Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974)
Directed by Jorge Grau
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(Entertaining)
(Not Funny)
Summary
A belligerent art dealer named George and a young lady named Edna team up on their way out of London to the countryside because she wrecks his motorcycle at a gas station. They get lost trying to find the home of Edna's sister and George comes across a farmer and some scientists who are testing a new sonic radiation machine that kills all insects within a 1-mile radius. Unfortunately a side effect of this new technology is raising up recently deceased humans as zombies! After the husband of Edna's sister is murdered by a zombie, the rest of the movie has the main characters trying to convince the police that they weren't involved with the murder. Despite a trail of gruesome carnage, the inspector refuses to believe their story. Ultimately George ends up escaping the police station and rushes to the local hospital where three zombies are eating staff and patients. He tries to save Edna, but is too late and burns her along with the others. The inspector arrives just as George finishes off the zombies and fills the hero full of lead. In a fitting end, George the zombie happens to be waiting in the inspector's hotel room and gets his revenge!
Review
This movie is actually pretty decent, but didn't warrant a higher rating because it was more of a horror/suspense movie than zombie movie (I believe only 9 zombies appeared in the entire film). The special effects definitely looked low-budget though - the zombies just looked like crazy humans with no rotting flesh. The only apparent way to kill the zombies is by burning them. Unfortunately there weren't any clear head bashings to prove or disprove the classic method of destroying the brain. One zombie appeared to get shot in the head, but perhaps only a glancing blow. Fortunately there were some good flesh ripping scenes - the standard fare ripping open the abdomen and pulling out the juicy organs, and a poor woman getting her boob ripped off.
Zombie Traits
| Speed | 
(Human)
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| Intelligence | 
(Human)
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| Strength | 
(Hulk Hogan)
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| Zombie Source | sonic radiation device used to kill insects causes recently deceased to rise |
The zombies move at normal speed sometimes, at others they shuffle around. The are also pretty smart, e.g., they seek other corpses to infect and in one scene they use a headstone as a battering ram to bust down a door.
Best Zombie Kill
When a cop tries to make a run for his radio in the cemetery, one of the zombies hurls a headstone into the back of his legs. Three zombies then proceed to eat him in classic zombie style! One rips out his innards while another samples his eyeball.
Best Zombie Death
The only times zombies actually get killed in this movie is by getting torched. But man, one little spark and those suckers burn like an inferno. In total only about 8 zombies are killed and all the same way, so it's hard to differentiate.
Memorable Scene
You have to love boobs for the sake of boobs! The female telephone switch operator at the hospital gets jumped by three male zombies, and I swear one of them had a lusty grin while he grabbed her left hooter and proceeded to tear it right off and eat it.
