LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE (1974)
aka Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti, Don’t Open the Window, The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue
Article 2278 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-18-2007
Posting Date: 11-7-2007
Directed by Jorge Grau
Featuring Cristina Galbo, Ray Lovelock, Arthur Kennedy

A new machine that uses sonic waves to destroy insect life has an unfortunate side effect; it brings the dead back to life and makes them flesh-eating zombies.

Yes, it’s another flesh-eating zombie movie modeled after NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD . But it’s a good one; it does a nice job of ratcheting up the suspense, it doesn’t follow its model slavishly, and it has some good ideas of its own. Still, I do wish it had pursued some of its ideas further; I liked the touch that babies born during the time the machine was being used are also aggressive killers, but it never does anything with the idea once it’s introduced, and it ignores the effect it might have on non-human and non-insect life. It’s a little too insistent on its ecological themes at times, and the “it’s only a movie” tagline had already been used several times before, but these are fairly minor quibbles. It’s definitely one of the better zombie movies from the era out there, and the bloody mayhem is definitely not for the squeamish.