Hell of the Living Dead

Hell of the Living Dead (1981), which IMDB calls Night of the Zombies (2001) is a typical Italian shock gore film directed by Bruno Mattei whom IMDB calls Vincent Dawn. It is considered to be an awful film, yet is a very well made example of the genre. We have lots of ugly zombies, a tropical location, nice interior visuals, tons of graphic cannibalism, and very nice gratuitous nudity from Margrit Evelyn Newton, who shows breasts, both bared and painted and most of her buns. Two plot lines converge. Newton and her photographer are a news team investigating something in New Guinea. A special forces team is sent to get to the bottom of reports that a top secret biological weapon research center has had a problem. Both discover an island crawling with Zombies, and end up reluctant companions.

NUDITY REPORT

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no region 1 DVD available

Sure, the pace is languid, even for a Zombie film, the characters are not real bright, and the plot line is full of logic errors, but that is appropriate to the genre, which aims to show hideous gore, and a little female flesh. This film does both.

The Critics Vote

Rotten Tomatoes summary. Three articles on file. The only reviews available are from sites specializing in bad movies.

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. Not enough votes for a rating

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is neither revolutionary nor entertaining, but it is a nearly perfect genre example with no cross-over appeal whatsoever. C.