twist of fait accomplis

Hell of the Living Dead, 1960 (aka Night of the Zombies)
Director: Bruno Mattei
Availability: Easy (on DVD from Anchor Bay Entertainment)

There are some movies that I can only describe as "a total shitheap," yet I've seen them more times than movies that I love. I can't explain it, and I won't try to. Hell of the Living Dead is one of those movies. It's a terrible zombie Italian rip-off flick (one of the many) by a total hack of a director (Bruno Mattei). Not only did he intersperse National Geographic stock footage into his jungle scenes, but he straight ripped off the Goblin score from Dawn of the Dead. He didn't replay it with a different band, he used the exact same music. Amazing.

But even in a total pile of crap movie like this, there are redeeming values. Like the scene in the abandoned town. The sands whipping around a lone jeep about to be attacked by zombies, as the unknowing group looks about nervously... it's an eerie scene that almost made me think Mattei had had some schooling beyond the first grade. And the ending... for a movie with such a mindless plot, the final ten minutes are actually well-paced and pretty intense, especially for a Z-grade zombie splatter film.

So, sure, it's a waste of the celluloid it's filmed on. And, sure, every moment of this movie was ripped off from another movie (some in more direct ways than others). But, hell, people dig this nonsense anyway. And there are few better ways to kill an evening than making fun of a Bruno Mattei "film."