When I say I like looking at dead things, I usually mean corpses, body parts, and prop guts. Generally I am not referring to zombies; I respect them, however I also hold the opinion that their films are often cheap cash ins with no real effort put in, aside from a few gore effects. That being said, the genre has yielded a few all time favorites of mine, one of them being the cult classic Re-Animator (1985). Made on a low budget by a director with no filmmaking experience, it possesses a griminess that no 4k release could ever remove. Yet there is a charm that it retains thanks to its witty writing, memorable characters, and incredible special effects, and it ended up being a truly impactful film during my high school years. It’s also become a favorite to show loved ones, and I’ve yielded a few funny stories involving such (namely a failed screening with my mother).
Another favorite of mine is the Italian film
Burial Ground, and it is somewhat within that vein. There are some key differences, namely the fact that it was made by people with experience in filmmaking. However I stand by my statement that no remaster could ever scrub off the sleaze it has become bonded to over the past 40 years, and that there is an indescribable wonder that I love despite it being low budget nonsense.
You may find my criticism of cash ins” ironic, as Burial Ground came during the height of a major zombie boom in Italy. You see, when George Romero released Dawn of the Dead in 1978, he gave it to Dario Argento for distribution in Europe. Argento recut the film and added a soundtrack from the band Goblin (who had already done soundtracks for his films Deep Red (1975) and Suspiria (1977)), retitling the film Zombi. About a year later, producer Fabrizio De Angelis commissioned for Zombi 2 to be made, and asked Lucio Fulci (who had already made the gialli A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971) and Don’t Torture a Duckling (1972)) to direct. This was released in 1979 with Fulci claiming to have no knowledge that the film (also known as Zombie Flesh Eaters in the UK and Zombie in the US) was promoted as a tie-in to Romero’s work.
How can something so confusing happen? Italian copyright laws at the time made it so any film could be marketed as a sequel to another, even if they were completely unrelated. It only helped that no one can copyright zombies. Out of this, you get many films claiming to be part of the
Zombi(e) franchise. I would go into further depth here, however it literally varies by country what films are “officially” considered
Zombi 1 or
2 and their sequels, not including any other titles that took advantage of this marketing loophole. And yes, with all these titles, it is quite the rabbit hole to go down.
Burial Ground falls into this category as one of several films with the claim to fame that it is a sequel to Romero’s and/or Fulci’s film(s), specifically circulating under the titles Zombie 3 and The Nights of Terror (which is what the title card reads as). Producer Gabriele Crisanti likely knew what he wanted in the film to capitalize on this wave of the undead (gore and sex in some capacity), and simply hired a director he knew would deliver the goods while adding their own brand of schlock, resulting in Andrea Bianchi becoming involved in the project.
Bianchi’s work is riddled with weirdness. There is not a single film of his I have seen that didn’t have SOMETHING that made me question my life decisions leading up to that moment. Possibly the most memorable film I saw of his is one where his involvement is heavily debated upon, that being What the Peeper Saw (1972). Rumors range from him being brought on to shoot the more exploitative scenes to simply having his name placed on for distribution purposes. Regardless, when I tell you that movie is screwed in the head, I truly mean it. Anything involving an evil kid is bound to piss me off;
What the Peeper Saw blows past that line and makes you extremely uncomfortable, yet ends in the most wonderful way just when you think it’s going to get illegally gross (see: Erica Shultz’s entry for the film in
The Sweetest Taboo: An Unapologetic Guide to Child Kills in Film (2024)). Other prior works include the Henry Silva - Barbara Bouchet gang war vehicle
Cry of a Prostitute (1974) and the colorfully perverse Edwige Fenech giallo
Strip Nude For Your Killer (1975), which ended up being my favorite of his filmography.
His career didn’t exactly blow up after Burial Ground. He ended up directing the Jess Franco written (and abandoned) project Angel of Death (1985), which is essentially the A-Team trying to capture Josef Mengele in South America. Unfortunately it’s impossible to tell that either were involved based on how boring it is, despite the premise. Most everything else to his name is some form of softcore, which didn’t surprise me that much. I wouldn’t say he’s a legend comparable to Argento, Fulci or Bava, however Bianchi has his niche and it’s more or less for crazy people like me.
Alright, back to the film. The plot is simple. A professor accidentally resurrects a curse which leads to the local Etruscan zombies to be revived and descend upon a villa, where several horny couples have shacked up for vacation. You can see how this ends. Don’t overthink it.
A normal person’s first reaction should be “what the hell did I just watch?”. If you aren’t reacting this way to anything I recommend, you’re doing it wrong. Italian horror of any kind, not just whether its giallo, zombies, or cannibals, can take a few rewatches to become accustomed to. Shameful to admit, but I didn’t immediately latch onto Argento’s seminal
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) until I rewatched it with more knowledge of the genre. My experience with
Burial Ground was somewhat similar; I had to watch some of the classics first (namely the aforementioned
Zombi 2) before coming around to it. You have to let go of all your expectations and smile and nod to all the things that are thrown beneath your feet. Then, when you rewatch, you’ll catch onto any subtext. At least, for anything that attempts to be meaningful.
e it looks rather dilapidated on the outside, but the gothic interior remains intact and adds a special feeling to it, akin to Hammer Horror or even some Jess Franco films. Of course having my favorite Dracula movie ever filmed there, with my favorite man ever, Udo Kier, gave
Burial Ground a sort of liminal feeling, being able to recognize where certain things happen in either film upon countless rewatches. I wouldn’t call the villa decadent or anything, but it adds a civilized layer to an otherwise dirty movie.
I haven’t even gotten to the thing that probably has you all reading this far… the ZOMBIES! Oh, they look beautiful. It’s not surprising that with a budget so low the crew had to make do with what they could. The majority of the actors look like there’s some paper mache masks stuck to them. But in what is already a considerably gross film, they work magic. At one point they give up trying to break into the villa and come back the next day with tools. Yes! Zombies with TOOLS! It’s just so wonderful to watch. Not to mention the maggots stuck on everything, and the lovely looking innards of varying colors of green and red. Everything is so disgusting looking and it’s perfect. I’m a sick person for enjoying some of that stuff, I know, but you have to admit it's endearing in some horrific way.
The cherry on top of it all is the dub. Most European films at the time had actors of multiple nationalities in the same picture, so in order to not force everyone to learn a new language, they wouldn’t record audio during filming. Instead, they would dub every character and sound effect in post, and attempt to make it convincing.
Burial Ground has two different dubs, Italian and English. The Italian dub is more serious in it’s writing, however the English dub adds a level a camp, with odd lines such as ”You look just like a little whore, but I like that in a girl”, “You're getting a raise out of me alright, but it has nothing to do with money“, and the classic “Mother, this cloth smells of death!”. Neither dub matches the actors’ lip movements, leading many to believe they were simply making up gibberish during production, adding to the campiness of the entire film.
Parker S.
