One of the absolute goofiest of the early eighties DAWN OF THE DEAD
knock-offs from Italy. However, HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD is not without a
fair amount of bad movie charm.
The Package
The director of this 1980 mess (also known as VIRUS and
NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES) was the shameless sleazemeister Bruno Mattei
(credited, as he often was in the eighties, as “Vincent Dawn”), who
never let things like logic or consistency affect his filmmaking--he’s
not referred to as “the Italian Ed Wood” for nothing! Other Mattei
atrocities include S.S. GIRLS, THE OTHER HELL and
RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR.
The Story
Workers in a New Guinea chemical plant are at work on
an experimental project that quickly goes haywire. Two goofball
employees are shocked to find a dead rat in the most sterile section of
the plant--but then the rat unexpectedly springs to life and chews up
one of the workers! Following this several people in the plant become
ravenous zombies who devour their fellow workers.
In the meantime a gang of terrorists have taken several
hostages in the American embassy in New Guinea. The terrorists are taken
out by a SWAT Team, but before he dies the head terrorist cryptically
informs his killers that they’ll soon be devoured by their own sons and
brothers.
Also afoot are two men, a woman and a young boy whose
car breaks down nearby where the SWAT Team is stationed. The two groups
join forces in time to witness the young boy devouring his father’s
innards, as well as several shambling zombies who have to be shot in the
head.
Looking to interact with the native tribes, the woman
strips down and adorns her flesh with native markings. In this way she
blends with the natives (who apparently don’t notice her white skin) and
learns their village is contaminated with the zombie virus. This fact is
confirmed when the group is attacked by native zombies. They attempt to
make their way to the ocean, entailing several more zombie attacks and
much bad behavior by the supposedly virtuous protagonists. Somehow they
end up at the chemical plant where the whole mess began, where they
confront its now-entirely zombified workforce.
The Direction
Obviously one doesn’t watch a Bruno Mattei movie
expecting “good” cinema, and HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD is far from good.
It is fun, however, and for sheer mind-numbing ridiculousness outranks
other Mattei yuckfests like RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR (no mean feat!).
HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD is distinguished by risible
acting, patently unconvincing gore effects, mismatched stock footage
(taken from an anthropological documentary) and bleached-out
photography. There’s also some gratuitous nudity (when the heroine
strips down we’re given a loving close-up of her flopping tits) and
lingering shots of squirming maggots, an alligator’s innards and zombie
extras ravenously devouring what looks like raw steak.
The noisy synthesizer score was by Goblin, who did the
same chores for DAWN OF THE DEAD, the admitted reason they were hired
for this film. The proceedings obviously aren’t in the same league as
Romero’s masterwork, nor even Lucio Fulci’s 1979 ZOMBIE, which with its
jungle setting and extreme gore seems a much greater influence on the
present film.
Vital Statistics
HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD (VIRUS; NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES)
Beatrice Film S.R.l.-Films Dara
Director: Bruno Mattei
Producer: Sergio Cortona
Screenplay: Claudio Fragasso, J.M. Cunilles
Cinematography: John Cabrera
Editing: Claudio Borroni
Cast: Margit Evelyn Newton, Frank Garfield, Selan Karay, Jose Gras,
Gabriel Renom, Robert O’Neil, Josep Lluis Fonoll, Pietro Fumelli, Bruno
Boni, Patrizia Costa, Cesare Di Vito
