Let Sleeping Corpses Lie

Spanish/Italian co-production, directed by Jorge Grau, filmed largely in England (around Manchester and the Peak District). The plot involves an unfortunate side-effect of a device designed to kill insects with ultra-sonic radiation - it reanimates dead people. The first to appear is 'Guthrie', a vagrant known locally to have drowned in a river a week beforehand. He attacks a young woman named Enid (Cristina Galbó). Enid escapes into the arms of George (Ray Lovelock), a young man she hooked-up with earlier that day after reversing her car over his motorcycle at a filling station. George doesn't believe her account of the attack, but he and Enid soon discover the dead body of Enid's sister's husband (murdered by Guthrie). The police, led by a hard-nosed Detective Inspector (American actor, Arthur Kennedy), immediately decide that 'hippies' George and Enid are responsible - for some reason unwilling to entertain any alternative theories that involve the words 'living dead'. As more zombies appear, George and Enid fight to clear their name, halt the rise of the undead, and survive.

The contrast between the picturesque scenery and the horrific events works well, and Grau builds an eerie atmosphere which he maintains throughout. It has a feel (for those old enough to remember) of Jon Pertwee-era 'Doctor Who', or the original BBC TV show 'Survivors', both of which ran around the time this was made. Lovelock and Galbó are okay as the young couple (although Lovelock is overshadowed by the camp, unintentionally funny performance of his English voice actor), but the standout is easily Arthur Kennedy's bigoted, hippy-hating Inspector (we never get his name), whose contempt for the 'permissive society' brought in by the 1960s is almost tangible! 😄 The film is over-slow at times, it's a little light on gore (although there is certainly some), and the 'shock' ending doesn't really hang together. But it's a fun watch. 7/10.

This clever horror movie deals about a couple (Ray Lovelock, Cristina Galbo) afflicted by stalking, vicious Zombies (Jose Lifante, Fernando Hilbeck,Joaquin Hinojosa and many others) relieved by ultrasonic radiation caused by agricultural experimentation. Meanwhile a grumpy Police Inspector (Arthur Kennedy) is investigating the strange events.

Gory, gruesome , and ghastly cannibal feast in which the stumbling flesh-eating stiffs are reanimated by means of radioactive waves and can be only destroyed by fire. Unrelenting shock-feast laced with touches of ecological denounce. Army of Zombies appearance roaming the countryside , graveyard and some people besieged inside a hospital deliver the goods , enough to be interesting. Jorge Grau's first great success is compelling directed with startling visual content . This frightening movie is plenty of thrills, chills, body-count executed by the eerie Zombies and photographed in glimmer color with lurid images and phenomenal results. This is a classic Zombie film where the intrigue,tension, suspense appears threatening and lurking in the foggy outdoors and every room, and corridors from a hospital. At the time considered the plus ultra of disturbing movie is less stomach-churning by nowadays's standards, yet its fundamental power to thrill remains undiminished. Agreeable performance by Cristina Gabo who made various Giallo and Horror movies as ¨The boarding school¨ , ¨What have you done to Solange¨, ¨The killer must strike again¨. This genuinely frightening story with correct utilization of images-shock is well photographed by Francisco Sempere in location of England : Manchester, Derbyshires , Italy : Cinecitta studios and Madrid . Creepie and eerie musical score by Sorgini. Jorge Grau who also made another good terror film titled 'Ceremonia Sangrienta' creates a rare Zombie thriller that manages to be both scary and skilfully made, deserving its cult status . Rating: Good, this is one more imaginative horror pictures in which the camera stalks in sinister style . An average budget horror movie that still packs a punch for those who like to be terrorized out their wits.

The 1971 giallo "What Have You Done to Solange?" was the film that first turned me on to the abundant charms of Spanish actress Christine Galbo, and I just had to have more. In "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie," an Italian/Spanish coproduction from 1974 directed by Jorge Grau, Galbo plays a redhead but is still oh-so gorgeous. In this one, she accidentally wrecks the motorcycle of vacationing antiques dealer Ray Lovelock in the English countryside, and before long, both of them are playing defense against the horde of reanimated corpses that has been brought to inadvertent life by an experimental, ultrasonic farming device. In one of the DVD's many extras, Grau freely admits, during an interview, the picture's debt to George A. Romero's seminal "Night of the Living Dead" (1968), and this debt is not only obvious with reference to the gut-munching zombies on display here (a fairly ugly, creepy, intelligent and fast-moving bunch, I must say), but also to the film's doubly ironic ending. Galbo is as pretty and appealing as I remembered from "Solange," and American star on the downslide Arthur Kennedy manages to score as a bigoted police officer who's convinced that Galbo and Lovelock are responsible for all the gruesome carnage. The film also features gorgeous photography, some well-done gross-out scenes, a tightly plotted story and better-than-average acting. Some of the action sequences unfortunately take place during the dark of night and in gloomy underground crypts, severely limiting the viewer's visibility, but the film on the whole is a gas, especially during its frenetic final half hour. And yes, I think I will be needing another dose of Christine Galbo very shortly....

In Manchester, the owner of an antique shop George (Ray Lovelock) rides his motorcycle to Lake District in the countryside with a couple of antique pieces to a house where his friends are working. When he stops at a gas station, the driver of a Mini Copper Edna (Cristina Galbó) reverses her car and hits his motorcycle. George orders Edna to take him to Lake District to compensate the damage but she asks him to go first to Windermere since she needs to visit her problematic sister. Then she would lend the car to him. George drives Edna to her sister's cottage but they get lost in a dead end road. George leaves Edna in the car and walks to a nearby farm to ask for directions. He meets three men from the Department of Agriculture using an experimental machine to kill insects through ultra-sonic radiation in the range of one mile. Meanwhile Edna is attacked by a strange man and she runs toward George but the man disappears.

In Windermere, Edna's sister Katie (Jeannine Mestre) has an argument with her husband Martin (Jóse Lifante) and he leaves the house to take photos of a waterfall. Katie is addicted in heroin and prepares a shot while Martin is outside. However she is attacked by the same man that attacked her sister and she runs to the field where Martin is. The man hunts her down and kills Martin, and Katie flees and meets Edna and George that are arriving in their car. They call the police and the arrogant and bigoted Inspector (Arthur Kennedy) believes that Katie killed her husband. George and Edna try to find evidence that Katie is innocent and Edna discovers that the attacker is a man that has drowned in the river. George finds an absurd and heads with Edna to the cemetery to see the corpse of the man, and the inspector sends a police officer to follow them. Soon they discover that they are under siege in the cemetery by living dead. Will they succeed to escape from the group of zombies?

"Let Sleeping Corpses Lie" is a great zombie movie directed by Jorge Grau. This is the first movie from this director that I have seen and the beginning of the story shows his concern with the environment, showing the pollution everywhere in the area of London. Ray Lovelock and Cristina Galbó show great chemistry and have good performances and Arthur Kennedy is irritating in the role of a ruthless inspector. This movie was released with several alternate titles, and I bought a used collector's tin from Anchor Bay Entertainment and unfortunately is missing a couple of pages of the booklet. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Não se Deve Profanar o Sono dos Mortos" ("It Shall not Desecrate the Sleep of the Dead")

Note: On 13 September 2015, I saw this film again.

The living dead return after some radiation experiments and start killing people and the cops are quick to dismiss it and blame two hippies for all the murders.

Loved the atmosphere and gore, of course, but it seems like this movie has something else on its mind that I really appreciate.