by George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead did for zombie films what Friday the 13th did for slasher movies. They both opened the floodgates to the sea of second rate copycats. Unfortunately both sub-genres suffered greatly because of this, and for every gem you have four terrible attempts to copy the formula and experimentation was at an all time low. Originality suffered greatly, but there were a few filmmakers that managed to hone the craft and offer compelling spins on the established groundwork. One of these directors, Jorge Grau, tried his hand at the theme with Let Sleeping Corpses Lie. I first watched this film in my teen years and admittedly I wasn’t much of a fan. There were a few interesting twists but not enough flash for my young self. After watching it today for the first time in years my opinion has completely changed. Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (or The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue as it’s alternate title) is a hidden gem beyond a doubt.
The film starts out with a young Englishman named George (Ray Lovelock) losing his only means of transportation when a flustered lady Edna (Cristina Galbo) backs her car into his motorcycle. He is able to talk the lass into giving him a lift to his destination and she agrees only if they can stop off first to visit her recovering drug addict sister. The two get lost on the way and end up near a field where the Department of Agriculture is running a series of tests using a new form of pest control which causes bugs to kill each other by means of ultra sonic radiation. Suddenly a corpse of a recently deceased hobo attacks Edna, but when George shows up to save her he’s gone. Later that evening Edna’s sister Katie gets into an argument with her husband Martin who leaves to take photos of a waterfall. He is attacked and killed by the same zombie we saw earlier, and Katie is presumed the killer. George and Edna are caught up in the affair as suspicious characters, and they are stuck in the area while the investigation is underway. The zombie is still on the loose and soon it’s not the only walking corpse in the neighborhood. Unfortunately the chief constable is out to get George (because of his long hair and the lifestyle it indicates), and the rising body count doesn’t exactly clear his name.
For the most part the zombies here are your typical garden variety walking corpses we’ve seen in so many other horror films, but there are a few new twists here that manage to keep things interesting. For starters the zombies here now make groaning guttural sounds like they’re struggling to breathe. It’s actually pretty eerie and enhances the otherworldly ambiance of the more horrifying sequences. Secondly the zombies are much stronger than typical humans, they use tools more, and work together. I thought this aspect was just okay. It adds to the tension quite a lot in some of the sequences, but comes off as a bit cheesy in others. Finally the method of reanimation is a bit different here. As you may have guessed the ultrasonic radiation is what does it, but zombies can smear small amounts of the blood of the living on dead corpses to bring them to life. Now this I wasn’t a fan of. It’s a pretty big stretch for a zombie film that’s using fictional science as it’s basis, and just doesn’t fit with the story at all. The writers could have just as easily re-animated all zombies the same way instead of introducing this element, and alas it comes off as extremely out of place and ridiculous. It’s a small part of the film though so for the most part I’m willing to forgive this.
Horror films in this era aren’t usually known for great performances but Let Sleeping Corpses Lie left me pleasantly surprised here. Ray Lovelock does a wonderful job as what could pass for a modern day hipster. I found him believable in every scene, and the actor did such a great job I actually found myself liking the character. Arthur Kennedy does a fantastic job as the inspector and right from the get go is able to get viewers to hate him. A perfect fit for the character in my opinion. The weakest link of the starring cast is Cristina Galbo as Edna, but it isn’t entirely the actress’ fault. Some of the lines are terrible and are obviously poorly translated from the film’s Spanish crew. By the end of the film I was getting ready to pull my hair out if I heard her say “I’m so frightened!” one more time.
Let Sleeping Corpses Lie highlights the work of some very capable special effects artists back in the day. This film doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to trying to gross out the viewers with zombies eating flesh and organs and lots of skin tearing and blood. There are only a few violent scenes in the film but they’re all highly memorable and will stick with you after the credits roll. With that said these sequences are more shocking than they are frightening. Let Sleeping Corpses Lie isn’t a very frightening film, but it has really good ambiance and a very good soundtrack which make many scenes eerie but hardly scary. The main draw here is the story and characters which is quite unusual for a film of this kind especially one released in the mid seventies.
It doesn’t stand with the classics such as Night of the Living Dead or Dawn of the Dead, but for a similarly themed film of this era not directed by George Romero Let Sleeping Corpses Lie manages to stand on its own legs. It has a decent story, likable characters, and some fairly unique zombie mechanics which should manage to hold the interest of genre fans. Casual horror fans probably won’t enjoy this one very much though because it feels a bit dated and is light on the scares. That doesn’t take away from the fact that this one really surprised me as I did not expect my opinion would change so much in this case.
Pros
- Great zombie effects
- Likable characters
- Decent story
Cons
- Some goofy elements
