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Let
Sleeping Corpses Lie
Anchor
Bay Edition
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7
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8 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Rod
Barnett |
Let
Sleeping Corpses Lie
begins with George (Ray Lovelock) closing his
London antique shop and heading into the country
for the weekend. At a gas station his motorcycle
is accidentally damaged by Edna (Christine Galbo),
a woman en route to see her sister Katie. Edna
agrees to take George on to his destination in
her car, but insists on getting to Katie's home
first. Becoming lost, George stops and asks for
directions from a farmer and discovers him using
an experimental ultrasound device to kill off
insects. While George is away a strange, disheveled
man — who's soaking wet — attacks Edna. When she
tries to explain what happened neither George
or the farmer believe her, but she's convinced
her attacker was a local n'er-do-well who drowned
the week before. The two travelers continue on
to the sister's home and arrive just in time for
Edna to see "Wet Man" murder Katie's husband.
When the police show up they don't believe the
ridiculous story about a "walking dead man" and
head cop Sgt. McCormick (Arthur Kennedy) assumes
the worst about all involved. McCormick orders
George and Edna to stay close to hand and sets
a local policeman to watch them. Several zombies
kill the young cop when he follows the couple
to a cemetery and things quickly get worse. The
police become convinced that George is the murderer,
while he begins to realize that the farmer's ultrasonic
pest control device is the cause of the problem.
Made years before George Romero would return to
the zombie genre, Let
Sleeping Corpses Lie
was conceived by its producer as "Night
Of The Living Dead
in color" and in its broad outlines you can
see that connection. A mysterious power is animating
the freshly dead who awaken with a hunger for
human flesh while our heroes try valiantly to
stave off attacks and protect themselves from
becoming one of the ghouls. It's a pretty simple
premise, and done well it can make a great film.
While I don't feel that this film reaches greatness,
I do think it's a very good film —
a fine addition to the genre. Romero's zombie
films may be better, but director Jorge Grau is
a solid filmmaker and he has almost as much to
say about the human condition. What is it about
zombie films that so easily invites social commentary?
One of the themes of the movie
seems to be man's breach of trust in our dealings
with nature; the film wastes no time showing us
images of our perfidy to drive this thought home.
As George leaves London, Grau focuses his camera
on car tailpipes, smoke stacks, piles of garbage
and venting sewer grates forcing us to look at
our daily polluting of the earth. The first scene
of dialog in which George and Edna meet is at
a gas station, a place whose job is to dispense
pollution —
surely a modern example of an ill omen. As the
couple speed into the countryside they get trapped
behind a slow moving truck marked "Mortuary"
that swerves to keep them from passing. And to
top off this series of unnerving events, there
is the radio broadcast playing in the car, speaking
of "ecological problems" being exaggerated
by "environmental activists". When George
stops to ask for directions you can't help but
notice that the ultrasonic machine is a large
red metal beast sitting in a lush green field.
This contrast in colors must be intended, as is
the idyllic beauty of the spot where Edna is first
attacked. Waiting for George to return she stands
surrounded by rolling green hills and a small
stream with stepping stones leading to the far
side. Taking in the sights and sounds she is shocked
to see the strange Wet Man stumble towards her.
She first retreats to the car, but the car is
symbolic of the problem (and George has the keys)
so she must flee over the stream for help. Oddly,
the Wet Man does not pursue her into the water
and her cries bring George and the farmer. Why
does he not chase her into the stream? Is it possible
he can't for some reason? Later, he attacks her
again in the cemetery, a place of the dead, so
are there rules the zombies must follow? Much
like Night Of The Living
Dead these questions are left open with
only hints given about what drives the creatures.
Only when George surmises the cause of the walking
dead does Let
Sleeping Corpses Lie
shift sharply away from Night's
plot. George has been a bit of a bastard for the
first half of the film, but Grau gets the audience
to slowly identify with him by giving us both
a target for him and showing McCormick as a hateful
fascist trying to thwart him. McCormick is sure
that George is a murdering Satanist and can't
see any evidence to the contrary. And since we
know that the ultrasonic machine is the problem,
we root for George to destroy it, putting us on
the side of the environmental activists and against
the police, who are presented as a symbol of man's
ignorance. Fairly radical politics for a Spanish-made
gore film. Or am I just seeing too much in a simple
zombie movie?
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Regardless
of what you think of my odd take on the film, Anchor
Bay's DVD of Let
Sleeping Corpses Lie
is an excellent way to see the movie. I'd heard
of this film for years under various titles, with
The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue
and Don't Open The Window being just two,
but I'd never been able to see it. In a way I'm
glad I was forced to wait because here the film
looks simply remarkable. It's letterboxed at about
1.85:1 with enhancement for 16:9 TVs. It looks like
it could have been filmed last week. The colors
are vibrant, the image clear. For once the 5.1 Dolby
remix soundtrack avoids adding or deleting sound
effects. At times the picture on this disc seems
almost three-dimensional and I couldn't be happier
with the presentation. The extras on this disc start
before you've even seen the movie, with director
George Grau introducing the film and hoping you
enjoy it —
sort of. Anchor Bay has also includes a 20-minute
interview with the director, available with or without
subtitles. Grau explains the genesis of the project,
tells of the amazingly free hand he had in fashioning
the script and relates several amusing stories about
the production. One of the most fascinating things
Grau speaks of is how they came up with the sound
that the dead people make when moving around. That
tale gets under my skin in a far too realistic way!
As the interview went on I began to sense that he
was sad that he had never returned to the horror
genre after this movie, and I feel the same loss.
I wish he had made a few more thoughtful scare pictures
while in his prime. Also included is the U.S. TV
spot for Don't Open the Window as well as
two radio ads for the film under the same name.
The DVD's extras are rounded out by a Poster &
Still Gallery set to the movie's score which gives
a good look at the many different titles
this
flick
has had.
Let
Sleeping Corpses Lie
is a very good movie and I can't imagine it receiving
a better DVD presentation for some time. If you
love zombie movies and would like to see a great
example, you could do much worse than this minor
classic. It can be enjoyed as a solid horror movie
or a little digging can yield some interesting food
for thought along with the human entrails. 7/20/02 |
| UPDATE
This title (same transfer and extras) will be reissued
under the Blue Underground label on April 24, 2007. |
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