Let Sleeping Corpses Lie

George (Ray Lovelock), a young antiques dealer, heads out of a polluted, decaying London to spend a long weekend fixing up his newly acquired cottage in the Lake District. At a petrol station a young woman, Edna (Christina Galbo), accidentally backs her mini into George's motorbike. As it will take until Monday for the parts needed to repair the bike to arrive, George persuades Edna to give him a lift. She agrees, but insists that she must go see her sister, Katy, first of all.

Unsure of their destination, George goes to ask for directions and encounters a couple of men from the Ministry of Agriculture demonstrating their experimental ultrasonic insect-killing device (it looks like a giant collander on a pole) to a local farmer. Meanwhile, back at the car, Edna is menaced by a red-eyed, uncoordinated man who disappears before George and the farmer return. From Edna's description the farmer reckons the man to be Guthrie, "the looney" but the strange thing is that he drowned himself a week ago…

Next we learn the reason for Edna's journey. Her sister, Katy, is a drug addict and is about to be institutionalised by her husband, Martin. Katy is reluctant to go, however, thereby creating a source of friction between the couple.

That night Katy sneaks out to shoot up while Martin, an artist, is busy taking some flash photographs in their garden. Katy is attacked by the same man as menaced her sister earlier – whom it is soon confirmed is indeed Guthrie – and flees into the garden. Guthrie follows and attacks and kills Martin, crushing his skull with a rock.

Edna and George arrive to find an incoherent Katy and the body of her husband. They call the police, which proves to be something of a mistake when the near-fascist Inspector (Arthur Kennedy) shows up and quickly leaps to the conclusion that Katy's account of what happened is hogwash and that her sister and the hippy-a-like George with his "long hair and faggot clothes" are all in it together, doing "drugs, sex and every sort of filth" as he puts it.

While the Inspector looks for an excuse to nail George and Edna, they investigate the mystery themselves, ultimately discovering that the experimental machine on the farm not only kills insects but also animates the dead and incites homicidal behaviour in their and other "less developed" nervous systems.

But, with the undead multiplying at an alarming rate and the Inspector closing in, convinced than ever that they are behind the series of zombie murders sweeping the district, is it already too late?

Of all the zombie films inspired by George A Romero's Living Dead series, Jorge Grau's Let Sleeping Corpses Lie AKA Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue AKA Don't Open the Window is probably the best.

The Spanish director and his Spanish/Italian team transplant the American director's Night of the Living Dead scenario (the 1974 film predates Dawn of the Dead by a good four years) to the English countryside, give it an ecological theme and produce a lurid comic book horror that is strong on both atmosphere and gore.

While Grau doesn't have Romero's talent for satire, laying on his film's message with a rather heavy hand (not that Dawn… is exactly a triumph of subtlety itself in its commutation between zombies and consumers), his excellent use of bright primary colours and atmospheric score – with the eerie noises inspired by the strange sounds enamating from decomposing corpses as they expel air – are ample compensation and show that, rather than being a simple Romero rip off, the film-makers had ideas of their own and in certain regards actually surpassed their model.

With sterling contributions from the three leads – two not-quite likeable but ultimately symapthetic characterisations from Galbo and Lovelock, along with a perhaps unconscious outpouring of resentment from Kennedy, "an older actor who had lost his fame in the American industry" as the director put it – coupled with some fine cinematography, make up/FX and editing – courtesy of Fulci regulars Gianetto De Rossi and Vincenzo Tomassi respectively – there's really not much to fault at a technical level.

The film's few weaknesses are those common to low-budget horror of its ilk.

Away from the the leads (until seeing the interview on the Django Kill DVD recently I believed Lovelock was British rather than Italian) the dubbing showcases a bizarre variety of British regional accents, from Indian hospital orderly to Scottish shopkeeper.

And, inevitably, the plot also suffers from the usual illogicalities, with the undead mysteriously knowing how to reproduce themselves – daub blood on a corpses eyes and it will reanimate – and – in another neat twist on Romero lore – showing an invulnerability to bullets but a susceptibility to fire.

Still, any film in which the villain can utter the immortal line "I wish the dead could come back to life you bastard because then I could kill you again" can't go far wrong…

Anchor Bay's DVD, released under the Let Sleeping Corpses Lie banner looks and sounds great. There's nary a scratch or artefact on the widescreen enhanced 1.85:1 transfer, on which the colours come through loud and clear, while the 5.1 mix takes the original stereophonic sound (a USP for the film at the time of its original release) and amps it up a notch.

The centrepiece extra is a 20 minute subtitled interview with Grau that covers all the usual bases – the origins of the film, some anecdotes from its production, through to it's lasting cult status. It's a nice little piece that doesn't outstay its welcome, though perhaps doesn't tell long-term fans much they didn't already know.

Other extras include a selection of promos – a 30 second TV spot along with two one minute radio pieces – and a poster/still gallery which advances automatically to an alternate version of Giorgio Sorgini's catchy opening theme. (If the soundtrack was available at a reasonable price or Audiogalaxy was still functioning I'd undoubtedly have a copy by now, dammit.)

The film is available on both Region 1 NTSC and Region 2 Pal. Both versions contain the extras outlined above, with the British disc also including a 40 page booklet and additional trailers.