HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD (1980)

[The Burgomaster]

This crappy Bruno Mattei DAWN OF THE DEAD ripoff was released under so many different titles that I would be wasting my time listing all of them.  However, here are a few alternate titles: NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES, VIRUS, and ZOMBIE CREEPING FLESH.  I bought the widescreen DVD for $4.98.

Numerous zombie films (many made by European directors) were released to cash in on DAWN OF THE DEAD.  This is one of the worst . . . maybe even THE worst.

It starts at a chemical research facility in New Guinea where a toxic gas leak turns people into flesh-eating zombies.  Some reporters and a S.W.A.T. team in blue uniforms (DAWN OF THE DEAD ripoff #1) show up to investigate.  Much of the music by Goblin is the same music that was used in DAWN OF THE DEAD (ripoff #2).  The zombies can only be killed by being shot in the head (ripoff #3 . . . I hope you see where this is going).  Of course, even though one guy tells everyone about 5 times that they need to shoot the zombies in the head, they keep shooting them in the stomach and chest and yelling things like, "Die, you bastards!"

The only thing that might interest you is the gore . . . but even the gore effects are sub-standard.  There is one ambitious scene where a woman gets her tongue ripped out and her eyes pushed out of her head from the inside, but the effects are so fake that you end up laughing rather than being amazed or grossed-out.



There is an interview with director Bruno Mattei on the DVD.  He says that he does not like ANY of his movies and he would re-shoot them if he had the chance.  At least he recognizes crap when he sees it.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I rate this movie a miserable "2.5"

[Evan]

The First time I saw Hell of the Living Dead was on a crappy dvd under the title Night of the Zombies. It was dark as hell and the Night scenes were terrible. Later, I got the Anchor Bay dvd with the title Hell of the Living Dead. I have to say, the quality of the film has a good deal to do with how much I liked it. I hated NOTZ but I like HOTLD.  Granted, its not a good film in any sense, but I would rather watch it than most new movies. (ahem, Black Christmas Remake.) The soundtrack was great (not original , but great, the zombies were interesting and it was fun to see Zantoro crazily play with the zombies. To sum it up, I like Night of the Zombies or whatever you want to call it. It was fun, gory, funny, good sounding, and I would reccomend it to some of my friends.

[Shadow]

For some odd reason I really like this one. It's one of my favorites in the bad Italian zombie genre. This film also has the distinction of being the last zombie film my wife watched with me. Even the old, often phony gore FX were enough to make her sick. She has never watched a zombie flick with me since and rolls her eyes in utter disgust and contempt (before leaving the room) when I pop one in the DVD player.

[daveblackeye15]

Perhaps I'll look into this then since some like it. I thought about picking up the crappy version Evan mentioned. Good thing I didn't, I hate dark transfers.

[Mr_Vindictive]

I'm a fan of this film and actually rate it a bit better than Fulci's Zombi.  It's awful, but it is a ton of fun.  Spotting everything that Mattei stole from Dawn Of The Dead is always a blast as well. 

[Torgo]

I've got this one and Rat: Night of Terror on DVD.

Bruno Mattei RIP.

[Joe the Destroyer]

As much as I admit that this film is utterly awful, I still love it!  For me, it was just fun to watch because there was so much about the film that said, "Don't take me seriously!  For your sake!"  After a while, I found myself laughing at the stock footage rather than sighing at it, unlike other films that overuse stock footage.  The Prey, I'm looking in your direction. 

I think there's only one other film that I've kept because it was amusing and abysmal, and that was Blood Freak.