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Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (LSCL) is a Spanish-Italian zombie movie borrowing heavily from Night of the Living Dead (NOTLD) 1968. Like NOTLD the zombies are slow moving and eat the living. Unlike NOTLD these zombies are stronger and use tools. Two zombies use a tombstone as a battering ram. One uses an axe to kill the living. One even throws a tombstone to injure his victim. It appears in this movie the only way to kill the zombies is to burn them. One of these zombies gets shot in the head and continues to attack. LSCL's gore shocked audiences, which impacted negatively on its reviews.
A major theme through out the LSCL is man's growing complacency. Early in the movie a nude female streaks across a busy street flashing the peace sign and no one notices. On the radio we hear authorities state that pollution concerns are exaggerated. The contrast between the picturesque countryside is shown in striking comparison to the polluted city.
In LSCL it is the Department of Agriculture that is casing the contagion. An experimental machine which uses ultrasonic radiation to cause insects to attack and kill each other. The radiation has the same effect on the recently dead and infants. The dead that are not returned to life by the radiation can be returned to life in a strange ritual. The zombie takes blood from the living and places this blood on the eyelids of the dead.
There is excellent
character development with good acting. Special Makeup Effects are excellent.
A couple of people are shown being torn apart and eaten by the zombies. This
is a movie worth seeing for zombie and/or horror movie fans.
Director
Jorge Grau
The movie starts with Co-owner George Meaning (Ray Lovelock) closing up his shop "Antiques and Modern Art" for the Holidays. He grabs a carving to take with him and mounts his motorcycle. We follow him through the city heading to the countryside. While still on his journey in the city emphasis is placed on how on the liter and smog. A woman streaks nude across a crowded street in front of George flashing the peace sign and no one seems to notice. Once he gets out of the city we see the beautiful landscape of England.
George
George stops at a gas station for gas and something to drink. He parks behind Edna Simons (Cristina Galbo) and walks to get soda from a machine. While George is getting his drink, Edna pays for her gas and reverses right into George's motorcycle.
Edna
Apparently there is not much damage to his motorcycle but it will need a part the gas station doesn't have. The gas station attendant tells George that because it is the weekend he will not be able to get the part until Monday evening. George asks Edna for a ride to Windermere, which she agrees to because she is headed to Southgate. We learn that her journey started in London, which she says was a long drive.
They drive listening
to the radio where we hear a commentator discussing the fact that ecological
pollution is over exaggerated. George feels differently.
They get behind a large truck from the City of Manchester Mortuary, which
is not moving fast enough for George. When George beeps the horn to get around,
the truck starts swerving to keep them from getting around. Using some wild
driving George manages to get around them and flips the truck driver off.
When they arrive at the turnoff for Windermere, Edna begs George to take her to Southgate, telling him that he can keep her car to get to Windermere. Edna must get to Southgate to see her sister. Although George has to meet some friends in Windermere, he agrees to take Edna to Southgate.
Edna doesn't know exactly how to get to her sister's house because she has only been there once before. On there drive they pass the Southgate Cemetery at All Saints Church.
When they get lost George stops at a farm to get directions to the Madison house. When he gets out of the car he takes the keys so that Edna can't drive away.
Edna gets out of the car for a smoke, while George walks up a path to the farmhouse. George hears a high-pitched sound while looking for someone to get directions from. Following the sound he sees a tractor from the Agricultural Department, Midland Area, Experimental Section. One man in a white laboratory coat is operating the tractor that is emitting the sound, while another man in a white laboratory coat is showing the farmer how to operate something that looks like a metal detector. We learn that the apparatus uses ultrasonic radiation to kill insects and parasites.
Back at the car Edna hears noises. She sees a man dressed in black lumbering alone. When the man sees her, he starts stumbling towards her. When the camera focuses on his eyes we know he is not alive. We later learn that the man was a tramp named Guthrie Wilson (Fernando Hilbeck). He starts walking towards Edna and she starts backing away. She gets in her car, but has no keys. Guthrie reaches in to get her. She jumps and runs across a stream falling in while trying to get across.
Guthrie
Guthrie
Edna
The farmer walks with George to show him the way to Southgate when Edna runs up saying that a man was following her and tried to attack her. When George and the farmer look they see no one. When she describes the man, the farmer states that it sounds like a tramp named Guthrie Wilson (Fernando Hilbeck). The farmer goes on to say that it couldn't have been Guthrie because he drowned a week earlier.
Farmer, George & Edna
It is night at the Madison house and Martin (Jose Lifante) has just finished
developing a picture of a flower in his darkroom. He puts some film in a camera
bag then walks outside where he hears footsteps running away. Martin follows
the footsteps to a smaller house where he hears a door close. Inside the smaller
house Katie (Jeannine Mestre) quickly hides something. When Martin walks in
and Katie tells Martin that she was picking strawberries so that she could
bake a pie to celebrate her sister's visit.
Martin
and Katie
Katie complains that Martin has brought her there keeping her like a prisoner and that she knows where he is planning to send. Martin walks off to finish taking pictures.
Katie walks back to the smaller house and retrieves the package she was hiding. Katie starts heating some heroin but before she can inject it she hears a noise. When she investigates the sound Guthrie comes out of hiding and attacks her. Katie manages to escape and runs to Martin with Guthrie right behind her. Just as she nears Martin, she trips and Guthrie grabs her around the throat. The camera's flash goes off blinding Guthrie and giving Katie time to escape.
Martin runs to protect Katie and fights with Guthrie. During the fight, Martin hits Guthrie in the head with a large stone hard enough to draw blood. It has no effect, and Guthrie goes on to kill Martin. Guthrie gets up comes after Katie again. She runs back to the house just as George and Edna drive up. The cars headlights cause Guthrie to leave.
Katie
watching Martin & Guthrie
The police are called in and discover that the person who killed must have been very strong because every bone in Martin's body was broken. The police confiscate the camera that was taking pictures automatically and place it in a car.
The police search the Madison house and find Katie's heroin. They also learn that Martin was planning to send Katie to a clinic and that she did not want to go. This is enough evidence for them to tell George, Edna and Katie not to leave town. They feel that Katie under the influence of drugs might have killed Martin. Through trickery George and Edna manage to get the film from the camera, which the police have as evidence.
Inspector
As instructed by the police force George and Edna check in at The Old Owl Hotel in Southgate. George and Edna take the film to a shop to have the film developed. When they arrive back at the Old Owl Hotel, they learn that the police have left a message that Katie had a breakdown and is in Southgate Hospital. George and Edna visit. While Edna is visiting with Katie, George wonders around and learns that babies at that hospital have been attacking Doctors and Nurses. The Dr. Duffield (Vicente Vega) tells George that the babies have been born with homicidal tendencies. The one thing all of the babies have in common is that they were born to families that lived around the stream that Edna fell into. George tells the Dr. Duffield about the machine he saw. George's theory is that since the machine's ultra sonic sound causes insects to kill one another maybe the machine also is causing the babies strange behavior. Dr. Duffield decides to go with George to look at the machine.
Nurse
injured by baby
When George and Edna pick up the pictures not one of them have Guthrie in them. George states that the pictures make it appear as if Katie killed Martin. Just then the police walk in and take the pictures. The shopkeeper shows Edna a picture of Guthrie and she says that Guthrie attacked her. The shopkeeper tells Edna that Guthrie was buried two days ago.
George
& Inspector
George drives Edna out to the Southgate Cemetery at All Saints Church to prove to her that Guthrie is dead. The inspector sends Craig to follow. Once at the cemetery George and Edna go to the caretakers house and see a partially eaten meal. Next they go into the basement of the church. They find a coffin with Guthrie's name on it, but when they open it they find it empty. Looking around further they find that the caretaker was recently killed. Just then someone locks the door.
Guthrie walks out of the shadows and attacks them. Guthrie takes some blood from the dead caretaker and places it on the eyelids of two other dead people. They immediately come to life. George and Edna escapes just as Craig arrives and they all go into the caretaker's house where they lock it up.
Male
Zombie
Female
Zombie
Guthrie
& Male Zombie
George arrives at a hypothesis. The radiation from the farm machine causes the brains of the recently dead to come back to life. The dead can use the blood of the living to pass their contagion on to more dead. Craig who dropped his radio outside decides to go back outside to get the radio and call for help. When Craig runs out to get his radio a male Zombie picks up a tombstone and throws it braking both of Craig's legs. The zombies attack and eat Craig. When the Zombies break into the caretaker's house George lights them on fire with an oil lamp and burns them. George and Edna escape.
The dead continue coming back to life. Edna and George must run from zombies and the police, who think that George and Edna are killing people.
Zombies
at hospital
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