The Cole-o-ween festivities roll on here at Lantern HQ! This time around we are discussing one of our favorite underappreciated zombie classics, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (Grau, 1974). This one has it all – beautiful locations, social commentary, hideous reanimated dead, and genuine scares. It acts as a bit of a bridge between that British tradition of scifi inflected horror and the walking dead in the Romero tradition that we would come to know and love. Grau adds a couple of his own new twists to zombie lore along the way. If you’ve never seen this one before, you’re in for a treat. Rise from your graves and shamble out to catch this one right away.
P.S. you may have to look for alternate titles. In addition to Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, this one is also known as The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue, Do Not Profane the Sleep of the Dead, and Don’t Open the Window. It’s kind of a Jorge Grau thing to make one great movie that goes by four (at least) great titles. And don’t sleep on Grau. He’s made some great genre entries. We really hope this episode encourages everyone to check out more of his work. He and this movie’s star, Ray Lovelock, both deserve more attention from a wider audience. This is a great place to start that journey and a movie that could earn a spot in your spooky season viewing rotation for years to come.
What you’ll find in this episode: Ericca’s attempt to recreate Ray Lovelock’s dubbed voice, hippies versus squares, the dead versus the living, Jorge Grau’s zombie innovations, and ultrasonic radiation.
– Cole
Links and Recommendations:
Check out Let Sleeping Corpses Lie on IMDB.
Ericca’s further viewing pick of Severance.
Cole’s further viewing pick of Blood Ceremony.
Real life examples of the reanimated dead in the natural world.
Where to go in Manchester in the event of a zombie apocalypse.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: RSS