Horrorfest 2018 Presents: Hell of the Living Dead (1980, Bruno Mattei)

Too bad Hell of the Living Dead only really has a cool title and some decent gore, because the characters are way too one note even for a 1980s Italian zombie movie. There was some interesting stuff about how the Third World is devoured by the richer countries, as reflected by the zombies, yet it comes into the movie way too late to have any kind of major impact. I lost interest midway through the film, and this might have worked more as a short movie or even a TV series instead of a movie. Bruno Mattei lacks the talent and skill that other, better Italian directors possessed, and while there are some great moments Hell of the Living Dead feels as if its a greatest hits collection of other, better zombie and horror movies.

If anything the plant setting at the beginning of the film was pretty cool, and should have been used more. I would have gone for a bottle episode type movie instead, one that would have been different from the multiple cannibal/zombie/gore fest movies that were so popular at the time. Skip this flick and watch Zombie Holocaust instead, although I wonder if maybe I had viewed this one before the other I would have felt differently. I don’t think so though as Zombie Holocaust is clearly the better made of the two.