Other Titles • Don't Open the Window (1974) • Breakfast at the Manchester Morgue (1974) • The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue • Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974) • Invasion der Zombies (1975) • Das Leichenhaus der lebenden Toten (1975) • Fin de Semana para los Muertos • Let the Sleeping Corpses Lie
Synopses for Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974)
1.
One of the best zombie shockers of the 1970s, this Spanish-Italian coproduction (also known as The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue and Don't Open the Window, among other titles) is a real international affair. Inspired by George Romero's genre-shattering American hit Night of the Living Dead, it was shot in England by a Spanish director with a largely British cast, and supplemented by Spanish zombies and American character actor Arthur Kennedy as a bitter Irish police detective (with only a hint of a brogue). He's investigating a sudden rash of violent murders (the work of Satanists, he's convinced) and closes in on a pair of newcomers to the sleepy Northern England town, longhaired antique dealer Ray Lovelock and his nervous traveling companion Christine Galbó. Only they know the real culprits: newly deceased corpses, revived by agricultural experiments in ultrasonic radiation that are also turning newborns into vicious little monsters. Director Jorge Grau delivers all the stumbling zombies and gory flesh feasts you could hope for in a 1974 movie, but more importantly he creates the rare zombie thriller that manages to be both scary and smartly done. Some of the twists are a bit more far-fetched than others (why does dabbing blood on the eyes of long-dead cadavers magically bring them to life, and how would a zombie even know to try?), but it's a minor quibble in the face of the startling blood frenzy and Grau's satisfying dark dramatic twists.
The DVD also features an introduction and a 20-minute interview with Grau ("I hope you will suffer profoundly," he jokes in the opening), as well as a gallery of posters and stills, TV ads, and radio spots. --Sean Axmaker
(46 votes)
2.
George (Lovelock, AUTOPSY) is a hippie biker on his way to the countryside for a long weekend holiday. While stopping at a gas station, his motorcycle is accidentally hit by an attractive young girl named Edna (Galbo). The bike is rendered useless, so Edna offers him a ride, as long as they drop by her sister Katie's cottage first. The unlikely traveling companions get lost and stop at a farm for directions. There, George is greeted by a pair of employees from the experimental section of the Ministry of Agriculture as they test a new ultrasonic radiation device designed to drive parasites into killing each other. Meanwhile back at the car, Edna is violently pursued by a crazed man who appears to be already dead. After the agriculturists insure her it was merely the village loon, and the journey continues. Moments before they arrive at the cottage the same man who attacked Edna viciously murders Katie's husband. The police are quick to peg the wife as the primary suspect, and order George and Edna to remain in town during the investigation. As they lose faith in the fascist police force, the couple launches a secret investigation of their own. Suspecting the nearby agricultural experiments may be the cause of this morbid chain of events, they attempt to get more information from a local hospital. The result is a plethora of terrifying confrontations with zombies from the basement morgue--brought back from the dead to feast on the living.
(41 votes)
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