MovieChat Forums > No profanar el sueño de los muertos (1975) Discussion > Just what is there to like about this fi...

Just what is there to like about this film?

posted 17 years ago by EvilCensor
27 replies | jump to latest

I finally rented this DVD on the strength of reading some comments here - thinking that perhaps I had actually missed out on a decent Zombie movie.

Now at the risk of going against the vast mojority of comments towards this movie I have to state that I found this a pretty bad attempt.

The main characters voice is the thing the throws me initially.. then the dialogue - followed by the acting in general infact I may as well suggest that the script is pretty awful.

However it's filmed reasonably well and at least the living dead don't run.

I'd be interested to hear why it's liked so much.

Defer not unto the evening, that which the morning may accomplish.

[–] andy_gza 17 years ago

It would appear that it's popularity stems from the half decent acting and general all round good filmaking it presents, it does skimp on the gore a little though...

....back of the net.

[–] Godgoth 17 years ago

The reason its highly regarded is because it was the first decent zombie movie after NOTLD but this time with colored blood/gore.
Inspired the Italians alot i read somewhere.

[–] bad_addresses 17 years ago

I'm a fan of the zombie genre. I like it to that effect, but I actually kind of agree with the OP, its ok, but definitly not great by any means.

[–] raymond-x-jacobsen 17 years ago

Well, even though "Night of the Living Dead" is considered a classic, and certainly is in my top 25 horror films, I still like this one a little better. I love the widescreen composition, and the cinematography is gorgeous---I thought the characters were all great----Arthur Kennedy reminded me of the "book-police" guy from Seinfeld--"Listen here, Joy Boy......."---Mr. Kennedy was priceless!! And I just loved the whole look and feel I guess---certain characters, like the drug-addled sister, were just way out there and lent an even more creepy atmosphere to it. And then, the gore!! Yeahhhh!!! At last, on the uncut version, you get to see it all----granted, it's certainly not a lot by today's standards, but what there is, is done with panache!! Man, that poor assistant policeman (LOVE the size of that cell-phone/walkie talkie thing---HUGE!!), and the poor nurse!! And the zombies to me were just utterly creepy with the breathing sounds and all(again, great 5.1 soundtrack, with the directionals!). This is a yearly favorite of mine along with my other zombie movies in my collection, and when I show it to my friends who are unfamiliar with it, it becomes an instant favorite of their's as well!

[–] ad-thompson 17 years ago

I agree that this film has a great look/feel to it. I rented this out on video in the late 80s when I was a teenager and that was what i remember striking me about the film - the use of locations in the British countryside (much of it in the Lake District I believe!) worked perfectly for creating a creepy atmosphere and when you see that first zombie stumbling across a field it really made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. You have to remember that this film is over 30 years old and way before 'Dawn Of The Dead' and zombie movies as we know them today. It does seem badly dated now - they could have done with a bit more zombie make-up and the dialogue and acting are undeniably stilted (somehow I feel this just adds to the weird ambience of it all!), but this is without doubt a landmark movie and should be viewed as such with these niggles aside.

[–] memelay 17 years ago

The music for a start, I've never heard a better soundtrack to a zombie movie (including Zombie Flesh Eaters) NOTLD used 50s library music and even DOTD is spoilt from being an unarguable classic(of any genre)by the truly awful italian rock stylings of Goblin, which should be spelt Gobbling because they really do suck!

[–] RashaTheGreat 15 years ago

Hey, what's up with the Goblin bashing? Claudio Simonetti is awesome, just watched Cut and Run not too long ago, classic soundtrack, and of course there was that little movie, SUSPIRIA! that soundtrack alone puts him the horror hall of fame, quit messin' around

[–] katsueki 17 years ago

I agree with you. I don't know what about this movie is so great. Acting is awful, dialogues are awful, all plot is retarded, and decisions that characters make are so stupid and unrealistic... this horror should be an exaple how movies shouldn't be made.

[–] miguelmigs420 17 years ago

then you make a dam movie better than this one that people will still be talking about 33 years later..LOVE THIS MOVIE!

http://www.myspace.com/miguelmigs

[–] fatpie42 12 years ago

You don't have to be able to make good movies in order to criticise bad ones.

I personally loved this film, but I always find it annoying when people seem to expect people to have filmmaking skills before they are allowed to criticise anything. It is not just filmmakers that have to sit down and watch this stuff, y'know?

[–] deaththrasherjohn 10 years ago

Awesome film.

[–] Cellestine 17 years ago

I love this movie , and as a kid (21) who loves older films i try to pretend that im in whatever time period that the film im watching was filmed during. And when you put yourself there i think you really pick up on alot of things you normaly would not. For instance the whole entire close mindedness of the cops when one guy just mentions satanic rituals and black mass they all basicaly pick up pitch forks, and the total opposite with the main characters disgust for authority and the government. He immediately doesnt trust the machine after hes told it was a government issued experiment, i think that's very relative to england in that time period.
i think mostly if you focus on the opening of the film and how the director emphasizes on the polution and overpopulace of modern day society and gives a great forshadowing of "what if" type proportions. like most underrated horror flicks you find that great hidden message. Romeros movies wouldnt be half as deep and immersive if they didnt have those undertones of his disgust for mass consumerism ,racism and religion just to name a few. I like to give credit where credit is due and in a genre like zombie horror theres alot of garbage floating around(burial ground f.i.) a movie like the living dead at manchester morgue is atleast a stepping stone in the right direction on how to tell a good story , that is thought provoking and relative and still has a guy get his intestines eaten while he's still alive.
so like i said take a movie for what it is and when it was made , and take into consideration what it may have done for its genre and you might find yourself giving a little more credit to such an underrated film.

Son of perdition. Little horn! Swine! Most unclean!
;I do miss the old names.

[–] Carlos_Lohan 17 years ago

What's to like?

Besides what everyone is saying, I'll say the thing that set this movie apart from the rest of the zombie flicks out there:

CRISTINA GALBÓ
The most underrated actress ever to work in horror movies. Beautiful and talented. Sexy but classy.

[–] Jiiimbooh 16 years ago

The movie is obviously inspired by Night of the Living Dead but manages to come up with a different approach to the living dead subject that I thought was interesting. The biggest flaw is that the pace was too slow in the first 50 minutes. The last 40 minutes or so have a lot more zombie action and gore though.

___
"What does it do?"
"It doesn't do anything. That's the beauty of it."