Rish's Reviews
Even without seeing Revenge of the Dead, I knew it would have about twenty different titles. Among them are Zeder and Voices From the Beyond. The name I prefer, however, is Utter Crap.
Our hero, Stefano, finds evidence that a dead scientist discovered that there are places in the ground where the dead come back if buried there. His handsome girlfriend Alessandra, is not entirely supportive as Stefano becomes more and more obsessed with uncovering the mystery. Yes folks, the director was named Pupi.
I have a warm place in my heart for Italians. I like their language, I like their horror movies, I like the mafia, and have you ever seen Monica Bellucci? But I'm afraid there's no saving Revenge of the Dead. There was jarring, repetitive music throughout. Nothing happens, and when it does, we don't know why. The ending seriously ripped off Pet Sematary. Its prologue was utterly unrelated to the rest of the film. After the movie was over, I rewound it and watched the first twenty minutes again, to see if I could make sense of it, but it still made none. The whole film looked like it had been edited with a samurai sword. From beginning to end, I had no idea what was going on. It was all so poorly done that if there was a method to the madness, I couldn't tell what it was.
There's not much to praise in the flick. I don't know if Italy has made-for-TV movies, but I imagine this would be what they'd look like: a padded running time, no gore, no sex, the killings all take place offscreen. In a pleasantly surprising twist, all the villagers share what they know about the evil place and offer to help our hero. The best part was early on when our hero discovers a used typewriter ribbon, and discovers that due to the nature of such ribbons, he is able to recreate a secret letter typed by the machine's previous owner. Sadly, the absolute coolest thing about this movie was that it was followed by a trailer for Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell.
I obtained this title a year or so back for a dollar...and even that was too much. Anybody want to buy a cheap bookend?
Line To Remember: Heroine to her boyfriend: "You're a nut. A crazy, selfish nut!"