The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue (1974 aka Let
Sleeping Corpses Lie aka Don’t Open
The Window/Blue Underground Blu-ray)
Picture: B
Sound: B- Extras: C+ Film: C+
Before it became a spoof of itself and a repetitive joke,
zombie films in the wake of Romero’s Night
Of The Living Dead (1968) when they were made were able to deal with the
ideas of self-destruction, cannibalism, annihilation and the outright idea that
the dead needed to literally eat the living (freshly killed) to survive. Jorge Grau’s The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue (1974) was well-known to fans
at the time (no matter the title being used), but it has slowly faded from the
discourse on the genre and Blue Underground has issued it on Blu-ray for serious
fans of the genre to catch.
In an interesting bait-and-switch, the police go after
hippies they think are killers, but that turns out to be far too optimistic as
the murders they are investigating turn out to be by a much deadlier source,
living dead zombies!
This Italian-British co-production is effectively creepy
and suspenseful enough, plus the locations and atmospherics make this a very
effective film on a purely cinematic level.
It also has some scenes I have not seen hardly any zombie films of the
last 25 years come close to. My only
problem is that it’s ending does not work and the script can be uneven, but the
actors (including Ray Lovelock of The
Cassandra Crossing and Autopsy
and Arthur Kennedy of Fantastic Voyage,
Lawrence Of Arabia, Humanoid) are a plus and it is a key
zombie film in an increasing sea of them that do not work. This one has aged better than not, but is
part of the classic period of such films that Fulci wrapped up with his Zombie films and Romero concluded with Day Of The Dead. This is above most of the films since and
though I had not seen it for a very long time, it is at least a minor classic
of the subgenre and should be seen at least once. This Blu-ray makes that a pleasure.
The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image is
supposed to come from the original camera negative and yes, it certainly looks
like it with fine color and detail for an older production of its age. It is terrific the film’s elements have
survived long enough to produce a disc this good looking and fans of Horror,
zombies and film in general will be surprised, while Blu-ray fans will be
surprised at how many demo shots this disc offers. Director of Photography Francisco Sempere (Hypnosis, A Bullet For Sandoval) delivers a fine look to the film that can
now really be appreciated and ranks up there with the best zombie films. In addition, it looks much better than most
made since the late 1980s.
The film at its best was originally offered in film prints
with 4-track magnetic stereo, so Blue Underground has upgraded to the sound to DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 7.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 EX mixes that reflect the attempt
at multi-track sound at the time with some effective results. I liked the DTS more, but the Dolby is not
bad, just not as effective. Yes, the
tracks show their age, but the use of sound is interesting and Giuliano
Sorgini’s score is a plus.
Extras include extensive stills, TV & Radio Spots,
Theatrical Trailers, three making of featurettes (Back To The Morgue with Director Grau, Zombie Fighter with star Lovelock, Zombie Maker with Special Effects Artist Giannetto De Rossi) and a
2000 interview with Grau.
- Nicholas Sheffo
