Hell of the Living Dead (1980)

A tough female reporter and her cameraman boyfriend team up with a four-man commando unit in the New Guinea jungle who are fighting flesh-eating zombies.

Directors:

Bruno Mattei (as Vincent Dawn), Claudio Fragasso (uncredited)

Writers:

Claudio Fragasso (story and screenplay), José María Cunillés (story and screenplay) (as J.M. Cunilles)

Stars:

Margie Newton, Franco Garofalo, Selan Karay

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Margie Newton	...	Lia Rousseau (as Margit Evelyn Newton)
Franco Garofalo	...	Zantoro (as Frank Garfield)
Selan Karay	...	Vincent
José Gras	...	Lt. Mike London (as Robert O'Neil)
Gabriel Renom	...	Pierre (as Gaby Renom)
Josep Lluís Fonoll	...	Osborne (as Luis Fonoll)
Pietro Fumelli	...	Man on TV (as Piero Fumelli)
Bruno Boni	...	Reporter
Patrizia Costa	...	Woman in Bar
Cesare Di Vito	...	TV Speaker
Sergio Pislar	...	Technician Lawson
Bernard Seray	...	Prof. Barrett's Assistant
Víctor Israel	...	Zombie priest
Pep Ballester	...	Josie's Husband (as Pep Ballenster)
Joaquín Blanco	...	Professor Barrett

Storyline

After a chemical leak at the Hope Centre in Papua New Guinea (an organization devoted to feeding underdeveloped countries) turns its staff into flesh-eating zombies, a four-man commando squad led by Mike London are sent to investigate. They run into a TV news crew led by celebrity reporter Lia, who are after the same story, but when they discover that the entire country has been overrun by zombies, what are the chances of them getting the message across? Unlike most zombie films, this actually tries to make a serious point - that if we don't feed the Third World, they'll come and feed on us!

---

Plot Keywords:

zombie | papua new guinea | italian horror | zombie apocalypse | midnight movie | 

---

Taglines:

When the creeping dead devour the living flesh!

---

Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

---

Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Official Sites:

Virus (1980)

Country:

Italy Spain

Language:

Italian Spanish

Release Date:

14 October 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

Zombi 4

Filming Locations:

Badalona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Company Credits

Production Co:

Beatrice Film, Films Dara

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Telecolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Much of this film's music was also used in Beyond the Darkness (1979).

---

Goofs

(at around 42 mins) During the Mask Ceremony scene, the masked celebrant (medicine man or shaman) takes off his mask and hands it to Lia. This is not possible in a mask ceremony. In a traditional African, Native American or South Asian mask ceremony, a holy man/shaman who takes off his mask during a ceremony is no longer considered the man he was before he put on the mask. It is not possible that any tribal shaman would take off his mask in the middle of a mask ceremony, let alone hand it to an obvious stranger.

---

Quotes

Lia Rousseau: [as a couple zombies are approaching them] They must be monsters! Look at their faces!
Max: They could be drunk.

---

Alternate Versions

Vestron Home Video's release, around 1985, of the picture, under the title Night Of The Zombies, was the same print used by Creature Features for home video tape in 1996. Creature Features added a brief card to the tail end of the closing credits for its copyright. This exact same print, even including the Creature Features copyright card, was used by Cydonia Pictures for its Night Of The Zombies DVD release in 2002. The same year, Anchor Bay Entertainment, released a cleaned up DVD under the title Hell Of The Living Dead. All of these Night Of The Zombies versions are identical, save for the inserted Creature Features copyright card. The film print is the infamous one known for being too dark, due to numerous copies being made, and, thus nearly impossible to tell a lot of what is going on in the film.

---

Connections

Referenced in Discovering 'Evil Dead' (2002)

---

Soundtracks

Most of the soundtrack music by Goblin was borrowed from
the films "Dawn of the Dead" and "Alien Contamination".

User Reviews

A trashy horror gore classic

I'm getting rather sick of seeing uncomplimentary reviews of this truly classic gorefest. Yes it does contain poor acting, yes it is a cheap rip off of some of the genres other classic titles, yes it does contain stock footage, yes it is low budget, yes it does contain moments of pointlessness and yes it is pure cheese! I'm unsure what some of the unhappy viewers were expecting when they got this film as it is obviously primarily a zombie film that is fast paced with absolutely loads of blood guts and gore practically all the way through the film. If you want an in depth meaningful life affirming film then look elsewhere. If however you want a highly entertaining fast paced ultra bloody zombie gore film that doesn't let up its relentless assault on the senses until the final reel then wait no longer.