Living Dead at Manchester Morgue [DVD] [1974] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

I bought this film for my son (don't worry he is 27) who has been a horror film fanatic for many years and this review is largely his thoughts. Firstly then this a mid-budget film with good 'special effects'. I am told it was made by a Spanish film unit which peraps explains why the Manchester Morgue in the title only gets one mention in the entire film. The action takes place in the Lake District of Northen England. Basically a London Shop keeper closes up his shop in an extremely dirty London and escaspes to the Lake Distric where he meets up with a lady and then the Zombie invasion starts. After a recent scientific study we now know the zombies will always win so don't expect any happy ending because there isn't one.

There is plenty of tension and very good special effects as I have written. The acting is good and the story-line pretty standard zombie fare. If you like horror films and zombie stories then you are not going to be disappoined with this film. Of course if you don't keep clear and this film is clearly an 18 rated movie because there is plenty of gore. If you buy it I feel sure it will give you a good evening.

Blue Underground have polished up another schlock-gore treat in pristine hi def with their Machester Morgue Blu ray, the lush greens of the countryside and the crayon red blood now pop from the screen. It's several steps up from the already impressive DVD transfer, and gives a whole new leash of undead life to this 70s splatter classic.

If zombies existed and formed their own Zombie Actors' Guild, this is the kind of film they would be fighting (in their patently clumsy way) to appear in. When I started watching Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, I didn't really know it was a zombie movie; then, by the time it was over, I had it ranked in my personal top three zombie films of all time. This film is living proof that you can't judge a zombie film by its number of zombies. It's all about atmosphere, a fact which most European filmmakers have always known, and that's why a film with less than a dozen zombies plays much better than some sweeping epic about a zombie apocalypse. And I must say this is a thoroughly European film, as it's an Italian-Spanish coproduction featuring a Spanish director (Jorge Grau) and a British cast (and filmed in Britain). It also goes by many names, including Don't Open the Window, The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue, No profanar el sueño de los muertos, and Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti.

When you think about it, letting sleeping corpses lie isn't really the problem here; I daresay every single character is wholly in favor of doing just that. The problem consists of keeping sleeping corpses from rising all on their own. Either way, the last thing George (Ray Lovelock) expected to be dealing with on his weekend trip to the country was zombies. Unfortunately for him, a red-headed stranger named Edna (Christine Galbo) accidentally runs over his motorcycle. He insists that she take him to his destination, but they end up checking on her sister first. Along the way, Edna is attacked by a decidedly abnormal man, although no one believes her. Neither do they believe her sister when she claims this same man murdered her husband. Having arrived at the wrong place at the wrong time, George finds himself basically trapped in town as the hippie-hating police sergeant's main suspect. His attempt to extricate himself from the situation indirectly leads to him finding ample proof that Edna was telling the truth all along, though. Not only is the murderer a zombie, he's engaged in waking up some undead friends to join the fun. Not surprisingly, the gruff sergeant isn't buying such a seemingly cock and bull story of corpses coming to life and feeding on human bodies. George and Edna are pretty much on their own when it comes to trying to survive the whole, unbelievable situation.

The source of the zombie outbreak is actually rather interesting, as it's a far cry from some wacked-out virus or alien infestation. The whole storyline is well above average, for that matter, holding together quite well as it forges its own path through the zombie genre. And the ending? Well, I can't think of any way to improve it, really. It's well-nigh perfect. Additionally, lest my fellow gorehounds despair, there are some excellent scenes of blood and gore as the film proceeds - both in terms of what the zombies do to their victims as well as what their victims do to them as they frantically try to escape the horror all around them.

This 1974 film inevitably draws comparisons to George Romero's immensely influential Night of the Living Dead. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure which film is the better of the two - although, if I had to choose which of them to watch over again, it would be Let Sleeping Corpses Lie. That's how impressed I was with this film.