Let Sleeping Corpses Lie
One of the best zombie shockers of the 1970s, this Spanish-Italian  coproduction (also known asThe Living Dead at Manchester MorgueandDon't Open the Window, among other titles) is a real international  affair. Inspired by George Romero's genre-shattering American hitNight  of the Living Dead, it was shot in England by a Spanish director with a  largely British cast, and supplemented by Spanish zombies and American  character actor Arthur Kennedy as a bitter Irish police detective (with  only a hint of a brogue). He's investigating a sudden rash of violent  murders (the work of Satanists, he's convinced) and closes in on a pair  of newcomers to the sleepy Northern England town, longhaired antique  dealer Ray Lovelock and his nervous traveling companion Christine Galbó.  Only they know the real culprits: newly deceased corpses, revived by  agricultural experiments in ultrasonic radiation that are also turning  newborns into vicious little monsters. Director Jorge Grau delivers all the  stumbling zombies and gory flesh feasts you could hope for in a 1974 movie, but  more importantly he creates the rare zombie thriller that manages to be both  scary and smartly done. Some of the twists are a bit more far-fetched  than others (why does dabbing blood on the eyes of long-dead cadavers  magically bring them to life, and how would a zombie even know to try?),  but it's a minor quibble in the face of the startling blood frenzy and  Grau's satisfying dark dramatic twists.The DVD also features an introduction and a 20-minute interview with Grau  ("I hope you will suffer profoundly," he jokes in the opening), as well as  a gallery of posters and stills, TV ads, and radio spots.--Sean Axmaker