Andrea Bianchi - Le notti del terrore AKA Burial Ground (1981)

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Review by Matthew King from Amazon:

Burial Ground is absolutely one of the best entries in the glut of Italian zombie/cannibal films to have been released in the late 70's and early 80's. A fine example of so bad it's great and an absolute party pleaser too. The plot is bare bones simple: A prologue shows an archaeology professor accidentally reviving the dead while on a research field trip. Fast forward a while later. A bunch of guests receive an invitation from this professor to spend a few days of rest and relaxation at his mansion. To their great surprise, they arrive at the mansion with no professor in sight. What they do encounter however are tons (and I do mean tons) of the walking undead praying for their flesh.
The thing I like the most about Burial Ground is the pacing. The initial 20 minutes are somewhat slow but after that we're talking slam bam pacing that never lets go, something you would not get from say, a Lucio Fulci flick. I'm a big fan of Fulci's films but in between zombie attacks things move at a snail's pace. Burial Ground however is as fast as a roller-coaster with innumerable zombie attack scenes and especially creative scenes of gore (although the shard of glass in the eye is definitely in homage to Fulci's Zombie). The zombies look cheap and are super slow but one thing they're not is stupid. How many zombie films do we see where the ghouls use scythes, pitchforks and axes as weapons and even collectively gather to use a battery ram to force their way in? In many ways, these zombies act way more logically than their human victims. I guess the professor did a fine job of tutoring them.

Sure this movie is ridiculous but most zombie films are anyway. There's so much to laugh about in this film. The acting? Please. All of the actors are dubbed anyways and are never given any decent opportunity to show off their ability. The dubbing is atrocious in the worst way. It's one thing when the lips are not in synch with the translator but quite another when the voice comes out as an echoey sound from a different room! One thing that's a winner is the transfer which is surprisingly clear. Due to this quality transfer the film never appears to be as old as it is except for the clothing the actors are wearing of course.

I wish more zombie movies were this unabashedly over-the-top. Tons of gore, tons of nudity, breakneck pacing, a few scenes of incest thrown in for good measure and that's Burial Ground for you. Even though the film is laughable and ultra cheesy, director Andrea Bianchi is still somehow able to instill a genuine sense of terror throughout. There's no happy go lucky ending here folks. Great movie, great transfer, great extras. A must own film for fans of the genre.