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Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror (1981), Slow Zombies Kill Weird People

Burial Ground zombie movie

&NewLine;<p>While modern zombie films have accustomed viewers to lightning-fast creatures hunting down the living&comma; there was once a time when zombies were notoriously slow&period; In fact&comma; it was the norm&period; However&comma; in Andrea Bianchi’s <em>Burial Ground&colon; The Nights of Terror<&sol;em> &lpar;1981&rpar;&comma; which has gone by dozens of different names over the years&comma; the zombies slow down to a near standstill&period; Unfortunately&comma; this makes the film’s central antagonists untenable&comma; while also making the pacing and plot equally placid&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Though it is easy to get hung up on the unreasonably slow zombies that would pose no threat in the real world&comma; there are so many other elements in<em> Burial Ground<&sol;em> that provide more questions than answers&period; However&comma; before I get into the most bizarre aspects of Andrea Bianchi’s grindhouse zombie film&comma; I have to provide you with some context&period; For all of its faults and the many reviewers who have lambasted the film for its lack of plot&comma; there is a story somewhere in there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>Burial Ground<&sol;em> opens with some kind of archeologist or scientist or religious scholar trying to figure out the secrets hidden in the crypts below a lavish mansion&period; As one can imagine&comma; his work quickly unleashes an evil curse that brings the dead back to life&period; Despite moving at a snail’s pace&comma; the dead overtake him&comma; but not before he is able to invite a group of his friends to the mansion to discuss his latest discoveries&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Three couples arrive at the mansion&comma; as well as the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;child” of one of the couples&period; This &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;child” is likely meant to be no more than 8 or 9 years old&comma; but he is played by Pietro Barzocchini &lpar;credited as Peter Bark&rpar;&comma; an Italian actor who was about 25 years old at the time of filming&period; Therefore&comma; you have someone who is very clearly an adult&comma; albeit somewhat small and boyish for his age&comma; playing a much&comma; much younger character by the name of Michael&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;11&sol;burial-ground-1-1-1024x606&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Burial Ground incest" class&equals;"wp-image-2471"&sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-element-caption"><em>Burial Ground&colon; The Nights of Terror<&sol;em> &lpar;1981&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>On top of that&comma; Michael’s characterization is odd from top to bottom&period; He is directed to provide very little dialogue&period; Instead&comma; he just stares off into space with wide-eyed terror for seemingly no reason&period; When he inadvertently walks in on his mother&comma; Evelyn &lpar;Mariangela Giordano&rpar;&comma; having sex with her partner&comma; it seems to traumatize him to no end&period; He also watches other couples having sex&comma; as do we&period; The entire thing is very Freudian&comma; but without any rhyme or reason&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In any case&comma; the couples enjoy the pleasures of the mansion and wonder why their host&comma; the scientist&comma; has yet to appear&period; Soon after&comma; the mansion is attacked by a horde of really&comma; really slow zombies&period; The couples barricade themselves inside with the help of the staff&period; However&comma; the zombies quickly evolve&comma; learning how to use tools like axes and pitchforks to break down the makeshift barriers&period; The situation grows increasingly dire&comma; even though the speed of zombies &lpar;or lack thereof&rpar; would have provided the characters with ample time to escape if they had really tried&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile&comma; the creepy man-child&comma; Michael&comma; develops an attraction to his mother&comma; to the point of fondling her&comma; kissing her&comma; and asking to feed on her breasts&period; His voice-over is done in such a way that he sounds like a children’s doll every time he says &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;mama&comma;” which makes it all the more strange&period; Naturally&comma; Evelyn spurns his advances and slaps Michael&comma; causing him to run off somewhere into the mansion&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The rest of the story unfolds with a series of uninteresting and implausible setpieces&comma; with each character getting torn to pieces one by one&period; Again&comma; the zombies don’t really do all that much&period; Instead&comma; the camera zooms in on lifeless skulls with maggots coming out of their nostrils and eye sockets&period; The story does not really move in any satisfying direction&period; However&comma; the film is most infamous for a scene that takes place in the final minutes&comma; so it may be worth the wait to see the whole thing through to the end&period; Let’s just say that there is a zombified breastfeeding moment that goes about as well as one could imagine&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;11&sol;burial-ground-3-1024x615&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Burial Ground movie death scene" class&equals;"wp-image-2472"&sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-element-caption"><em>Burial Ground&colon; The Nights of Terror<&sol;em> &lpar;1981&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Even if you ignore the strange Freudian subplots&comma; lack of pacing&comma; and directionless plot&comma; it is impossible to ignore the slow zombies&period; At one point in the film&comma; one of the characters actually says something along the lines of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;these zombies are really slow&comma; so we can just outrun them&period;” And yet&comma; they don’t&period; They scream and build barriers that don’t work and wait to get killed&period; Eventually&comma; some of the characters sneak out of the mansion&comma; only to encounter even slower&comma; unjustifiably deadly zombies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>Burial Ground<&sol;em> was clearly an attempt to cash in on the Italian zombie movie craze and the success of some of its predecessors&comma; like <em>Zombi<&sol;em> and <em>Zombi 2<&sol;em>&period; However&comma; one could argue that the complete lack of vision and poor pacing inadvertently killed a genre movement that could have continued for another decade&period; Despite being funny &lpar;though not in the way <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;04&sol;reversing-traditional-gender-representations-in-the-contemporary-zom-com&sol;">zombie comedies<&sol;a> should be&rpar; for its bizarre casting and weird&comma; violently sexual encounters&comma; <em>Burial Ground<&sol;em> really has nothing to offer&period; Even the death scenes are repetitive&comma; with each respective victim getting their stomachs opened so that zombies with subpar makeup can pretend to eat their entrails&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In short&comma; there are only a few reasons to actually sit through <em>Burial Ground&colon; The Nights of Terror <&sol;em>&lpar;1981&rpar;&period; If you’re a fan of Italian grindhouse horror&comma; then this film might scratch that itch&period; Moreover&comma; if you’re like me and you find it hilarious when adult actors play child characters very poorly&comma; then you may get a few laughs from it&period; In the case of the latter viewers&comma; you will also get to see some really bizarre&comma; unsettling&comma; and incestuous mother-son bonding&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size">Burial Ground&colon; The Nights of Terror &lpar;1981&rpar; Movie Rating&colon; &starf;&half; out of 5<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you’d like to watch <em>Burial Ground&colon; The Nights of Terror<&sol;em> &lpar;1981&rpar;&comma; it is currently available to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B01NAXP8OC&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B01NAXP8OC&amp&semi;linkId&equals;0803ff8ef8f5bfc2ec63f130740971f4">rent or purchase via Amazon<&sol;a>&period; For more film reviews like this one&comma; be sure to check out the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film<&sol;a> homepage&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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