Video Nasty #14- The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue

(1974)
Director: Jorge Grau
Writers: Sandro Continenza, Marcello Coscia. Juan Cobos, Miguel Rubio

Take Night Of The Living Dead. Strip it down to its bare essentials. Now give it a British disposition and add elements of 70's psychedelia. Mix with an entrancing experimental soundtrack and you've got The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue (a.k.a. Let Sleeping Corpses Lie; Don't Open The Window). It obviously owes a great deal to Romero's film and many parallels can be drawn between the two, but The Living Dead stands apart as a great film on its own. It's rare that a movie can boast "One of the best zombie movies ever made!" on its packaging and actually deliver on that promise.

The movie begins with a departure of scenery from the busy city life of Manchester to the tranquil English countryside, where our main character George is planning to spend the weekend. Along the way, his motorcycle is run over by a young woman named Edna, who proposes that he borrow her car for the weekend after he drops her off at her sisters. When they stop to get directions at a nearby farm and Edna is assaulted by the walking corpse of a drowned vagrant, plans begin to unravel and our protaganists are caught up in a web of the living dead and angry policemen. While there are actually very few zombies in the film, the flesheaters on display are very intimidating and display a rudimentary intelligence that makes them even more so. The explanation for the dead's return is also pretty unique. Their nervous systems are re-activated by an experimental piece of farm equipment that emits ultrasonic radiation. Which is really no sillier than "space radiation". Subplots involving Edna's sister's heroin addiction and the police sergeant's aggressive suspiciousness of youth culture really add to the already unique and captivating film.

The film was marketed in the U.S. as Don't Open The Window, paired on a double bill with Last House On The Left and unashamedly lifting its infamous tagline "TO AVOID FAINTING Keep Repeating It's Only A Movie... Only A Movie... Only A Movie..." for its poster. It may be this association with Last House On The Left that caught the film the attention of the DPP in England and landed it on the video nasties list. While it certainly has a few gory scenes, overall the movie seems fairly tame compared to other movies of its kind. That said, while The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue is a bit of a slow-burn, once it gets going it proves itself as a very effective and intriguing zombie film and is a must-watch for any fan of that sub-genre.

I give it 11 out of 12 beers.