A Noite do Terror

The term "so bad it's good" is one that gets used a lot these days, but I personally feel it really should belong to a special sort of bad movie that is naively unaware or ignorant of its own lousiness, and it has to be entertainingly bad, and have bad acting, bad pacing, bad special effects, and for me 1981's Burial Ground is one movie that definitely lives up to all of that in spades! It's about a horde of zombies that are unleashed after a mad scientist unearths an old stone tablet or something, and they proceed to terrorise a group of jet-setting swingers who had been invited to the old man's sprawling gothic villa, but these are not just your garden variety zombies - They're Italian zombies! A lot of the old zombie splatterfests of the early eighties and beyond were basically all just carbon copies of Romero's classic trilogy, it was zombie movies galore, and some of the most colourful examples came out of the Italian film industry, and Burial Ground, for better or worse, is one of the most bizarre offerings of that whole era! If you're looking for plot you've come to the wrong movie because this is one of the most plotless exercises in celluloid ever to be seen, and the structure is quite meandering and nonsensical, as virtually every scene is just a very tepid zombie onslaught as the slow as molasses zombies, who all wear the exact same silly monk outfit, awkwardly shuffle their way towards the victims as they try to fight back and keep them out and it's the same scene drawn out over and over again... It gets like a fever dream after a while because most of what you're seeing is so very monotonous and weird! It's like they didn't even know how zombies are supposed to work, I mean you ever see a zombie with a pitchfork, or use a battering ram? Burial Ground has you covered! That doesn't mean this fetid pile of zombie dung is totally without a certain tacky charm though, the dubbed performances are so unnatural and hilariously robotic and the spaced out music and goofy nightmare logic that drives the whole thing is so random, and that it's taken so seriously only makes it more unintentionally funny. L do just about like it, I guess, but it sure verges on being intolerably boring a whole lot, and it could have stood to have been a little more creative with its story, as it's got all the prerequisites for a great Italian zombie flick, the over the top gore, the noticeably shabby zombie masks, beautiful naked ladies, but for all that it never quite emerges as a low budget gem or even gets going. My favourite part of the movie and I think a lot of its fans is, is how in order to get around the child actor labour laws the producers opted to use an adult little person named Peter Bark to play a twelve year old boy, a rather freaky looking little person I might add, and it doesn't work for a second, he had a half-man half-child thing going on..but that's what made it so wonderfully strange and hilarious! And also just to make things even weirder, little Michael has an unexplained unhealthy attraction to his mother, and there's one breast scene that you will not soon forget! This is a remarkably terrible film that is somewhat endearing despite its many faults, it's a guilty pleasure if ever there was one.. So if you haven't had the pleasure before and you're in the right mood for some major low budget old school zombie horror movie cheese with a side of hammy robot acting, Burial Ground is the tasty morsel you're looking for, it's very crummy, but I must admit it's fun! You have been warned! X.

The Vestron Video version of this film appears to be uncut (it's hard to imagine what might be missing). Truly, though, the creepiest part of it is the one woman's so-called "son", Michael, who is OBVIOUSLY not a child but, in fact, some kind of 'little person'. Why the producers of the film decided to cast an actor who is clearly an adult as a child is beyond me, but it certainly ups the "ewwww!" factor in several scenes. Most notably is that following one of the (many) zombie attacks when Michael goes to his mother for comfort and then starts nuzzling her breasts and reaching up her dress. I'm not sure if this would have actually been creepier if the actor had actually been a child, but it is far more disturbing than any of the gore on display. The rest of the film is alright. I actually liked the fact that very little time was wasted on explanations on the source of the zombie-ism (eccentric professor raises the dead and then is eaten by them - "No, stop - I'm your friend!"), that they pretty quickly get down to the business of gut-munching and flesh-ripping. Any normal viewer will either despise or at least feel indifferent toward all of the non-zombie characters; we are aren't in any way asked or persuaded to identify or sympathize with anyone here, so (like all of the 'Friday the 13th' movies and most slasher flicks) you end up hating all of the victims and cheering on the zombies, taking great satisfaction when they get their intestines pulled out or heads cut off. It doesn't help matters that all the living humans behave, almost without exception, in a fashion that can at best be generously called moronic (no offense intended toward any of you morons out there) - which only makes you want to see them all die that much more. One complaint: the video transfer of this film is rather on the darkish side, which makes some of the best scenes (especially those at night) difficult to fully appreciate (most notably the maid's crucifixion/decapitation). There are better zombie movies, definitely, but you can also do a lot worse.

This is the one. This is the one that puts them all to shame. Fulci, Romero, no one has ever made living-dead cinema seem so dark, gritty, and down right apocalyptic as Andrea Bianchi. Obviously less expensive than anything from those other guys, Burial Ground is certainly no more complicated than anything else from the genre, three giddy couples and a depressed man-child are vacationing in an old mansion in Italy. They couldn't have picked a better location. Little Michael, the man-child is in love with his mother, and he seems a bit jealous of his step-father, I'm not exactly sure what they intended with this little sub-plot but all I know is that incest is hilarious, regardless of what genre it's thrown into, and being completely random makes it all the better. I'm just glad little Michael is a character in a movie and not someone I have to deal with on a regular basis.

Enough about Man-children and incest, there's much more fun to be had. The first twenty minutes of this epic mostly involves the giddy couples spouting ridiculous dialogue, flirting with each other, and frolicking about with not a care in the world, until it happens, the dead are coming back to life, and unfortunately, for some reason, there are a dozen or so rotted corpses buried in the garden. As bad as the English voice-overs are, they do a great job at sounding terrified once the madness begins. Probably more powerful than it was meant to be, Burial Ground gives you the strong impression that these dozens of zombies, some of which resemble the Toxic Avenger, just might take over the world after they're done with these guys. Burial Ground is a prime example of grainy, bad film quality unintentionally enhancing the horror quality. Some scenes, you cant even make out what's going on. Although the sci-fi-ish sound effects are out of place, it adds an apocalyptic feel that makes things seem even more hopeless and dismal. Some how, the unintentional humor doesn't overshadow any of this. Calling Burial Ground creepy would be an insult, nightmarish would be a good start.

The darkness of this masterpiece goes far beneath the dark, grainy quality of the film, even when they show a sunny day, all I see in this film is darkness, things just seemed doomed from the very beginning, and that, exploitation fans, is the makings for true horror. Burial Ground is best Italian gore has to offer, better than The Beyond, even better than Beyond the Darkness, Burial Ground has no equal. The only thing I can recommend more than this, is this on VHS, the film quality is even worse, the sky looks almost pink. VHS really brings out "that look" that the DVD format has ruined. Plenty of Gore, nudity, incest-humor, Burial Ground is the measuring stick of any horror sub-genre it may represent. Aside from the profecy being mis-spelled, the ending leaves quite an impression. Don't talk to me about no damn Evil Dead. Burial Ground has them all beat. That one wasn't that great anyway. 10/10

I first saw this in the late 80s on a vhs. Revisited it recently. Three couples and a demented, creepy kid of one of the women get invited to a castle situated in the woodlands n away from civilization. Unknown to em, the host who is a professor has accidentally unleashed an evil curse thereby summoning up the dead from their graves.

The best part about this film is that it doesn't waste time, the zombies arrive instantly n the film maintains tension throughout.

Those were the days when zombies were slow as snails with decayed teeth n almost blind but still able to relish human bodies.

Wait till u see the zombies in this film who display high levels of intelligence. They work as a team to break into a castle. They even carry different weapons, using tools, axes to chop through doors n they even shoot knives with accuracy n climb pillars. These zombies even kno how to put someone into a woodcutter machine but the kill is never shown.

I was wondering how Michael reached the model factory. We have Mariangela Giordano showing off her tits, the masturbatory nun from Malabimba. (An amazing milf).

Pietro Barzocchini, who played the creepy kid is really freaky and his character disturbing and sick with an unhealthy Oedipal and incestuous relationship with his overly doting mother.

The maid's decapitation with a scythe is shown in a poorly lit scene n one cannot make out what is goin on.

To properly critique this film I will attempt to rate some of it's key elements individually.

Entertainment Value: 10/10 This is a very entertaining movie that moves at a fast pace. The best part is that the zombies are twice as clever as the living. The undead concoct plans to outwit the living, similar to tapping on the left shoulder then standing behind the right one.

Plot: 1/10 Thank goodness there were other zombie films made before this one, otherwise you wouldn't know what the heck was going on! This is basically derivative of all the better done, and known zombie films of the 70's, with some totally bizarre twists thrown in to keep you guessing. The script is very disproportional, and the dialog is awful. Basically, it would be extremely challenging to write another script as horrible as this one ever again.

Production Value: 2/10 This movie has almost no directorial style, and the class equivalent of an 80's porno movie. The gore and makeup is done with very little, or no attention to detail, so it's hard to believe that the same guy that did the make-up effects for Fulci's "Zombie" did the effects for this one. Also, the image looks murky and the camera compositions, undesirable. The crew is seen once, for certain, and the dubbing is sloppy. However, it should be noted that now and then the score is pretty good.

Acting: 0/10 or 10/10 (depending on how you look at it) The acting is completely overdone, and definitely one of the funniest parts of the movie. I found myself gleefully anticipating every line.

So there you have it, a very entertaining, very bad movie. Possibly, one of the most entertaining films I have ever seen. Check it out!