6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.1 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.3 |
A professor opens a crypt and reanimates rotten zombies. The zombies attack a jet-set-group which is celebrating a party in a villa nearby.
Starring: Karin Well, Gianluigi Chirizzi, Simone Mattioli, Antonella Antinori, Roberto CaporaliHorror | 100% |
Foreign | 31% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
None
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 2.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
A zombie movie just isn’t a zombie movie without endless close-ups of rotting flesh, idiot lead characters incapable of summoning even the most basic of survival skills, and a brief subplot involving incest. Well, at least this is the type of unusual viewing experience “Burial Ground: Nights of Terror” (originally released in 1981) offers to hungry genre fans. An undeniably sluggish though pleasingly wacky gore show, the film is ripe with peculiarities and amusing inconsistencies, almost enough to make up for the complete lack of suspense. Almost. Nothing cuts the boredom of a flaccid zombie stomp quite like a creepy young boy coming on to his bewildered, not yet entirely disapproving mother. It’s that type of insanity that makes a forgettable picture into something one wants to share with the world.
When a respected professor stumbles upon a major scientific discovery inside a local crypt, his insatiable curiosity accidentally unleashes the dead from their eternal slumber, permitting the damned access to a feast of flesh above ground. Traveling to meet with their academic pal at his palatial Italian villa, a group of friends (including Karin Well, Antonella Antinori, Mariangelo Giordano, and Gianluigi Chirizzi) gathers to enjoy a long weekend of fine foods, camaraderie, and fornication. Instead of leisure, the gang is faced with a vicious zombie stampede, spending the next 24 hours attempting to escape the cursed grounds and locate a safe haven.
“Burial Ground” (the print actually carries the title “The Nights of Terror”) was one of the many zombie pictures to rise up in the wake of George Romero’s 1978 classic, “Dawn of the Dead,” joining a special subgenre of Italian grindhouse efforts intended to cash in on a phenomenon, happily dishing up intense, gruesome violence and flashes of nudity. American knock-offs surely had their way with matters of the undead, but nothing comes close to the Italians, who seized the gruesome possibilities of the genre, creating some of the most inventively vile and dramatically surreal shockers of the late 1970s and early 1980s. These fine European moviemaking professionals loved to make a mess.
The AVC encoded image (1.66:1 aspect ratio, 1080p) presentation is perhaps the best this low-budget cult picture is ever going to look on home video, though there are sizable flaws that keep the natural grit of the filmmaking from surfacing. There's a powerful grain element visible to sustain a cinematic quality, with occasional mosquito noise issues coming into view. Clarity is soft throughout, diluting crisp views of the macabre elements, though color is sturdy, highlighting a generous push of reds. Skintones are pinkish to natural, revealing heavy movie make-up on several of the actresses. There's a minor amount of crush that flattens the evening sequences and print damage is detected during the presentation, but not nearly as much as expected. It's a comfortable transfer for a cult item, never remarkable, delivering screen elements with a slightly feral edge.
The 2.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix is a moderately thick frontal assault that suits the picture's low-budget imagination. A collection of shocks, stingers, and screams, the shrillness of the audio tends to grate on the ears when whipped into larger frenzy, with more horrifying encounters sounding thin, while verbal exchanges (all dubbed) find a more grounded human quality, though lacking crispness. Scoring is hearty without smothering the moment, supporting the film with a weird jazzy/stalker musical impression that stays alert and predictably choppy throughout the feature. Low-end lacks heft.
"Burial Ground" isn't a tight movie, but the basics in cheapy gore and groan are supplied effectively, best appreciated by horror fanatics who've had the opportunity to slip in a nap before sitting down for a viewing. I was never won over by the picture, but the goopy particulars of the bloodletting and the crude elements of the make-up effects are enjoyable. A few sicko, pervy twists only help the sleepy cause.
Zombi Holocaust / Doctor Butcher M.D.
1980
Buio Omega
1979
1980
Rosso Sangue
1981
Virus / Apocalipsis Caníbal / Zombie Creeping Flesh / Night of the Zombies
1980
Paura nella città dei morti viventi | Standard Edition
1980
Un gatto nel cervello | Glow in the Dark Cover & Mini Portrait of Lucio Fulci Limited Edition to 3000
1990
Zombi 2 / Zombie Flesh Eaters
1979
Limited Edition of 3000 | Zombi 3 | Zombie Flesh Eaters 2
1988
E tu vivrai nel terrore - L'aldilà | Glow in the Dark Cover | Limited Edition to 3000
1981
Nightmares in a Damaged Brain
1981
Quella villa accanto al cimitero
1981
Standard Edition
1985
Dèmoni 2... l'incubo ritorna | Standard Edition
1986
Limited Edition of 3000 | Zombi 4 | Oltre la morte
1989
Incubo sulla città contaminata
1980
1981
Let Sleeping Corpses Lie / Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti
1974
Also Includes = I Eat Your Skin and Blue Sextet
1970
Il paese del sesso selvaggio / Man From Deep River / Deep River Savages
1972