It takes a LOT to scare me these days, much less keep me interested. And let's face it, I'm sick of hype. So after being pleasantly surprised (okay, knocked off my ass) by Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man I decided to investigate more of Ray Lovelock's genre output. First up,  Let Sleeping Corpses Lie a.k.a. The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue.

Quickly scrambling for cover and the remote, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie is the first monster movie to scare me to the point of  stopping the film since The Thing. And unlike The Thing, I knew what was going to happen (the Night of the Living Dead template and many usual traditions allowed me to 'call' what came next). Even so, I freaked out.

A summary: En route to fix up a home in Windemere with his mates, George's (Lovelock) transport is mangled by the nervous Edna (Cristina Galbo). Soon they discover scientists using an experimental combine which emits a form of radiation for pest control. This nasty bit of progress reanimates the recently dead. With no allies save one doctor, the young couple are implicated in the horrendous doings of the growing zombie horde.  As enemies surround them, will George and Edna survive their ordeal, or will they die at the hands of prejudice police or the equally vicious corpses?

What goes BUMP day or night...

The Manchester soundscape: Music, zombie moans, other noises. That hard gulp slamming against my throat comes from the downright spooky, abrasive Moog abuse and the unnerving moans of the undead. That first moment when Guthie appears at the river is so damn scary-not just for the actor's performance and look but, too, for the sounds following him.

Later, it's the whine of the nefarious machine that sends positive chills. And the cold-blooded murder at the end, well gunshots have never sounded so malicious.

It's rare when a film's sounds compliment the onscreen creeps, but when it does happen it's a scare unlike anything else.

Atmosphere:

I've never seen an English vista as spooky as Manchester Morgue's Park district. Blankets of fog swirl in sinister fashion against a now-ugly landscape. The quiet tranquility at the river where George and Edna stop for directions to her sisters house becomes a place of unbelievable dread. And when the zombified Guthrie appears soon after you know you're a long damn way from Kansas.

It's not just the countryside that loses beauty. The very city itself is filled with a negative vibe so profound you can understand why George wants to escape so dearly. Everyone on the streets looks pale and sick-almost dead, a few take George's lead in wearing some kind of mask. This as protection against ingesting the pollution-thick too-white factory clouds, vehicle exhausts, piles of trash and all-around miasma. Not even the appearance of a streaker can crack the decaying patina coating the city.

And this cemetery (some footage shot in the place where Little John was buried). Wow. I believed the dead could walk here. I know it's something about the desolation, the fog and the fact that you knew our brave couple weren't safe for long. There's just so much atmosphere not only in the cramped space of the crypt, but in the open spaces which surround it.

The story. Updated as of 2/17/2008.

Looks like the first step towards Manchester Morgue pest control has become a reality. Seriously. In the middle of watching Star Trek, a commercial for a pest control device called RiddexPlus uses electrical pulse waves instead of chemicals to rid your home of pests. Hopefully, the RiddexPlus won't work in the same manner as that Agricultural monstrosity in ....Manchester Morgue. Thank goodness we don't live anywhere near where the corpses lie. I find this both amusing and scary.

----- And now back to my regularly scheduled review.

As convoluted as it sometimes gets there is a really choice message in this film: you screw with nature, it's gonna screw you right back. To futher bolster that point of view, it's nice to see a hippy character who isn't a tree-hugger. George's environmental concerns are more realistic because of the way the character expresses it; sure he goes on about polluting the earth, but coming from the city where he's seen evidence of such things, it sickens him to note his beloved countryside is following suit.

We are only beginning to see the effects of a century of pollution on our ecological system and atomsphere. Knowing this now makes this part of the story all the more unnerving. How far will we go before we corrupt everything, even death?

Another aspect I enjoy is war between the generations, it's a sad state when the elder generation are so afraid of change. So afraid of a threat that isn't there. Or perhaps that they are trapped, while they watch the young indulge themselves in freedoms unheard of. Director Grau has mentioned the fascist connection with his police. They are a mirror of the oppressive iron fist in Franco's Spain. I really appreciate the more realistic way George is written and portrayed here. George is weary of fighting battles he shouldn't have to, and ultimately triumphs at great cost.

Like MacReady and Garry, George and the Inspector have a definite war of the generations going on. And too, George tries to inject some sense into his bullheaded elder but no. At least, Garry learns from Mac's examples so he's not such a bastard in the end.

Gore score...

While the chowdown on copper Craig is gruesome, nothing tops the attack on the poor hospital receptionist. While I thought the sacrifice in the first Blind Dead was pretty brutal and inventive for the time, it's nothing compared to the uh, impromptu breast reduction bit done here. I'm glad I didn't read much about the film before I got my copy, for this absolutely visceral is the most unnerving attack on a woman until Make Them Die Slowly came along.

The twist on the zombie lore invented by George Romero...

As innovative as Toe Tags (George Romero's excellent 2005 zombie comic for DC) was, Land of the Dead was a bit of let down concerning the growing intellect in the zombie denizens of Romero's universe. The scripters for Grau's undead fest hinted at a cool variant some thirty years before Land. The Manchester ghouls retain habits (Guthrie's car attack for example), and worse, they remember wrongs done to them:

Witness Katie and Martin attacking sister Edna. Edna attacking George, and George getting revenge on the chief inspector.

No bullet to the brain will stop these zombies, only fire does the trick.

Perhaps this is an ode to the ashes to ashes blessing, or noting that cremation is the only thing that will destroy a body quickly. Whatever the case, when combined with the unnatural strength Grau's zombies possess, you have a virtually unstoppable fiend. The destruction by fire is another hint that nature is a powerful weapon indeed.

There's a MacReady here:

Yeah that's the most important element of this film to me. Witness George's reluctant heroism, his struggle against authority and monsters that would ultimately end his life. Couple this with his go at ending a horror as bad as the zombies themselves, and I really see what a deep impression this film leaves.

George has every reason to be a bit short with people who piss him off: he's misunderstood, disrespected and killed for being an individual. While he isn't as combat hardened as MacReady is, a lot of the same traits abound. I love the fact that he's blunt but personable at the same time. It's like MacReady's 'I want to be alone but you just won't let me.' And the separated at birth thing continues in their look too. Understanding all this now, I really begin to wonder if Carpenter and Lancaster saw Grau's film during it's mid-70s run as Don't Open the Window.

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