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Most infamous for a scene involving a child biting off his mother's<br /><br />nipple, this loser Italian zombie film has a high gross out factor,<br /><br />and little else.<br /><br />In the opening, a bearded Professor Ayres (Renato Barbieri,<br /><br />looking like Rasputin) discovers a "secret" that looses zombies on<br /><br />the countryside, getting himself killed in the process. We never find<br /><br />out how he awakened the dead...<br /><br />Cut to three horny couples arriving at an Italian villa. They are<br /><br />guests of the late professor, and let themselves in. None of the<br /><br />couples are differentiated from each other. George (Roberto<br /><br />Caporali) and Evelyn (Maria Angela Giordano) bring along Evelyn's<br /><br />weird son Michael (Peter Bark, an obvious little person badly<br /><br />posing as a young boy). James (Simone Mattioli) and Leslie<br /><br />(Antonella Antinori) are here, keep track of them because Leslie is<br /><br />cute. Mark (Gian Luigi Chirizzi) and Janet (Karin Well) stand out<br /><br />only because Mark looks like Michael Keaton and Janet has<br /><br />psychic feelings that something awful is going to happen, and this<br /><br />subplot is never elaborated on. Nicholas (Claudio Zucchet) and<br /><br />Kathleen (Anna Valente) are the house servants who always do<br /><br />everything they are told, even in the heat of the zombie attacks.<br /><br />There is really not much of a plot here. The zombies stumble upon<br /><br />Mark and Janet, and James and Leslie, while they are all getting it<br /><br />on in the gardens. George and Evelyn and Michael are cornered in<br /><br />the professor's office and George is the first to die as he martyrs<br /><br />himself for his family. From here on out, if a cast member wanders<br /><br />off by themselves, consider them dead. Out in the yard, Janet<br /><br />steps in a bear trap (!), and hobbles around for the rest of the film.<br /><br />The survivors board themselves up in the villa, and wait to die.<br /><br />Hilariously, Kathleen finds time to serve everyone drinks from a<br /><br />tray before getting beheaded by a sickle when told to go check a<br /><br />window. Later, Leslie goes to find whiny Janet some bandages<br /><br />and gets her head mashed into a pieces of a broken window. Little<br /><br />freaky Michael tries to make out with his mother, is rejected, and<br /><br />partially eaten by a newly zombified Leslie. Poor Nicholas is sent<br /><br />on a fool's errand and killed by the absent professor.<br /><br />That Mark, he is always thinking. As the zombies use assorted<br /><br />tools to break into the villa, Mark decides they should let them in.<br /><br />He is under the mistaken impression that they are after something<br /><br />other than human flesh, plus they move slowly, so the remaining<br /><br />people should be able to out run the dead. Tell that to the five<br /><br />people just killed. Evelyn, Mark, Janet, and James run to a quiet<br /><br />monastery, where James is promptly devoured by some zombie<br /><br />monks. The remaining group makes it to yet another house, where<br /><br />the film's most infamous scene occurs.<br /><br />Evelyn sees Michael, and offers her left breast to comfort her<br /><br />obviously zombied son. Michael begins to suckle, then takes a big<br /><br />ol' bite. This is the only murder to occur in front of other cast<br /><br />members (Mark and Janet), and is really gross. The zombies<br /><br />overcome the remaining living, and the film ends.<br /><br />I love Italian zombie films as much as the next guy, but this film is<br /><br />so monotonous that boredom soon sets in. The gore is effective,<br /><br />local butcher shops must have run low on innards, but director<br /><br />Bianchi must deal with a terrible script. Bianchi pads the film with<br /><br />endless closeups of the maggot covered zombies. As I mentioned, the killings are telegraphed by the default of a victim<br /><br />being alone. Until the actual bloody act, this results in some very<br /><br />boring stalking scenes. Obviously some of the cast has seen a<br /><br />Romero film, only a couple of them know to aim any violence<br /><br />toward the heads of the zombies in order to kill them.<br /><br />"Burial Ground" is a very gory and very violent film, helped by some<br /><br />pretty good special effects. It is also very boring and very badly<br /><br />acted, not helped by some pretty bad scripting. I cannot<br /><br />recommend it, even to fans of this subgenre.<br /><br />This is unrated, and contains strong physical violence, strong gun<br /><br />violence, very strong gore, mild profanity, female nudity, sexual<br /><br />content, and adult situations. |