La vendetta dei morti viventi

Well, maybe I wouldn't go as far as the above, but this movie is really good! As a fan of "bad" movies, I thought this movie was incredibly stupid, but it was great! Samuel M. Sherman is one of my favorite producer/directors. Right up there with Roger Corman and Stanley Kubrick! He plays the film well, using the little money that he had to produce an entertaining zombie horror. I am a fan of George A. Romero's "Dawn of the Dead", and this movie is not in any was a knock off of it! That is an acheivment in itself, as everyone knows that most films with the words "Living Dead" in the title owe a lot to Mr. Romero. So, if your a fan of "my kind of movies", "King Kong Lives" (1986), Plan 9 From Outer Space (1958) and Samuel Sherman's production of "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" (1972), then this film is AN ESSENTIAL WATCH! 8.5/10

An eerie film, not really too much in the way of horror. It is suspenseful. There is not much gore at all, actually I can only think of one person being devoured. It had some interesting plot points. If you are an avid collector of Zombie movies you will like this flick.

Investigative reporter Morgan Randall (Robert Deveau) discovers that crazy Dr. Kapek (Leonard Corman) is bringing the dead back to life; when his friend Shelly (Donna Asali) is abducted by Kapek's reanimated corpses, Morgan launches a rescue attempt with the help of elderly physician Dr. Carstairs (Robert Allen), a useless armed guard, and an irritating kid (porn-star-to-be Scott Schwartz) who has constructed a pair of ray-guns from an old laser-disc player.

I'm pretty tolerant when it comes to Z-grade movies, having seen more than my fair share of absolute stinkers over the years, but I still had to watch Raiders of the Living Dead over the course of several evenings thanks to its incredible ability to rapidly send me off to sleep. Atrocious acting, boring direction, disjointed editing, an over-reliance on The 3 Stooges, and particularly dreadful laser effects all go to make this a truly painful viewing experience that is only spared the absolute lowest rating from me thanks to one shotgun blast to a zombie head (it's not great but it's definitely the highlight of this tosh) and the film's hilariously bad '80s theme song.

"Raiders of the Living Dead" is a low-budget zombie rip-off that is inexplicably and consistently interesting; if nothing else, it has imagination and innovation on its side. A reporter and his partner scope out an ominous locale in the dead of night and stumble upon zombies. A child genius works on his doctor grandfather's laserdisc player and winds up creating a laser. And a zombified Scott Schwartz (the kid from "A Christmas Story"?) hijacks a truck for no reason and tries to blow up a nuclear power plant, only to be claimed by the zombie menace. While slow in spots, and sporting more of a 1980s look than a Sears catalog, "Raiders" exists in some weird limbo between "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things," "Burial Ground," "Return of the Living Dead II," and even "Zeder" (the climax takes place in an abandoned prison). Is it a masterpiece of cinema? Certainly not, and perhaps my generous "5" rating is due to the fact that I watched the atrocious "Reefer Madness" earlier today. Still, it is a diverting item with OK makeup effects, a cheeky attitude, and a toe-tapping, synth-heavy theme song.

My review was written in November 1989 after watching the movie on USA Network.

"Raiders of the Living Dead" is a very minor zombie picture, reviewed here for the record after being cablecast on USA Network's "Up All Night" series.

Picture was begun in 1983 by Brett Piper (credited for "inceptive effects and direction") under the title "Graveyard" and completed two years later by Independent-International topper Samuel M. Sherman.

Hodgepodge relies heavily on library music and weakly inserted verbal exposition to spin a tale of newspaper reporter Robert Deveau, who's stumbled on the mystery of zombies. Befriended by Donna Asali, he tracks the undead down to an island prison, abandoned for 40 years, where a mad scientist is still up to no good in reanimating corpses. Two kids, Scott Schwartz and Corri Burt, come to their rescue with laser guns Schwartz designed- as well as grandpa Bob Allen, sporting a trusty bow and arrow.

Timekiller doesn't make much sense but has a couple of spooky scenes in a cemetery and the prison. Zita Johann, who co-starred with Karloff in Universal's 1932 classic "The Mummy", pops up as a librarian telling Deveau about the prison's history.