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HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD/NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES Starring Selan Karay, Frank Garfield, Evelyn Margaret Newton Night of the Zombies was a film whose popularity grew over time due to the home video rental market. With the advent of DVD, it would have been a matter of time before this movie would be released in widescreen. Many fans' prayers were answered when Anchor Bay restored it from its negative (under the title Hell of the Living Dead). The movie begins with an accident at a top secret chemical/biological/nuclear plant on a remote island where government scientists are trying to come up with a chemical/virus that will solve the overpopulation problem…..one that would cause normal human beings to eat each other. A leak at the plant causes the scientists to become infected, turning them into flesh-eating zombies. A strike force in SWAT team uniforms is sent in to clean up the mess. However, they need to go through the infected island of New Guinnea to get to their destination.
While traveling through the countryside, the team come across a pair of telejournalists who have had their own encounters with some of the first zombies. They pick them up, and continue to move into the jungle. The first village they encounter is swarming with the dead. After they stop for some fun and zombie target practice, they move on to have a few more encounters with the living dead until they end up at the island compound where the whole mess started. That’s where they need to stop the problem at its source before it’s too late for mankind… Hell of the Living Dead is presented uncut in anamorphic widescreen at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Anchor Bay gave this film top-notch treatment in the restoration process, and it shows in the video quality. The SWAT uniforms are actually ROYAL BLUE and not black, as they’d appeared in previous video versions. There is also a world of difference in the night/indoor scenes between this version and previous video versions. So much more detail can be seen (many fans didn’t even realize that the bonfire scene with the village tribe was indoors).
The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono sound is just fine for a movie of this type; it’s not the most sought-after movie in 5.1 surround sound. No hiss. No pops. Clean as can be. The extras are a treat for collectors. A featurette (Hell Rats of the Living Dead) is included here with interviews with Bruno Mattei interspersed with clips from his films. He reflects on his career and the movies he has directed. This same featurette is available on Anchor Bay’s other Bruno Mattei DVD, Rats: Night of Terror. The International trailer is featured on this disc under its Hell of the Living Dead title. This trailer clocks in longer than most trailers (around 3 minutes long). This is an instance where the major gore scenes make up most of the trailer. It would have been nice, however, to have included the Motion Picture Marketing (the company that released this movie in the U.S.) advertisements for the Night of the Zombies release.
An extensive stills gallery is included; wonderful, rare video box covers and poster art from all over the world for this film are also part of the montage. From this stills gallery, one can see that Hell of the Living Dead was released under several different titles in different territories. Each country handles the subject matter differently as well (United States exploitation moguls like zombies, so they had to call this one Night of the Zombies; Britain thought that Zombie Creeping Flesh was more appropriate; however, in Italy (keeping in mind that this movie owes 95% of its being to Dawn of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead), they titled this one L’Inferno Dei Morti Viventi (Hell of the Living Dead) to keep it in the Romero vein.
The box cover art for this DVD remains faithful to the United States poster and video releases by keeping the one-eyed zombie reaching out at the prospective buyer through the fog on the box (surrounded by his buddies, silhouetted in the background). Something for the collector to keep in mind. Finally available in widescreen and digitally re-mastered from the original negative, Hell of the Living Dead can devour an all-new audience. Anyone who is a fan of the Italian cannibal/zombie cycle (this one was released in the middle of it) will enjoy this movie. And with such a low price for the DVD, why wouldn’t they?
EPILOGUE: The sound was terrible - heavy VHS "hissing" can be heard throughout the film. The audio levels were high, though. No trouble hearing dialogue. This disc has a limited number of extras. There is a slideshow containing production stills set to the soundtrack of a scene in the movie. Although it is not up to par with Anchor Bay's stills gallery, these stills are clear and are not found in Anchor Bay's photo gallery. Also included is the television spot. The television spot contains no shots from the film, only the title flashing onscreen with the "NO ONE UNDER 17 ADMITTED" warning at the bottom; a narrator basically re-states the " NO ONE UNDER 17 ADMITTED " message. No music. No footage. No stills. This is an example of the type of promotion that provokes curiosity; less is more. Three newspaper ads for the movie are included. These could have been added to the stills gallery; it was probably included separately just to make the disc look a little heavier on the extra features. The last extra is the "trailer" for Lucio Fulci's Gates of Hell (aka City of the Living Dead). It is nothing more than a few clips from the film; this was taken from Paragon Video's Dr. Butcher, MD videotape. There's another "trailer," and it is the same exact trailer plus the "coffin" scene tacked onto the end. This disc is recommended only for completists and hardcore fans of this movie. It's price is comparable to Anchor Bay's Hell of the Living Dead DVD, so if you want the best possible presentation of this movie, get a hold of Anchor Bay's version. |
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