User reviews

In case you always wondered (or worried) whether or not you would get aroused by the sight of zombies having sexual intercourse...you still won't find out by watching this weirdo-flick. In spite of what the title suggests, "Erotic Nights of the Living Dead" does not feature copulating undead or strip-dancing corpses. This merely is a routine Italian zombie film, like "Zombi 2" or "Zombie Holocaust", with a handful of hardcore sex sequences thrown in during the first half hour. And as crazy as it may sound, it actually is a pretty decent zombie movie if you just ignore these totally redundant porno moments and focus on the beautiful island location and rather stylish gory make-up effects. There's the typically obnoxious businessman who buys a tropical island with a vicious reputation and intends to build a tourist resort there. Along with a macho sailer and a whore he picked up in some hotel, he goes to scout the place but stumbles upon an uncanny old man and his ghostly granddaughter that rule over the island. Laura Gemser, ravishing cult siren and regular D'Amato nymph, stars as the mysterious island girl but her role is rather limited and she doesn't really show much of her enchanting body. George Eastman clearly is in great shape again as the stud, but he still doesn't manage to script down one reasonably good dialogue. There are a couple of atmospheric zombie-attacks and explicit gore. You can't possibly expect more from a Joe D'Amato film, apart from sleazy oddities in the script maybe, like the girl who ingeniously uncorks a bottle of champagne by using her vagina only (!).

For a film to have 'erotic' in the title, the film should have erotic scenes. If a film has 'living dead' in the title, there should be some good gut munching. And finally, if a film has 'night of' in the title, the film should be shot at night. But then again, this is a Joe D'Amato flick.

Story: people go to investigate an island,come across some creepy natives, have lots of sex and get eaten.

There is plenty of nudity and hard-core sexual escapades on display (if you have the uncut version), but not a bit of it is erotic or arousing. Some male/female, female/female, pick your poison. Matters are further complicated by the obvious fact that some of the actors are not at all comfortable with bearing it all, taking the blandly shot scenes and making them all the more dull.

For a film like this, violence is the answer, or should have been. D'amato is unusually thin-skinned about laying on the gore. There are a couple of choice bits, but nothing spectacular. If it weren't bad enough that the zombies don't do a whole hell of a lot, it's worse that they take forever to finally start reeking havoc. I suppose the intention was to build suspense, but with a film like this what's the point.

So how well is it made then? For a film supposedly occurring mostly at night it is readily apparent that most all of the movie was shot during then day then given the day-for-night treatment. The dubbing is dubious and the limited effects some what suspect.

A mid-range rating for a bad movie that will undoubtedly find a niche audience; you know who you are.

5/10

An American businessman wants to build a hotel on a remote island, so he has someone sail him and his girlfriend there to check it out. The zombie scenes seem tacked on as an afterthought, so as a horror film this doesn't really work that well. However due to the ridiculous dialog and the hardcore sex scenes the film MIGHT be worth it for drunken party type viewing, but even that is stretching it (pardon the pun) Feel free to skip this one, as it's only remote interesting as a curiosity. That being said the way champagne is uncorked in the film is ingenious.

Eye Candy: more than you can shake a decaying limb at

My Grade: D

DVD Extras: 27 minutes of Alternate footage; Production stills & Laura Gemser stills gallery; X-rated Trailer; and trailers for "Zombi 2", "Emanuelle And The Last Cannibals", "Nightmares Come at Night", & "Slaughter Hotel"

Easter Egg: In the main menu, highlight scene access and press down to get to a hidden skull, click on it for the French opening credits

One of the most interesting consequences of the brief period of "porno chic" in the early 70s was the resulting effect on the Italian exploitation industry. Never quick to miss an American cinematic "craze", a lot of film-makers found themselves curiously crossing genres and stuffing hardcore porn into other genres, as well as vice versa. The absolute master of this was the ubiquitous Joe D'Amato, and here he fuses porno with the zombie movie (which at the time was in the midst of enormous popularity in Italy).

THE EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD was shot back-to-back with the similar, but more sex-oriented, PORNO HOLOCAUST. In its full uncut form, the scenes of XXX are strangely innocent. There are a few explicit shots here and there, but no actual "penetration" (other than when one of the female characters hilariously opens a bottle of champagne with her genitalia!), plus many of the scenes seem to cut away at strange times. Whether this is due to an incomplete review print (a Midnight Video release, clearly made from two different prints spliced together) isn't clear. What is obvious is that as a sex movie, this fails horribly. Many of the "erotic" scenes also fall victim to Luigi Montefiori and Laura Gemser's obvious unwillingness to perform in hardcore sequences. Many of the sex scenes are made up of Montefiori watching a female character masturbate, before pretending to have sex with her- often without removing his trousers first!

The real benefit for Massacessi is that the sex allows him to pad out a horror movies that, in actuality, has only about 30 minutes of material. Almost all of the first hour revolves around sex, and the "horror" portion of the story really only kicks in after that. Massacessi was the first to admit that horror was not his forte (although after seeing this, it has to be said that porn clearly wasn't either!) and by structuring his film in this way, he can basically cover up his shortcomings whilst still producing a marketable zombie movie.

Still, as ever, this is strangely enjoyable. The final 30 minutes is actually quite atmospheric, and there is some nice gore in there. I hear that this movie is very difficult to get hold of in an uncut form (review print was in unsubtitled Italian), but as far as I can tell from my copy, it is certainly worth seeking out as the "cut" print looks absolutely anaemic in comparison...

Anyone who has seen Porno Holocaust will know exactly what to expect from Erotic Nights of the Living Dead, as the two films feature basically the same cast and plot lines. Joe D'Amato is often held in high regard by cult horror fans, and he has made some excellent classics in the genre; but to be honest, I really don't know where he's coming from with the whole porn/zombies thing. Last time I checked, the living dead aren't sexy and mixing an average zombie film with a load of porn isn't exactly a guaranteed recipe for success. As mentioned, the plot is basically the same as the one in Porno Holocaust and focuses on an isolated island. A group of sex starved (or not) people travel to the island for some reason or another, but naturally the island is infested with zombies. This doesn't stop the travellers having sex with each other every five minutes, the zombies do prove to be a bit of a nuisance. That's about the long and short of the plot really...

This film is slightly better than Porno Holocaust, but only slightly. The two films suffer from the same main problems: Erotic Nights of the Living Dead is also far too long, and it takes too long for anything to happen too. The sex is mostly quite boring too, which obviously does the film no favours. The film features two of exploitation cinema's biggest stars in George Eastman (also the writer) and Laura Gemser. Gemser, however, doesn't turn up until we get over the halfway point. There's a fair bit of gore in the film, some of it quite hardcore, but it's clear that the sex is the main focus. The zombies themselves are the typical Italian style crusty looking things; not very convincing! As mentioned, the film is far too long and the plot really drags on numerous occasions, which is a shame. There really isn't much to this film; it's very much what you'd expect, so if you're looking for something substantial then look elsewhere! I can't really say that I found Erotic Nights of the Living Dead all that enjoyable so I won't be recommending it, but I guess some sleaze fans may get a kick out of it.

I'd wanted to see this film for a very long time. Joe D'Amato is my favourite director and as the film stars his regulars Laura Gemser and George Eastman it really was a must. Unfortunately I was extremely disappointed. Firstly, there are a couple of long hardcore scenes in the film, which make the film about 20 minutes longer than it should be. The acting is very amateurish so any scary atmosphere of the film is covered up by cheesiness. There is little, if any plot, and the gore scenes are few and far between. The gore scenes could be really graphic and disturbing, but no, papier mache would have been more convincing. As for the ending- I think it was obvious from the very beginning. I'm happy I've seen the film as it is a rarity but now I know why the film is almost a forgotten one. Joe D'Amato should have chosen to make an adult OR a zombie film, as with this odd cross-genre, he has failed miserably. Recommended only if you are an extreme D'Amato fan like myself. 3 out of 10.

(aka: EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD)

Just saw the un-cut, newly-remastered Shriek/Media Blasters DVD of this and I must say, I was bored by the whole thing. However, 'everybody else' must have liked it because the cast stuck around for D'Amato's next Caribbean offering, PORNO HOLOCAUST (1981)

OK, I admit I was turned on by the hardcore threesome between Manlio Cersosimo and the two Dominican whores he had up in his room, but the rest of the film was totally un-interesting, horror-wise or sex-wise. Gemser should have continued played Emmanuelle and I'm surprised she didn't here. Especially for a Joe D'Amato movie.

There's surprisingly little gore for a film of this scope, and the zombie plot looks like it was thrown in there as a pretext for the soft-core lesbian scenes between Gemser and Funari. There's also soft core sex scenes between Eastman and Gemser and between Cersosimo and Funari as well as the previously mentioned hard-core sex scene.

Plot concerns George Eastman taking Manlio Cersosimo and his girlfriend (Dirce Funari) to an island so he can scout locations for a new hotel resort. A female spirit (Laura Gemser) and an old man conjure up the dead buried on the island to go after these three and stop any development from taking place.

Some of the zombies get impaled on sticks by Eastman and some brown & green stuff (blood?) comes flowing out, and there's a couple of zombies who get torched, but that's pretty much all the action. Eastman and Funari wind up in a 'mental institution' after all this.

Shriek/Media Blasters did their usual, impeccable wide-screen treatment of this DVD, far more than the actual film deserves. Not much in the line of extras, though. There's also a half-way decent electronic score by Marcello Giombini.

Mostly deserves a yawn...

3 out of 10

EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD is a sleazy, smut-filled endeavor from trash director, Joe D'Amato - but of course, I live for this garbage, so although this one was pretty silly - I still got a kick out of it. Unfortunately though, don't expect any cool undead-copulation as the title would suggest, you won't get it here. But you will get plenty of living people's tits and ass, so I guess that counts for something...

This one concerns a businessman who buys an island to put up a big resort hotel. Of course, the island has some local lore around it involving zombies that live there. Before embarking on his journey to check the island out, Mr. Business bangs two hookers in his hotel room. Pretty decent hardcore sex action, if you dig big 70's puss-fro's and protracted, semi-erect blow-jobs featuring a guy that looks like Magnum P.I. Then he bones the lady that's staying next door (seems that Magnum is quite a pimp...). The next day Magnum and The-Girl-Next-Door head to the docks to commission a boat and sailor to take them to the island. The boat ride is just another excuse to show some more extended tits and ass scenes, but unfortunately, other than the hooker-sandwich in the beginning, there's no more "hardcore" sex to be had in this film (unless you consider one VERY amusing scene where a stripper graphically uncorks a bottle of champagne without use of her hands "hardcore"...). The adventurous three-some begin exploring the island, and find that it's not completely uninhabited. There's a real old guy with a big lump on his head, and his grand-daughter (played by an anorexically thin but still smokin' hot Laura Gemser...), and a grave yard where a bunch of "epidemic" victims died (the epidemic is never explained, naturally....). Ol' Bump-Head tells the trespassers that they should probably roll-out, but Magnum ain't hearin' it. Bump-Head gives the sailor some kind of little statue that's supposed to protect him against the zombies, and somewhere along the line, we find out that Gemser is some sort of ghost or something (that obviously doesn't like to give head, which is proved in one particularly hilarious penis-chomping scene...), because you don't see her in photographs and she keeps disappearing. Sound hard to follow? Trust me it's not - it's just poorly written. Anyway...of course our adventurers pay no head to Bump-Head and Ghost-Girl, so the epidemic victims decide to be a little more "persuasive"...

Basically, ENOTLD is a film whose main purpose is to cram as much gratuitous nudity and sex as possible into it, while still straining to maintain some sort of "plot" as a horror film. The sleaze is hot-and-heavy, although I wish that there would have been some more XXX scenes, as seeing them in the very beginning and then not at all through the rest of the film was kind of "anti-climactic". As a horror film ENOTLD doesn't really hold up well. Actually, as a porn film, it doesn't really either - but the combination of the two make this one somehow work out to be pretty entertaining. Not nearly as memorable as D'Amato's super-sleazy EMANUELLE IN America or his horror "classic" BUIO OMEGA - but still worth a look to the trash fans out there...or those that dig hot 70's chicks with big 70's bushes...7/10

Erotic Nights of the Living Dead was made back-to-back with Joe D'amato's other zombie shagathon Porno Holocaust (released in 1981), and shares much of that film's cast, plus its island location. It also shares its ability to bore me witless, with the quantity and quality of sex seriously waning after the first half an hour, and very little in the way of decent gore, despite featuring more of the undead.

D'amato regular George 'Anthropophagus' Eastman plays Larry, a sailor hired by mustachioed architect/stud John Wilson (Mark Shannon) to take him (and his current woman) to a mysterious island, which, according to local legend, is home to flesh-eating zombies which are ruled over by a cat. Once there, they meet a strange old man and his beautiful daughter (Laura Gemser), have sex, and run into lots of mouldy reanimated corpses.

As you've probably surmised, it doesn't make whole lot of sense, and, at 112 minutes (in its uncut form), is extremely tedious. As always Eastman stays well clear of any hardcore action, preferring to keep his trousers on during sex, whilst Gemser indulges in purely soft-core fumblings. And all of the humping is strictly between the living (unlike Porno Holocaust, which featured a very randy zombie).

Very occasionally, the film offers those seeking sleazy treats something to make them smile—a woman displays a unique way of removing a cork from a champagne bottle, and Gemser bites off Wilson's todger—but, on the whole, Erotic Nights of the Living Dead is a dreary mess.

i think a lot of people where let down by this flick, as most catalogs and genre books describe it as a gore soaked zombie porno. honestly, this film isn't that graphic. the sex is what i would call "hard soft-core" and there isn't much gore (though what gore there is is pretty cool.)

anywho, the story, from what i can tell concerns some kind of scientist/archetect/developer who travels to a strange island to do something or other, most likely something bad. once there, he angers the natives and a voodoo priest raises the dead which leads to a really creepy zombie attack-no really, it's right up there with fulci's zombie. as i said, there isn't much gore, but there is a neat scene where a doctor is examining a cadaver that was found floating in the bay, it sits up and takes a big bite out of the guys throat. then at the end there's a few bullet hits, some zombie carnage and star marks shannon gets his johnson bit of by laura gemser. the sex is fairly tame but there's a hilariously sleazy scene of a woman un-corking a champange bottle with her naughty bits. this film also has a great atmosphere and some excellent photography (also by Joe D'Amato) look out for some cool trick shots like when mark shannon throws a voddo idle on the ground and it changes instantly into a black cat that jumps up and attacks him. i had to watch that one again in slow motion i was so impressed! i would highly recommend this film for fans of bizarre cinema, and despite the lack of english, i think most will enjoy.

This movie was a disappointment. It's supposed to be a porno-splatter flick, but neither the porn nor the gore is really impressing. Laura Gemser gets top-billing but you don't get to see very much. Besides, the plot is very confusing, especially when the copy I have is in Italian with no subtitles. However, there is a certain trash-value, and D'amatos flicks are almost always fun in a brain-dead kind of way. Mostly because of their incompetence.

There are apparently two versions of this. One is just the story (more or less) and one is with added "love scenes". I did not time them but the latter version is supposed to be half an hour longer than the other one. Now the longer version (no pun intended) has quite some explicit scenes in them. Are they really necessary to further the story? Not really, they are there to shock and put this into pornographic territory.

Having said that, if you are easily offended get the other version and you won't have to deal with that. But the story overall about the "undead" and the island that is ... I guess you could say cursed, is quite neatly told. So while the pacing may be at fault at times, there is an interesting story here. Madness - I know

Oh yea this is a exploitation/zombie/euro trash classic I was wanting this on DVD for years alas I got it yesterday at the amazing Rasputin records in Berkley,CA anyway lots and lots of sex and sleaze I'm talking hardcore sex I have the rated x DVD lets say there is a scene that must be seen a chick has sex with a champaign bottle and uncorks it!Now lets talk about the zombies real quick their cool oldfashiond slow zombi 2 like zombies there is a good amount of zombi action.Also its dubbed so bad that you will be chuckling a lot so I am done talking about it now its time for you to find this and see it you wont forget it!!

Here is a title I have never forgotten: "Erotic Nights of the Living Dead". Think about that choice of words for a moment. So it's the living dead who are having erotic nights? Zombie lovemaking? Who would find the idea of two decomposing, flesh-eating corpses having sex to be erotic?

Of course, the fact that no real zombie sex actually takes place in the movie only makes the title more ridiculous. It's like they thought the word "erotic" and the words "living dead" were all that mattered. Who cares what order the words appear in, or how such an order might be misconstrued?

I watched this movie after D'Amato's similarly foolishly titled "Porno Holocaust", which he made with this one back-to-back in Santo Domingo. The movies even have the same cast - Mister Lumpy-Bollocks himself, Mark Shannon, the old D'Amato standby, colossal George Eastman, and the beautiful Dominican adult actress Lucia Ramirez. This one also has another of D'Amato's favourite performers: Emanuelle (not Emmanuelle!) herself, Laura Gemser. I wonder why she wasn't in "Porno Holocaust"?

I liked "Erotic Nights" more than "Porno". It's more entertaining, and has a few unbelievable moments, such as a scene where Ramirez ends a strip tease by using her vagina to uncork a champagne bottle - I'm not lying - and another scene in which Gemser goes to give Shannon a blow-job, and instead chomps off his sausage.

With such sharp teeth, she could have removed his genital warts instead.

Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980)

** (out of 4)

XXX version

Infamous Joe D'Amato film that mixes Italian gore with Italian sex. Three people head for a deserted island to have a lot of sex and to see if a hotel could be built on the island. They should have listened to all the rumors because zombies are there waiting. This is an extremely weird and bizarre film because the producer's wanted two films made. One a porno and another a horror film so the director just combined the two elements. Running at nearly two hours this thing goes on for way too long, which is why I wish the hardcore sex scenes would have been removed. There's a "soft" version out there that I keep meaning to see because I'm sure I'd like the film better minus the sex scenes. The zombie footage on the other hand is wonderfully done with a lot of great atmosphere and gore. D'Amato was a master behind the camera and the cinematography here is terrific as is the music score. Laura Gemser, George Eastman and Mark "Wart Nuts" Shannon star. This here is a lot better than the director's first horror/sex film Porno Holocaust, which was filmed at the same time with the same cast of this one.

Sexy Nights of the Living Dead (1980)

** (out of 4)

The version under this title is the pure horror version, which is missing all of the XXX scenes. For years I had been wanting to check this version out because I felt that the hardcore scenes in the uncut version were all rather ugly and did nothing erotic and instead they just dragged the film down. It was interesting watching the film without the porn scenes because you realize that the Joe D'Amato film has more problems than just the porn stuff. For starters, even without the hardcore sex there's way too many softcore scenes that are also not erotic. I was really surprised to see how silly the majority of the scenes are because it's clear that the main intent was just to show sex. Another major problem with the picture is that it just takes them way too long to finally get to the island where the zombie stuff happens. The zombies, as great as they are, are pretty much wasted because outside a couple scenes early on, the majority of their screen time happens at the very end of the movie. It's really a shame that they weren't given more screen time because I felt the horror elements were quite strong and they keep the movie interesting. Even though he was unable to make anything erotic, D'Amato did do a good job building up a rather bizarre atmosphere. This version clocks in at 100-minutes, which means it is missing twelve minutes worth of hardcore scenes. So, is this version better? I would say that it is simply because it's shorter and as I said, the hardcore scenes were rather ugly and added nothing to the picture.

A real mess..boring

I wouldn't recommend this..Joe D'amato has done better..see trap them and kill them.

I think old joe thought he was making a masterpiece..but this one is just dull and boring..even the women are rather average for a d'amato flick.