1980s Zombie Horror Takes Violence To Unbelievable Extreme, Stream Now Without Netflix
George Romero changed the trajectory of zombie films with the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead by pivoting these creatures from voodoo-controlled souls to flesh-eating monsters that rise from the dead. In the years that followed, countless other filmmakers followed the iconic director’s path, including famed Italian directors Lamberto Bava (Demons, Demons 2) and Lucio Fulci (Zombie 2).
One Italian filmmaker Andrea Bianchi, rose from 70s sexploitation and created Burial Ground, a zombie film so graphic that its gore is considered elevated beyond its predecessors.
Those Pesky Ancient Curses
Burial Ground is the story of a group of travelers barricaded inside an old mansion as a horde of zombies tries to break their way in. As the film opens, a scientist is studying an underground crypt on the mansion’s grounds. When he attempts to pry open a concealed compartment of the crypt, he unwittingly activates a curse placed on the hallowed ground.
The dead within the crypt begin to reanimate and quickly make short work of the doctor. But the undead in Burial Ground soon have more victims to terrorize, as a group of travelers arrives at the mansion in response to a dated invite from the now-deceased scientist. As the couples pair off for romantic liaisons, the undead begin to gather in numbers and march out of their underground tomb and onward toward the mansion.
The Dead Can Use Weapons
Within the first 20 minutes, the zombies have surrounded the mansion and forced its occupants to secure themselves inside. But the undead in Burial Ground are atypical in the Romero era of flesh-eaters. Though slow and lumbering, these creatures have a level of intelligence that enables them to use blunt objects to batter the doors and windows to gain entry.
Outsmarting Brainless Zombies
One by one, the mansion dwellers are picked off as the undead seep into the confines of the massive home. In an act of desperation, the surviving members decide to let the undead inside so that they might become confused, enabling them to hightail it for help at a nearby monastery. Whether they make the journey safely and what awaits them if they do builds into a gory climax that zombie film lovers will relish until the film’s conclusion.
More Terrifying Than A Romero Zombie Movie
Burial Ground might lack the interesting storyline and social messaging of a George Romero flick, but the film does have its own qualities that make it worth a watch. The action is almost non-stop as the undead first surround a couple in the middle of a tryst in the garden, then work their way onto others. The zombies themselves are well-made and give audiences a chill factor that a Romero entry will not.
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After all, the flesh-eaters in any George Romero film are all the recently deceased. In Burial Ground, as is the case in many Italian-made horror movies, the undead have been out of the world of the living for centuries. This results in great makeup effects that show long-rotting corpses emerging from tombs, hardly recognizable as once human.
Burial Ground is the perfect zombie film for the fan who wants non-stop gore, creative death sequences, and an overlay of seemingly endless gloom.
If you think you can stomach the gore, you can stream Burial Ground for free with Tubi or rent it On Demand through Vudu.
