I recently caught up with this film and was moderately impressed. Lucio Fulci's Zombie has been gripping me and I would not place Burial Ground on that level or on the same level as George Romnero's movies but it is quite entertaining. One of the aspects which most impressed was the apparent intelligence of the zombies who quickly work out ways to outwit the human protagonists, witness one memorable death involving a scythe which would be hard to imagine with dumber creatures being the menace. Another aspect which I liked was the sudden and extremely hopeless ending in which everything really does look lost, I can't imagine how they could possibly survive that situation which came as a bit of a surprise as I had been hoping that somehow someone would escape but then they don't I will say no more except that it came as a rather nice jolt and a really good way to end, I wish more films were just as ruthless. The child character played by an adult actor is also quite bizarre and for me this added something to the film, especially when he begins fondling his mother and then later when he does something rather different to her I will say no more but his demise and eventual fate were particularly bizarre and added something to the film. The story did seem somewhat downbeat as not amount of running away or struggling did any good whatsoever in the end for anyone. No problem with that grimness and nihilism is what I hope for in a good horror and that is something they got right here. Alright conceivably the last two characters might just survive their ordeal although how it might happen would boggle the mind considering where they are left.

The impact that George A. Romero's seminal "Night of the Living Dead" (1968) had on the future of the so-called "zombie film" was so enormous as to practically constitute a sea change. Up until then, in pictures such as "White Zombie" (1932), "Revolt of the Zombies" (1936), "King of the Zombies" (1941), "I Walked With a Zombie" (1943) and even as late as 1966's "The Plague of the Zombies," these creatures had been presented as essentially harmless beings; hypnotized or drugged, living automatons who carried out the commands of their masters. The Romero film transformed the zombies into ravenous gut munchers; the revivified dead, hungry for human flesh. Since "NOTLD," many films have played on this concept with varying success and degrees of imagination, the best of the bunch (such as Romero's five sequels, Lucio Fulci's 1979 homage "Zombie," 2002's "28 Days Later," 2013's "World War Z") tweaking the formula with interesting new twists. And then there's 1981's "Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror," which is seemingly pleased to jettison everything except bloody zombie carnage in the pursuit of a memorable time for the viewer. And for some, I suppose that might just be enough.The film is too easily synopsized. A professor putters around in an Etruscan graveyard and somehow, in a manner never clearly explained, causes the long-entombed dead to rise. Meanwhile, three couples arrive at a nearby villa (actually, the Palazzo Braschi, in Rome) for a holiday, along with the son of one of the women. The newly awakened corpses waste little time in attacking these seven, who are then forced into a siege situation at the villa, along with the residence's maid and butler. And that's pretty much it; on with the blood and guts and mayhem....Writing about "Burial Ground" in his invaluable "Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide," Glenn Kay tells us that it is "among the toughest Italian zombie flicks to sit through," and that "there isn't one iota of suspense or terror, and you won't care about or like any of the characters." And while it's difficult to argue with Kay, I yet have a feeling that I enjoyed the film slightly more than he did. Yes, the picture surely has been made for those who do not esteem such elements of the filmmaking craft as character development, logic, explanations, etc. "NOTLD" had a radioactive satellite as a rationale for its zombie plague; this film offers no rationale whatsoever! The viewer, likewise, never learns why or how the zombies cause the villa's lightbulbs to explode, or, for that matter, why the zombies look like half-decomposed cadavers, instead of the skeletons that Etruscans lying in the ground for 2,000+ years would be expected to resemble. And yet, the film still has some definite assets to offer, I feel. For one thing, it is just remarkable how many different types of zombie masks and makeup jobs the film dishes out; Mauro Gavazzi and Rosario Prestopino have done a wonderful job, respectively, in the makeup and masks departments. While screenwriter Piero Regnoli's script is surely nothing to rave about (especially when compared to the work he handed in for 1956's "I Vampiri"), at least he does keep things lively and moving, while director Andrea Bianchi (who had previously impressed me with his work on that sleaziest of gialli, the 1975 Edwige Fenech vehicle "Strip Nude for Your Killer") manages to provide more than a few clever shocks. The largely electronic musical score by Elsio Mancuso complements the already freaky mood nicely, and the gorehounds in the audience will be happy to learn that the body count in the film--among the living AND the living dead--is extremely high. Among the film's various instances of pleasing grossness are the sight of wriggling maggots in many of the zombies' faces; bloody disembowelments and gut-munching sequences that make the one in Romero's 1968 film seem quite tame; zombie immolation; zombie heads being blown off; zombies being speared and gushing some kind of muddy goop; and on and on. And although Kay has claimed that the film is devoid of suspense, there are at least two sequences that this viewer found somewhat nerve shredding. In the first, one of the women is held immobile in a bear trap while one ugly zombie advances on her. And in the second, the maid has her hand impaled on a windowsill while a scythe-wielding zombie slowly climbs up a wall to slice off her head. (Oddly, the zombies are able to use tools, carry weapons, and even unite to use a battering ram!) And then there's the extremely strange matter of that young kid played by Peter Bark, a 25-year-old actor who, because of his dwarfism, resembled a boy half his age. Italian law prohibited youths from appearing in such violent and sexual fare (I guess I didn't mention that the film has a fair amount of nudity and sexual content); thus, the use of someone like Bark. He makes for a very weird "young" character ("one of the creepiest, oddest-looking kids ever captured on film," says Kay), with a marked Oedipus complex for his mother (Mariangela Giordano, the only "name" in the cast). And, in the film's most notorious sequence, his mom learns an invaluable life lesson the hard way: If your young son ever becomes a zombie, do NOT, out of pity, invite him to suckle at your breast! The bottom line: Although Kay has given "Burial Ground" his lowest rating, this viewer found it to be an acceptable, simpleminded entertainment. The film can be seen today via an excellent print on a Media Blasters' Shriek Show DVD, which comes with many fine extras, including modern-day interviews with the very likable producer, Gabriele Cristani, as well as Mariangela herself, who, remarkably, looks much the same as she did some 25 years ago. As does her Evelyn character in the film, during her interview, Mariangela manages to (you should pardon the expression) get quite a bit off her chest....

This is one of those movies that is so bad that it's good. The plot is classic: Zombies wake up, zombies attack a mansion with people that try to barricade themselves from the bloodthirsty undead. It's an Italian z-movie from the 80's so expect nudity lots of gore and a lot of cheesy fun action. The best part of this movie is a character named Peter. For some reason they decided to have an adult play as a child and let me tell you, this child-man is creepy as hell! I will not spoil further. If you want to laugh so much that you will cry, then this is what you want to watch. And don't watch it alone, bring some friends over to share the laughter!

If ever there were a "so bad it's good" film, then this is it! The plot is bare bones: An archaeologist discovers a crypt containing zombies which then eat him. Meanwhile, three couples visit a villa in the country for a vacation. The crypt in which the archaeologist was killed turns out to be in the grounds of the villa. The couples set into a regimen of heavy petting in the gardens. The zombies wander out and proceed to attack the lovebirds who quickly retreat into the house. The rest just plays itself out.What makes this film a gem is the character of Michael. Played by Peter Bark, an adult midget, we are supposed to accept him as the young child of one of the women. Seeing the dubbed English version only makes Michael seem even weirder. His voice sounds like a girl's and he's given some pretty odd lines; like this one, clutching a rag found on the floor: "Mama, this cloth smells like death." Someone else here pointed out that he looks like a miniature Dario Argento (a pretty weird-looking bloke himself), and he does! One scene in particular suggests why an adult was used rather than a real child. Why that one scene was deemed so essential that the whole movie should be rendered completely unbelievable, I don't know. But thank goodness they ran with it! This movie is just good old-fashioned crud like only the Italians could make in the 70s and 80s. The zombies themselves look pretty good, surprisingly. Except for a couple who look like guys with heavy eye shadow - put in presumably to make up the numbers. Why give them close-ups then? Who knows! Prior to seeing this, Ralphus from "Bloodsucking Freaks" was my favourite horror movie midget. As far as kids in Italian horrors were concerned, it was a toss up between Bob (Giovanni Frezza) from "House by the Cemetery" and Marco (David Colins Jr) from "Schock". But now Peter Bark as Michael wins both categories.