Le Notti del Terrore [also known as Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror] (1981)

The Score: 6 out of 10

An archaeology professor invites his colleagues and friends to celebrate his recent discovery. Which is just about when the zombies start to attack.

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The Review:

As far as zombie films go, this actually isn’t terrible. 

Sure, the visuals are absolute dogshit and the practical effects were cheap in the ‘80s (which is saying something), but there’s something charming about the absurd events that occur throughout the film, from the hypercharged sexual content to the overly obvious incest-jealousy element, it all adds up to one of the better unintentional ‘80s zombie comedies I have seen in quite a while.

I never laughed, perse, but I could still see the charm of the absolutely terrible nonsense that occurred throughout.

Let’s just be clear, I’m saying this is so terrible it’s sort of amusing.

For starters, the writing is just awful. Stiff dialogue that bounces from sexual banter to the generic lines everyone says in bad zombie films, and characters who have no backstory other than “they know this archaeology professor and whatnot”, in a story which is basically just zombies attack and an already vast place gets much larger whenever plot convenience needs it to. It’s so bad it’s amusing, though more in a slight chuckle way than a laugh out loud way.

Acting was terrible too. Actors not knowing how loud to scream, or how to balance their range of emotions, or even how to properly deliver lines or move. It’s all here, and it goes from extremely awkward to extremely overdone, with no in-between. You can tell it’s from the era where looks were everything. It’s bad, but it’s an amusing bad.

The visuals at least had some proper effort put in,but you can tell the budget was spent with a focus on the sets and overall toning. The zombies looked like rotting corpses, though the overall look definitely didn’t age well. There are as much blood and guts as you could ever want in a zombie film, so at least there’s that. The less said about the awful camera work, the better. Okay, fine, it’s mediocre, but that’s not much better, especially since there’s no real effort spent to capture the terror of the rise of the undead.

If this all makes it sound like Le Notti del Terrore should be a 4 out of 10 or a 3 out of 10, then you’re probably missing the point. The movie is so bad it’s actually amusing. I mean, it’s not an 8 out of 10, which would mean that it would make you laugh out loud. It’s a 7 out of 10, meaning I was amused enough that I chuckled every now and then. Worth a one time watch.

-Joseph