From Piero Regnoli, co-writer of Nightmare City and of I, Vampiri, and exploitation director Andrea Bianchi, comes Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror, the unofficial follow-up to Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2 (thus accounting for the film’s alternate title, Zombie 3, which is separate from the 1988 Fulci/Fragasso/Mattei production of the same name), itself an unofficial sequel to George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. As with all facsimiles of a copy, the quality of the film seems to have decreased in ratio with each removal from the original. The film is a signature piece of zombie cinema due to its makeup and uncompromising vision yet its cumulative effect is vastly depreciated in the wake of poor character development, lack of plot, and nonsensical situations.
Archeology Professor Ayres (Renato Barbieri) perishes after awakening a trove of Etruscan corpses outside his estate, where a group of friends await his arrival. By the following morning, when the professor fails to appear, the lodgers split up in hopes of finding their host when the reanimated begin to appear.
Burial Ground is a relentless exercise in rapid-fire pacing. Regnoli dispenses with plot (what little back story exists is presented during the opening credits) and characterization in order to present an uncompromising onslaught of apocalyptic nihilism. In this sense, it is one of the most devastating zombie films set to celluloid. This is accomplished, in part, due to three factors. One, Bianchi directs his undead to move at an almost unbearably slow pace which sets impending doom at an excruciatingly rate. We watch as one character snatches her leg back in order to evade being bitten as the zombie assailant stagnates, pausing in the wake of the absent limb, before turning to resume its attack. Two, Rosario Prestopino (City of the Living Dead, Demons, Opera), the individual responsible for Fulci’s trademark zombies in Zombi 2, presents us with some of the most dilapidated, mummy-esque corpses of all time, reminiscent of Amando de Ossorio’s undead in Tombs of the Blind Dead (when a rock is dropped on a zombie’s head, it readily collapses, leaving a plume of dust). Three, Bianchi permits his zombies to use tools, climb, and organize themselves almost twenty-five years before Land of the Dead used such plot devises to an equally threatening degree.
Yet, for all its undead effectiveness, the film suffers as a whole due to a lack of plot, miscasting, little character development, and an overriding, distancing preoccupation with sex and nudity. Bianchi, keeping with his reputation, allots several opportunities for the latter, the first of which occurs when Ayres’s guests settle in for the night after arriving at his villa. Michael (miscast Peter Bark, a twenty-five year-old midget), the twelve year-old son of George (Roberto Caporali) and Evelyn (Maria Angela Giordano), appears, rather eerily, as he sneaks into his parents’ room as they are having sex. Once George is dispatched by the zombies after attempting to save his family, Bianchi affords himself yet another opportunity for nudity and Regnoli the chance to insert another instance of gruesome violence as Evelyn comforts her scared zombified child, holding Michael to her chest, as he leans in and severs her nipple from her breast with his teeth.
Of the characters, there are three couples total who must suffer the plague of the undead. Yet, though they are titled roles, little is given in sense of character development to the extent that the viewer becomes apathetic to the characters’ situations and, in most cases, finds him or herself merely rooting for the zombies because the action predominates the film throughout. The only figure of any interest to the audience is Michael. That’s not to say we have a vested concern in the child, but the exact converse. The miscast, pug-eyed actor, attempting to sound like a prepubescent child, forces the viewer to anticipate the child’s death in order to silence his irritating voice.
Aside from the poor characterization, there are several arbitrary scenarios which are merely inserted into the script in order to slow the characters down so as to permit another zombie confrontation. Regnoli doesn’t bother with providing plausible situations either. Rather, it seems he rashly penned the first idea which came to mind. For instance, Janet (Karin Well) gets caught in a bear trap on the Ayres grounds. Now, I could be wrong here, but I doubt that bears are an overriding concern in Italy. Also, considering the undead date back some 2,400 years, they have aged well because various pieces of still-moist flesh compliment fully operational eyes. However, the time and dedication put into the production is best represented during the final scene of the film, when the “Prophecy of the Black Spider” is presented onscreen. The words “nights” and “prophecy” are misspelled as “nigths” and “profecy.”
What could have been, considering the themes of sex and death are frequently seen side-by-side throughout the film (atop an excessive Oedipal complex), is long past worthwhile speculation because such ideas aren’t missed opportunities but merely thematic selling points for the production. Instead, Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror deserves its stature as a cult film due, if nothing else, to the horrible, nerve-wrecking caricature of Michael. However, for zombie enthusiasts, the work is memorable for Rosario Prestopino’s dehydrated undead. Otherwise, the film is a mere exercise in exploitation cinema with a trademark early-’80’s Italian feel.
Now does this look even remotely like a twelve year-old?
Favorite line: “Mother, this rag . . . it smells of death!”
–Michael
-Egregious Gurnow
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