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Living Dead At the Manchester Morgue- aka "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie" (1974)

Dir: Jorge Grau.

George,(Ray Lovelock) is our hero, and on the way out of Manchester to a friends' cottage in the Lake District has his motorbike squashed by a woman named Edna (Cristina Glabo) who is on her way to see her troubled Sister who is fighting a drug habit with her Husband's help. So George invites himself into her car and off they go to the peaceful Lake District.
On the way George asks a farmer for directions and spots a strange machine sending out ultra sonic waves to make insects kill each other. While George is away a strange man, almost in a trance like state, attacks Edna but she escapes. They set off again with George saying it was probably only a tramp after some cash.
When they get to Edna's Sister's house the Husband has just been murdered!

The Sister says a tall, strange man killed him. A man who fits the description of Edna's 'tramp'. But alas, the Police, headed by a puritanical inspector (Authur Kennedy), think the Sister did it while high.
George and Edna see a picture of the strange man in the local paper and find out he is indeed a tramp, called Guthrie. The thing is he was supposed to have died a few days ago!
So, with a relectant George, they go to the cemetery to check out the grave...

 

Without question one of the greatest Zombie films ever, and one of the few to go for explicit, full colour gore, before "Dawn of the Dead" was released.

The setting (at least to a Brit) makes this one of the true really creepy Zombie films because it happens here in the UK, not on a tropical island, or Africa or even the States, but HERE, in the sunlit countryside! The first sight of Guhtrie lurching into Edna's view is a true Euro horror classic, as he turns to face her with red, dead eyes and that superb rasping/moaning fills the soundtrack. This is a film that just oozes atmosphere.

It also benefits from one of the most likeable lead characters in the genre in the shape of George, who also has some great dubbing, the cockney accent put over him is a classic! It adds so much to the character as he delivers some fun dialogue; "And don't bugger me about"! Ahh...poetry.
Some great 'country accents' as well on the local yokels and the police.
And Arthur Kennedy is great value for money as the bigot cop, chewing up the cast as much as the Zombies!

Although not a gore packed movie, the gore on show is effective and well executed. The infamous 'breast ripping off' scene still has the power to shock, and the gut munching sequences and shots of various body parts lying around should keep gore hounds happy enough. The zombie make-up is also effective and is a case of the less the better. These look freshly dead and the simple prosphetics, putrid colouring and red rimmed eyes do the job nicely. And the 'autopsy zombie' is a wonderful design (even though he is a dead ringer for 'The Who's' Pete Townsend!).

The music by Giuliano Sorgini (the first horror film to have a stereo mix) is a major part of the films successful atmosphere (check out the even more freaky full score on the Soundtrack CD which was released as a double with fabio Frizzi's excellent "City of the Living Dead" score on the 'Beat' label) with the sound effects used for the Zombie moans (which are done by the Director himself) being especially effective.

The film also looks wonderful. The opening urban squaler is expertly captured, but so is the lush English countryside that glows in the summer sun and makes for a frighteningly real (if unlikely) setting for the undead carnage to unfold in. The use of distorted angles and nightmarishly surreal editing (especially in a wonderfully creepy hallucination sequence) also add an extra depth to the way this film looks and feels.

The only bad thing about this Anchor Bay release is that it goes under the "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie" title.
The British title was "THE LIVING DEAD AT MANCHESTER MORGUE" and had a fantastic sequence to bring in the title: The reflected face of Guthrie the zombie appears over the strange painting in the shop and red 'neon' circles zoom in faster and faster towards his face with a loud 'whoo, whoo, whoo' sound then the title in big 'rock' type lettering slashes over the screen with a loud bang!
This sequence is included as an extra on the 'Anchor Bay' UK DVD release.

The Anchor Bay U.S tin release (great little package that includes a morgue toe tag!) is a lovely, anamorphic print with a good 5:1 sound mix, and it's nice to hear the music in something other than mono.

This had an uncut British release in the early days of video, (but it was later banned as one of the infamous 'Video Nasties' and only released HIGHLY cut later on, so it's rebirth on DVD is indeed welcome.

A true Euro classic.