taken at all sides by several zombies who begin biting chunks out of her flesh while her boyfriend looks on from afar. He attempts to run away in cowardice, but is tackled by more zombies that begin appearing out of the night. As an army of living dead flood the streets, we freeze-frame on one zombie who has set it’s gaze, and making it’s way right towards YOU!
And THAT, my roughian friends, is the story of NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES!
GODDAMNED ROTTEN GHOULS! THEY’RE EATING HIM LIKE PIGS!
So let’s talk cannibalism, …of the ironic variety.
Apparently, not even fellow Italian filmmakers in the biz were safe when this fucking picture rolled into town. NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES would steal the fillings out of your teeth if you let it. I don’t know what the trademark and copyright laws were like back then, but today I’m sure that anyone involved with this film, without plausible deniability, would face the death penalty for the monumental counts of sheer thievery that this one movie left in it’s wake.
Let’s start with the plot. “SWAT” team bands together with rogue news reporters to survive an increasing zombie apocalypse. Sounds a lot like “DAWN” to me, complete with loose cannon Zantoro, who’s basically Roger, …if you bought him off of WISH. Next, they try to unravel a phenomenon of the dead returning to life on a third world island in the Pacific. Smells a lot like Fulci’s ZOMBIE, and with a sorta’ rival eyeball trauma scene for it’s troubles.
The scene where the elevator shoots upwards at the climax of the movie was “lifted” from the Canadian / Italian Dino De Laurentiis KING KONG (1976) send up, YETI - GIANT OF THE 20TH CENTURY (1977) …another gem!
Wait just a minute here! How come there is so much stock (passed off as actual) footage in this movie? Never fear,… the footage was provided (unbeknownst to them) by the two beloved family-friendly documentaries, NUOVA GUINEA, I’ISOLA DEI CANNIBALI (1974) and DES MORTS (1979). Huh! So THAT’S where the elephants in New Guinea came from.
If the incredible music score gives you deja vu, it’s because it was stolen from the Italian rock band GOBLIN from not one, not two, but FOUR different film soundtracks. The aforementioned DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978), BUIO OMEGA (1979), BLOOD AND DIAMONDS (1977) and the Italian ALIEN rip-off CONTAMINATION (1980).
Does that movie poster zombie below look familiar? Well, that’s because he was plucked right out off the American movie poster for Lucio Fulci’s THE GATES OF HELL (1980).
How could this even be allowed to happen, you ask? How do I put this into words, …Did you ever have that one crazy uncle that hated his sister but came to every family event she hosted just because of the free food and booze? Do you remember how he’d talk outta’ school and make all the other adults squirm in their seats at the dinner table? But he’d tell you about all the awesome bands and craziest movies …he was kinda’ cool, wasn’t he?
Well with NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES, it gave us TWO “Crazy Uncles” of the Italian movie making industry in the form of CLAUDIO FRAGASSO who wrote other timeless classics like MONSTER DOG (1984) with ALICE COOPER and the infamous TROLL 2 (1990). National Treasure, BRUNO MATTEI (who went under more aliases than FLETCH), along with this beautiful shit fest, directed the last word in post-apocalyptica in RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR (1984) and everyone’s favorite summer blockbuster, CRUEL JAWS (1995).
But that’s just it about all movies of this genre and era. NONE of the filmmakers set out to make a bad movie, they just didn’t have enough time or money or talents to make a good one. It’s all in the execution, right? You can play one song in five different styles and it will completely change the sound and feel and mood of the song itself. These cats just decided to play Sargent Pepper, when all they could afford was wash boards and trash can lids instead of Les Pauls and Ludwig kits. I bet the food on set was delicious though.
DON’T LET IT WORRY YA! I THINK WE’LL ALL MEET AGAIN, … IN HELL!
So it’s now 2023! This putrid hunk o’ celluloid has now been rotting in the ether for over 40 years and counting. The youngest member of the principal cast , MARGIT EVELYN NEWTON, now aged to a beautiful 60 years old, while the oldest now resemble some of the creatures in this film. Just how has it held up against the changing cultures, political landscapes, and how has it aged against its maggot-stuffed peers through the passage of time?
LIKE A VINTAGE BOTTLE OF HOME-MADE LIMONCELLO!
Forget how in spite of itself, this movie has a relevant message about the growing distrust between country and government and a global pandemic whos origins have been swept under the rug so that the powerful can continue to devour the weak. …But I digress.
As a kid, none of that mattered. All I was back then was DEATHLY AFRAID! A good horror movie isn’t going to hold your hand and tell you everything’s going to be alright. It’s not going to remind you it’s only a movie! A good horror movie is supposed to leave you unnerved, unsettled, and scared to death! And THIS movie did that to me in escrow.
The zombies in this film weren’t just walking corpses. These zombies would get excited when your death was on its way. They’d smile at you with a piercing gaze at the thought of ripping you limb from limb…..and they HISSED! Remember in the old LAND OF THE LOST TV show, when the Sleestaks were approaching, you could always hear them Hissss for a good ten seconds before they came into frame? Same chill factor here.
Look, you won’t find this movie preserved at the Smithsonian. It’s NOT high art (unless by “high”, you mean “as a fucking kite"). This movie is BONKERS! Legit Whack-a-doodle-fuckin-do! Buy it knows what it is, and it does what it came here to do. Some will laugh right in it’s face, some with wince in disgust. Either way, it’s guaranteed entertainment!
Let’s put it this way. If you took away my nostalgia for this film and the exploitation movement of films from this era …you wouldn’t even get me to press play on this dirty bitch today. But as luck would have it, I have plenty of both, and I’m here to tell you, THIS movie is the very definition of a FUCKING GRINDHOUSE MOVIE!
Not your Hobo with A Shotgun, Not your Terrifier 2 (although it comes closer), and not even your Lucio Fulci’s ZOMBIE. Those movies are fucking Casablanca compared to this. There is ZERO SAFETY to be had anywhere in or around the aura this flick….and the amount of contempt the Italians have for their horror movie characters (and sometimes the actors that portray them) is downright impressive. Women, Children, the Elderly, the Holy, the family Pet…..NO ONE is safe in an Italian horror flick….especially not this one.
LEADING BY EXAMPLE, WHEN THERE’S NO MORE ROOM IN HELL, MATTEI WILL STEAL FROM HIMSELF.
NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES was even late to is own party, clocking in at the eleventh hour of the original heyday of the zombie / cannibal exploitation craze. It was almost a relic by the time it hit US shores. We were approaching the mid-1980’s, and our horror movies were about to become iconic, instead of ironic. Stylistic, instead of nihilistic. Whitty, instead of shitty (albeit an awesome kind of “shitty”). After the 80’s we’d have to wait almost 15 years for another resurgence of the zombie sub-genre proper, and we are enjoying it to this day.
Still though, there is a charm that is very specific to a sweet spot in time, where guerilla filmmaking was at its peak and the run and gun creators of these films had more passion, more persistence, more perseverance and break-neck ambition that soared well above the size of their production budgets. There will always be a special place in my heart for these glorious abortions, where law and order dies in favor of jaw dropping, sheer audacity.
Alas, I’ve dug through the dark and cluttered basement of my childhood fears long enough. It was enlightening to take the trash out with you for this episode of BLOOD CLOTS. I’m tired now. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to sleep like the dead, ….with all the lights on.
I think we’ll all meet again, ….in HELL!
D. ROOK
06JAN23
