review archive - articles - podcast - contact us

 

1987 - 96m.
Italy

Tame, made-for-TV Itallian flick from Lamberto Bava (who may yet prove that the Demons movies were a fluke) has a goofy group of, what I assume are supposed to be, teenagers on a road trip getting stranded in a graveyard where there just happens to be a bar run by a one-eyed weirdo who offers them a treasure if they can last the night in an underground crypt/catacombs.

From there it's various long-winded scenes of our cast fleeing from zombies (who never even attempt to attack them, much to my chagrin), falling into pits filled with bodies that's also inhabited by a giant killer eyeball and generally acting all scared when, from what we the viewers see, there's nothing to be scared of.

This is played unseriously and seems to not have had much effort put into it because it's a misfire as both a comedy and a horror movie - in fact, it just seems like a weak movie that was made as filler on TV around Halloween (and it probably was). The make-up effects are okay and there's a bizarre zombie "dinner party" scene but this is a muddle of scenes and ideas with no pay-off, no real interest and definitely nothing even remotely "horrific".

One of Bava's weakest where we have to figure out the point of the script having the lead characters seeing a horse drawn carriage, hearing growls while walking and finding a giant animal footprint have to do with the rest of the story. Obscure, poorly dubbed and not worth any of your time. (Chris Hartley, 5/13/04)

Directed By: Lamberto Bava.
Written By: Lamberto Bava, Dardano Sacchetti.

Starring: Gregory Lech Thaddeus, Lea Martino, Beatrice King, Gianmarco Tognazzi.