Contains Spoilers.
Now, this was a film
I was really looking forward to. Having garnered a bit of a cult following it
not only appears regularly on top zombie movie lists but has also received
widespread recognition as an important title, influencing the look, feel and
behaviour of the modern zombie. Released in 1974 sandwiched between seminal Night of the Living Dead and the game changer Dawn of the Dead Spanish director
Jorge Grau took the suspense and atmosphere of Romero's work and added a bit of
European scepticism and surrealism.
The premise is
relatively simple. George (Ray Lovelock) is escaping the city for the weekend
and stops at a garage for some petrol. At the pump his motorbike is reversed
into by Edna (the alluring Cristina Galbó) and having to leave his bike there
for repairs the duo reluctantly team up to first drop George off. On the way to
Windermere Edna persuades George to first drop her off at her troubled
rehabilitating sister in South Gate,
happy for him to pick the car up later, but the two become lost and stop to ask
for directions at a farm which is assisting the Department of Agriculture run a
field test on a prototype alternative to the use of insecticide.
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With Guthrie
disappearing before George can corroborate Edna's story the two continue their
journey to her sister Katie (Jeannine Mestre) only to find Gutherie has beat
them there. Here we have our first zombie killing of the story and the first
sign that there may be a few inconsistencies with the narrative. If the premise
is that the recently deceased still retain some very basic brain function and
that is stimulated by the ultra-sonic radiation causing them to reanimate with
only basic motor functions and a hunger for sustenance (i.e. human flesh) how
is it Gutherie seems not only to know precisely and conveniently where to be to
drive the narrative and tension, but can seemingly magic himself around at
will. One scene he's chasing Edna near the river where it's reported he
drowned, and the next after they've driven at quite the pace to her sisters
farm, he's not only managed to beat them there but he's had time for a bit of a
chase and a murder. It's all a bit City of the Living Dead, and ambiguous and
European, and on it's own I could just about go with it; but I struggled to
find room for both this and the rational narrative in my ability to weave it
all together as a coherent whole.
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Take the two big
zombie scenes. The first, an uprising caused from the Department of
Agriculture's expansion of the range of the radiation to the nearby morgue; Ok.
The second, on checking the crypt to once and for all prove or disprove
Gutherie being up and about they get locked in, where Gutherie now adopting a
pseudo leadership role is able to resurrect dead comrades by smearing blood on
their eye lids; it just doesn't all quite fit together and it's like there are
two separate narratives running in parallel.
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Also on the one hand
while I'd like to argue it's cult status as an influence on both Romero zombie
film tradition and more-so also the more surrealist European Fulci film style, in truth
I kind of feel it would have all probably happened regardless. It definitely helped
cement zombie lore at an important time but I'd argue that it probably actually
borrowed more, especially from Night of the Living Dead than it actually
contributed.
I'd really love to
be more passionate about The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue but as it is, the
incoherent narrative and mishmash of ideas is too distracting. It's an
important part of the zombie film story, I'll go with that, but I'm finding it
hard to end the review with anything more than, it's merely ok, 6/10.
Steven@WTD.
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