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BURIAL GROUND: NIGHTS OF TERROR Starring Peter Bark, Karin Well and Mariangella Giordano
Andrea Bianchi's Burial Ground (aka Nights of Terror) was proposed as the unofficial sequel to Lucio Fulci’s Zombie. The zombies were very similar-looking to the ones from Fulci's film, but that is where the similarities end. However, many fans of Italian zombie/cannibal films seem to still embrace this movie. Media Blasters has released Burial Ground widescreen under its original title, Nights of Terror. The story begins with Doctor Ehrs, an archeologist, who stumbles across an ancient Etruscan secret to life beyond death. He is staying at a wealthy friend’s mansion near the burial site. On the eve of a get-together at the estate, the Doctor enters the tomb of the evil Etruscan monks and begins to snoop around. He is greeted by a pair of hideously decayed zombies who proceed to take some bites out of him (one of the zombies resembles Kane Hodder's makeup design in the seventh Friday the 13th film). After the main credits, the rest of the bunch arrive, ready to indulge in some drinking and wild sex. The zombies leave their tomb, searching for the flesh of the unsuspecting partiers.
After lots of running around by the cast, the zombies get what they are looking for. Some of the characters do get to kill off some zombies, classic-style (destroying the heads/brains via shotguns and machetes). However, it seems that the zombies are far more intelligent. I’ve never before seen a movie where zombies fashion a battering-ram to gain entrance to the front doors of a mansion. Some zombies even decide to take to the outer-walls of the mansion, climbing to the windows on the second floor.
There is not much in the way of a plot. It is a very routine story, very much like one would find in a darker-edged comic book (such as Tales from the Crypt). The story can be best described as sheep being led to slaughter. The acting is almost as bad as can be expected from a movie of this type (save for Lucio Fulci's/Bruno Mattei's version of Zombi 3).
This film is also fairly strange. The film's location (an ancient burial site and an old mansion) and musical score set the stage for a weird movie experience. The most interesting part of this film is the fact that one of the characters has a 13-year-old son who is obsessed with his mother. The boy was actually played by an eerie, short, bug-eyed 35-year-old named Peter Bark. There are bits of inane dialogue throughout the film (“you look just like a little whore……but I like that!”) and the actors seem to wander about the film frame.
The makeup effects are exactly what one would expect from an Italian zombie production. However, it seems that the budget was lower than that of Fulci’s Zombie (for the makeup effects, in particular), because the facial features of the actors can be seen under the zombie makeup. This film was available in the U.S. from Vestron Video under the title Burial Ground. It was a full-frame print and can still be found on video store rental shelves. The widescreen Japanese release with distracting Japanese subtitles is a very dark print with washed-out colors. This new DVD release by Media Blasters through their Shriek Show series has an image that is bright and colorful. The reds stand out in a way that the viewer is assaulted by the scenes of disembowelment and zombie carnage. However, the image is a bit TOO bright, causing the blacks to appear to be dark gray. It also seems that the anamorphic enhancement is under-scanned because there is a thin strip of gray at the top and bottom of the image (where the anamorphic bars end and the image begins).
The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound is fine, although it seems that the treble levels in the dialogue track are a bit low. This is probably due to the source material and the low budget and not the mastering done by Media Blasters. The extras include interviews with Gabriele Cristanti and Mariangela Giordano. These interviews are pretty dull and could have been combined, including some clips from the movie interspersed between the interview clips in the same fashion as an Anchor Bay or Blue Underground featurette. The International trailer is included and basically tells the story. It would have been a good gesture for Media Blasters to have included the domestic trailer for this release. It seems to be a trend amongst domestic DVD releases for films of this type that the International trailers are included and the U.S. trailers are absent (ex. Phenomena (as Creepers), Hell of the Living Dead (as Night of the Zombies), City of the Living Dead (as Gates of Hell), etc.). The inclusion of these trailers is important for the viewer to understand the way these films were handled and advertised in the exploitation market. The contrast between the International trailers (with the absence of narration) and the exploitative U.S. trailers (with narration by either Adolf Caesar or Roskko; with catchy or even tasteless taglines, etc.) would help make certain DVD releases definitive. There is a three-minute still and art gallery, displaying mostly theatrical posters, publicity stills and video/DVD box cover art (where did they get that Vestron release that included a mini-shovel?!?!). Trailers for other Media Blasters releases are also included (House by the Edge of the Park, Eaten Alive, Spasmo and Zombi Holocaust).
This was a long-awaited release and a very welcome disc to collectors. Although the extras could have included more material, the transfer for this release is well worth the money. Recommended for the most indiscriminate gore fans. |
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