Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974)

After the surprise, slow burn success of Night of the Living Dead, the early 1970s saw a mini wave of living dead films "inspired" (ie: in most cases, flat out ripped off) by the Romero classic.  This first wave was an interesting time for the Zombie movie subgenre, as it showcased a particular blueprint set forth by Night of the Living Dead, before ushering in a second, bloodier wave in the late 70s and early 80s after Romero again put his stamp on the scene with Dawn of the Dead. 


That first wave saw a few US titles like Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, Deathdream, and House of Seven Corpses.  Across the Atlantic though, standouts included Amando De Ossorio's Blind Dead four pack, Jean Rollin's  Les Démoniaques (released as Curse of the Living Dead in the States), Jess Franco's A Virgin Among The Living Dead and, of course, Jorge Grau's Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (known in the UK as The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue and, curiously, in the US as Don't Open The Window).

The plot of Sleeping Corpses follows George (Ray Lovelock, looking the spitting image of Barry Gibb), an antique dealer leaving the congestion and pollution of Manchester for a holiday in the English countryside.  Almost as soon as his trip begins though, Edna (Crisitina Galbo) quite literally runs into him and the begrudged pair set out traveling together.  Even though George has a time-sensitive meeting in Windermere with friends, he reluctantly decides to accompany Edna to her drug-addicted sister's house in South Gate, before can borrow her car to get himself to his destination. 

Ray Lovelock, as George, is just trying to stay alive.

It's not long into their journey when the pair meets a dead end and George asks some workers from the Department of Agriculture for directions.  This is where Sleeping Corpses stands out from its maggot-faced peers; much like Romero's films, Jorge Grau goes for a "message" here about a pollution (briefly hinted at in the film's opening segment) and the effects of technology on the environment.  The DOA are using a new, experimental machine to kill insects in fields . . . with the use of radiation.  Ever the hippie, George immediately grills the DOA on possible side effects to the land itself. 

George realizes that Edna is more than a woman.

The film's first zombie appears shortly after; a soaking wet suicide victim who rises from the river and tries to attack Edna.  This is where Sleeping Corpses really starts to take off!  The make-up by Italian legend Giannetto De Rossi (Zombie, The Beyond, Rambo III) is actually pretty impressive here -- especially considering some of the on-screen zombies of the time -- with the character quite literally sopping wet the entire time he's on-screen.  However, what sets Grau's zombies apart from Romero's is, as evidenced by the wet cat, they seem to have the ability to think. 

Knock, Knock sucka!  Open up!

In a later scene where George, Edna, and a beat cop named Craig are trapped in the mausoleum of a local cemetery, our wet friend manages to revive two freshly dead, not-yet-buried, companions . . . by rubbing his bloody fingertips over their eyelids.  It's also here where the film's first real gore occurs as the trio rip into a poor soul's stomach cavity and disembowel him for a quick snack! 


Also along for the ride is Academy Award nominee Arthur Kennedy, as a fascist police sergeant who believes Edna's sister is responsible for the murder of her husband (who's actually done in by our drip of a friend).  The Sergeant immediately takes a disliking to George and Edna of course, bluntly stating "You're all the same, the lot of you...with your long hair and your faggot clothes.  Drugs, sex, and every sort of filth!"  Of course, he also implicates the pair in the gory disembowelment, labeling them as devil worshippers!  Kennedy's appearance really elevates the film above a sort of standard "a bunch of unknowns trapped by zombies" and also creates an outright villain as The Sergeant and George have a continuous back and forth in their scenes together.  George represents the defiant, authority-questioning counterculture and The Sergeant embodies their iron-fisted oppressors with Conservative values.

This zombie ponders how to mend a broken heart.

Later in the film, several more living dead are revived once the action turns a nearby mortuary and what is perhaps the standout gore effect in Sleeping Corpses occurs; a telephone operator is ambushed from behind by the zombies and has one of her breasts torn off!  It's pretty gnarly and, true to the gore that De Rossi would later wow fans with in Lucio Fulci's films, is top notch! 

This zombie has a case of Night (of the Living Dead) fever.

Perhaps aping a bit too much from pre-Dawn of the Dead Romero, the film contains a rather downbeat ending, but manages to elicit one final, revenge-soaked cheer from the viewer before the credits roll.  


All in all, it's an incredible entry in the Zombie movie subgenre and was certainly a worthy film that I'd read about before tracking down a bootleg VHS (ripped from the old, uncut Japanese laserdisc).  It's currently available on from the fine folks at Blue Undergound as Let Sleeping Corpses Lie on DVD, as The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue as a 2-disc DVD (with more special features and the Manchester Morgue title card), and also on Blu-ray as The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue.  Highly recommended if you haven't seen it yet!