Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror (1981) User Reviews

The pacing is good with sufficient tension but the best n scary part is the intelligent zombies which were way before Romero's Land of the Dead.

[Fella_shibby · 7/10 · 20 December 2020]

I first saw this in the late 80s on a vhs. Revisited it recently. Three couples and a demented, creepy kid of one of the women get invited to a castle situated in the woodlands n away from civilization. Unknown to em, the host who is a professor has accidentally unleashed an evil curse thereby summoning up the dead from their graves.

The best part about this film is that it doesn't waste time, the zombies arrive instantly n the film maintains tension throughout.

Those were the days when zombies were slow as snails with decayed teeth n almost blind but still able to relish human bodies.

Wait till u see the zombies in this film who display high levels of intelligence. They work as a team to break into a castle. They even carry different weapons, using tools, axes to chop through doors n they even shoot knives with accuracy n climb pillars. These zombies even kno how to put someone into a woodcutter machine but the kill is never shown.

I was wondering how Michael reached the model factory. We have Mariangela Giordano showing off her tits, the masturbatory nun from Malabimba. (An amazing milf).

Pietro Barzocchini, who played the creepy kid is really freaky and his character disturbing and sick with an unhealthy Oedipal and incestuous relationship with his overly doting mother.

The maid's decapitation with a scythe is shown in a poorly lit scene n one cannot make out what is goin on.

Gore, Grisly Zombies, Gore, Demented Fun, Gore and... GORE!

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 6/10 · 16 September 2008]

"Le Notti Del Terrore" (aka. "Burial Ground") of 1981 is a film with a mixed reputation. While some of my fellow Italian Horror fanatics regard it as being among the greatest Italian Zombie gore flicks, others seem to regard it as being completely worthless junk. In my opinion, it is neither. As far as I am concerned, "Burial Ground" does not nearly rank among the greatest Italian Zombie flicks, and yet it is an absolute must-see for my fellow fans of the living dead, mainly because of its extreme gore and its value as one of the most demented Zombie flicks ever made. Director Andrea Bianchi had already proved to be an expert for the sleazy kind of Italian Horror with his delightfully smutty Giallo "Nude Per L'Assassino" ("Strip Nude For Your Killer", 1975), and he also proves that he's a master of extreme gore with this yummy flick.

The storyline is extremely thin, and the existence of the zombies gets even less explanation than in other zombie films. However, the film's nauseating qualities easily make up for what it lacks in plotting. The living dead in this film are, without exaggeration, some the most disgusting Zombies ever in cinema. The makeup department really did an amazing job here - zombies do often look rotten, but these guys are literally in the process of rotting. The zombies have disgusting worms and maggots crawling out of their eye-sockets and other orifices, and the mere look of them is already a delight for every fan of nauseating and disgusting gore. Additionally, the film provides an enormous amount of remarkably nauseating gore, even for Italian Zombie flick standards. The film furthermore includes an extremely irritating little boy who has the face of an adult (and who was actually played by an adult, Peter Bark), and whose looks are not the only strange thing about him... I don't wanna give away more, as I don't want to spoil any of the fun, but I can assure that the fans of the really explicit and demented kind of gore-cinema will have the time of their lives watching "Burial Ground". The film is never even remotely eerie or suspenseful, and the plot is as thin as it gets, but there is no doubt about one thing: this is demented stuff! I recommend "Burial Ground" to all my fellow fans of Italian Horror cinema, especially to those who like their Zombie flicks extremely gory. If you want GORE, then this is for you!

Two words, one man: Peter Bark

[TomBofthelivingdead · 7/10 · 19 October 2009]

Another zombie classic. Well, it's a classic if you happen to enjoy bad Italian zombie flicks. Me? I can't get enough of 'em. Burial Ground ranks right up there with the best of the worst. Accordingly, Suds & Buds (see my Blood Freak review for clarity) are handy to have around for your viewing pleasure. Don't be surprised if this one creeps you out at some points.... or if you turn it off right around the incest scene (more on that later).

I remember renting Burial Ground when I was, like, 15, except the box was labeled The Gates Of Hell. As any fan of Euro-horror movies knows, these flicks sometimes have half a dozen different titles (or more), depending if you've got the Italian, American, German or Laplander version. But, The Gates Of Hell was also the American title for Lucio Fulci's City Of The Living Dead. The box even had the same art as C.O.T.L.D. Yeah, nothing too relevant to the review, I just thought it was funny. As I started getting more into horror movies and heard about City... and it's U.S. title of Gates..., I thought I'd already seen it. Then, it took me awhile to figure out what I'd actually seen was Burial Ground.

OK, enough with the childhood memories. Almost 20 years later, this is still one of my faves. You hear all the time about these types of movies being plot-less and devoid of character development... welcome to exhibit A! Well, there is an idea behind the movie but, I wouldn't go as far as to call it a plot. Basically, a small group of people (two couples and a newlywed Mom and her, erm, son) are heading to an Italian villa owned by their friend, Professor Ayres. He's been working in a tomb on the property, trying to... I dunno, raise the dead? Well, he succeeds just in time for his guests to arrive and is the first to go. While he's getting munched on, his guests make themselves at home back at the mansion.

By "at home", I mean they start boning (hey, maybe it was a long drive). These scenes feature a little soft-core sex and randy dialogue. My favorite line of the movie is when one of the girls, named Leslie, is playing dress-up for her man and reveals herself to him in a skimpy (and quite fetching) ensemble and asks him if he likes what he sees, to which he responds, "You look just like a little whore but, I like that in a girl". You sweet talker, Betty Crocker! It doesn't take long for the zombies to make their way outta the tomb and towards the mansion. These aren't your average dumb-ass zombies either. They take up weapons, climb walls and even use a battering ram on the door. When a maid reaches out of a window to close the shutters, the zombies pin her hand to the outside wall with what looks like a railroad spike and cut her noggin off with a scythe. So, these are some clever cadavers.

At this point, I'd like to take a moment to tell you about Peter Bark. I suppose anyone very familiar with Burial Ground knows where I'm going with this. Bark plays the role of the son, named Michale. Now, maybe it was the sexual content or child labor laws but, this role was not given to a child. Instead, Bark appears to be a 30 year old with a bone deficiency or something, as he stands about 5 feet tall. The really creepy part is that he looks like a 30 year old. Well, a 30 year old with a obvious problem.

Michale is constantly on his Mom's jock. He gives her new husband the stink-eye something fierce. After surviving a zombie attack, Michale cuddles up to his Mom and starts.... well, he starts hitting on her. Yes friends, The Incest Scene... part 1! I mean, homeboy starts feelin' her up and whatnot. Well Mom, for some reason, freaks out and slaps him (surprised it didn't turn him on, kinky lil' s.o.b.). So he takes off, seemingly forgetting that zombies are lurking about. Michale eventually falls victim to some zombie nastiness, which sets up... Incest Scene part 2! When Mom next sees Michale, such is her relief that she clutches him to her bosom... and offers him a suckle.... which he uses as a opportunity to bite her boob off.

That's pretty much it. Zombies arise, zombies attack, zombies kill everyone in sight. That's the "plot". If someone was to ask you what Burial Ground is about, just repeat those three things... arise, attack, kill. Oh yeah, and Peter F'n Bark! The Good: They don't skimp on the gore here. As usual, it doesn't always make sense (like when a freshly turned zombie has her head bashed in, why does it leak what appears to be gray paint?) but, like, whatever. A couple of the lovely ladies get naked... not Janet, though (seriously, am I the only one that thinks that chick looks a lot like Kate Hudson). The zombies look pretty good. Some are really revolting (rotten flesh,worms hanging outta their grill), while others are kinda ridiculous (you can plainly see the screened over holes at the eyes and mouth that the "actors" see and breathe through). I like the music, very moody.

The Not So Good: All the usual suspects for this type of film. Bad acting, bad dubbing and a plot you could jot down on the back of a pack of matches in about a minute and a half. All the stuff I mentioned in The Good could be, in someone else's opinion, considered Not So Good (shock and disbelief!).

good gore, stupid victims - what more could you ask for?

[Gangsteroctopus · 1 June 2001]

The Vestron Video version of this film appears to be uncut (it's hard to imagine what might be missing). Truly, though, the creepiest part of it is the one woman's so-called "son", Michael, who is OBVIOUSLY not a child but, in fact, some kind of 'little person'. Why the producers of the film decided to cast an actor who is clearly an adult as a child is beyond me, but it certainly ups the "ewwww!" factor in several scenes. Most notably is that following one of the (many) zombie attacks when Michael goes to his mother for comfort and then starts nuzzling her breasts and reaching up her dress. I'm not sure if this would have actually been creepier if the actor had actually been a child, but it is far more disturbing than any of the gore on display. The rest of the film is alright. I actually liked the fact that very little time was wasted on explanations on the source of the zombie-ism (eccentric professor raises the dead and then is eaten by them - "No, stop - I'm your friend!"), that they pretty quickly get down to the business of gut-munching and flesh-ripping. Any normal viewer will either despise or at least feel indifferent toward all of the non-zombie characters; we are aren't in any way asked or persuaded to identify or sympathize with anyone here, so (like all of the 'Friday the 13th' movies and most slasher flicks) you end up hating all of the victims and cheering on the zombies, taking great satisfaction when they get their intestines pulled out or heads cut off. It doesn't help matters that all the living humans behave, almost without exception, in a fashion that can at best be generously called moronic (no offense intended toward any of you morons out there) - which only makes you want to see them all die that much more. One complaint: the video transfer of this film is rather on the darkish side, which makes some of the best scenes (especially those at night) difficult to fully appreciate (most notably the maid's crucifixion/decapitation). There are better zombie movies, definitely, but you can also do a lot worse.

A surreal nightmare with an outrageous promise kept

[A_Llama_Drama · 6/10 · 15 October 2021]

Burial Ground is an Italian bonkers mix of audio horror, vile imagery and gutsy character work.

In the best manner, Burial Ground does all it can to make you feel uncomfortable. Forgetting the slow march of the decaying filth following the cast, the cast themselves are playing some of the most egregious characters ever committed to film. Each and every one of them seems wrong in some way. The framing of the violence, often in close up, with the camera remaining long after the skin's been torn, or the skull cracked makes for seat squirming viewing. The zombies, with live maggots and worms and eyes falling out of sockets, stir nasty feelings of disgust as they shamble and stumble and lay seige to the mansion.

In it all, though, is a sense of beauty. The grounds of the mansion and its interior are epic. The cast, even though they're being terrorised all night, look absolutely stunning in their pearls and perms and high neck sweaters. The blood flows like paint on a wet canvas.

But the kicker, the reason to watch this film, is the final scene. In a moment built up over the runtime, we get one of cinema's most depraved and insane developments ever committed to in film. A real horror crowd pleaser that I'm sure if played at any late night horror show would get whoops and gasps and screams of delight from the audience.

Review for the original U.S. R-rated release, BURIAL GROUND.

[capkronos · 5/10 · 13 May 2003]

Some vacationers show up at a secluded country club, wander into the courtyard an start making out, and a little kid voyeur watches his mom have sex with her boyfriend. Before long, maggot-faced zombies pop out of the ground and attack. These are no regular zombies though, these smarties bust down the door with a battering ram and pretend to be monks to lure people into a monestary! You kill them by smashing their brains just like in the Romero movies.

The stupid characters scream and stand around while the zombies accumulate around them. People who are killed are ripped open and have all their bloody guts pulled out and eaten. A maid is stabbed in the hand, decapitated with a scythe and then eaten. The kid character is obviously played by an short adult (he looks like a horse jockey), and even his dubbed-in voice sounds like an adult trying to imitate a child! In one scene he feels up his own mother and says, "Oh momma, I need to touch you! I loved your breasts so much momma!" She's outraged, but when he is killed and shows up as a white-faced zombie, she pulls out her breast for him and he bites her nipple off in close-up.

The dubbing is atrocious and not just in the matching lips department, but this has lots of standout, gruesome death scenes and better zombies (designed by Rosario Prestopino) than usual. Some of the photography is too dark, but the violence shown is pretty strong stuff. Vestron released the video here in 1986. It was known briefly as ZOMBIE 3, a title which was also given to a 1987 Bruno Mattei movie.

Score: 4 out of 10

Two words: Peter Bark

[Red-Barracuda · 7/10 · 17 March 2012]

This is one of the many Italian zombie movies that were released on the back of the success of Dawn of the Dead. Andrea Bianchi's movie, however, is a much more straightforward feature than George Romero's template. In this one the set-up is covered in about five minutes – a professor revives the dead in some ancient catacombs, a group of upper class twits arrive at a remote villa and the zombies descend on this house and start killing everyone. It's practically plot less and, to be honest, the lack of any explanations is most welcome. This approach just allows us to get on down to it with a minimum of fuss. The pace is therefore very fast and this could hardly be described as a boring movie. The zombies have decent make up and they tear their victims apart with excessive violence. They also seem to be adept with tools and weaponry which isn't really playing by the rules of convention but who really cares? The point is that this is stupid fun from start to finish.

Of course, it would be insane to not mention the film's defining feature, the one and only Peter Bark. This strange dwarf plays a ten year old boy irrespective of the fact that he appears to be about thirty. He might even be older than his 'mother'; but whatever the case he is a deeply creepy character with a medieval bowl-shaped haircut. His oedipal relationship with his mother is simply a further bizarre detail in an already very strange set-up. And as for when he returns to his mother as a zombie, well that sure is a scene to remember that much I can say. The characters, in general, are all incredibly stupid of course, at one point they decide to let the zombies in the villa on the basis that they are quite slow so therefore can easily be avoided! Well, that decision ends in tears as you can probably guess. All the characters act like complete cretins throughout. This is a typical feature of splatter movies though, it means we just want to see them picked off and ripped apart.

Burial Ground is a very trashy horror movie, there's no doubt about it. But like many of its contemporaries from Italy at this time it has a relentless energy and no-holds-barred approach to the blood and guts. It should be avoided if characterisation is very important to you. However, if you like them fast, furious and deranged then this might fit the bill.

What a Hoot!

[Ralphus2 · 5/10 · 24 August 2011]

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.

Peter Bark saved my life.

[ericdetrick2002 · 10/10 · 2 May 2007]

OK, for those who don't know who Peter Bark is, but have seen this film, he is the strange little boy who looks like a man (and actually was an adult too- we hope). Every time I get down and depressed and want to end it all, I put this movie in and I am reminded of how good life is when films like "Burial Ground: Nights of Terror" are available to me. So Peter Bark, if you are out there and are reading this...thank you. Watching you suckle the breast of your on screen mother is absolutely divine...

Come on everyone, together..."Peter Bark, Peter Bark, Peter Bark...!" There are those who will totally get it, and all others can go rent "The Grudge: Part 10". Me, I'm just a "Burial Ground" kind of guy...

Schlocky zombie flick that delivers bucket loads of mobile corpses

[fertilecelluloid · 6/10 · 23 December 2005]

On a technical level, this is pretty inept. The walking dead are often out of focus. Everything is grossly overlit. And the compositions are all over the place.

But...it is also a classic for many reasons. The decision to cast thirty-year-old Peter Bark as the ten-year-old son of Antonella Antinori, is one of strange genius. Bark looks like a jockey and wears his pants so high, he surely must have ruined his testicles forever. In one great scene, he begins to feel his own mother up so he can return to munch on her breast later.

The problem with many zombie films is the zombies don't get enough screen time. That's not the case here. Within ten minutes, the zombies are everywhere, and they remain centrestage for the entire movie. They are rotting, shambling, maggot-ridden creature of the Fulci variety, and they are lots of fun to watch. In one scene, a victim's eye is skewered by broken glass, ala "Zombie", and the constant close-ups of decayed flesh echo the master's best works.

Director Bianchi uses the living dead army well and keeps them busy chasing a party of bad actors. The overlit nature of the photography robs the horror scenes of atmosphere at times, but the simple, electronic soundtrack keeps everything on a strange note.

For fans of schlock, there is plenty to enjoy. The flesh tearing and munching scenes are very graphic and the location -- an old monastery -- is suitably evocative.

Valid in spite of its aesthetic deficiencies.

The zombies aren't the most frightening thing in this movie...

[laze-2 · 5/10 · 15 June 1999]

Burial Ground aka Zombie 3: Night of Terror is a slow-paced movie despite the hoards of zombies throughout. The acting is terrible and the zombies themselves range from goofy to quite frightening. But the most scary part of this movie is NOT the zombies... ... it's the young boy named Michael. He's about 13 or 14 but has the head of a 30-year-old. This kid sent chills down my spine every time he came on screen. And while the infamous "nipple biting" scene isn't terribly scary, it IS scary that a mother would let her 13-year-old son nurse.

This is what zombie movies are all about

[stepflan · 10/10 · 23 February 2008]

Burial Ground is one of the sleaziest, goriest, and weirdest movies I have ever seen. And I love it! The reason why it all works is because of the crazy and trippy atmosphere around it all. The music (If you can call it that) fits perfectly and the zombie makeup is one of the best I've ever seen. The story makes no sense whatsoever, but that's the way I like it. The movie doesn't spend much time fooling around. It gets right to the point, which is the blood and gore.

Also the movie has one of the most spaced out characters in the history of cinema. I'm talking about the young boy named Michael. Only he's not actually played by a little boy. He's actually played by an adult who looks like a ghost.

If you like Italian zombie movies than this is your wet dream. I highly recommend this to anyone interested exploitation.

Who Are the Braindead?

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 2 June 2009]

Professor Ayres (Renato Barbieri) discovers a secret in an ancient stone and when he opens a crypt, he revives zombies that kill him. He had invited three couples of friends to visit him in his manor to reveal his discovery; however, they never meet the professor. Out of the blue, the zombies attack them and they seek shelter in the mansion. The creatures put the manor under siege while they protect themselves trying to survive to the horde of zombies.

"Burial Ground - The Nights of Terror" is a hilarious and cheese Italian horror movie that has a stupid story, with characters that are dumber than the zombies. There is no development of the characters or the situation; the plot begins with zombies attacking the professor and his guests having sex as soon as they arrive in their rooms (or in the garden). The lines are awfully dubbed in English and the unreasonable attitudes of the characters are so imbecile that it is impossible not laugh. The make-up and the gory special effects are magnificent, with gruesome zombies with maggots in their heads; however the weirdest character is Michael, performed by Peter Bark. His dysfunctional relationship with his mother with an exaggerated Oedipus complex is comical. The acting is terrible, and there are many mistakes in the sequence and edition. For example, the blonde Janet, performed by Karin Well, injures her ankle, but in some moments she runs away from the zombies without limping. When she is trapped in the bear trap, there is a ridiculous mistake in the edition. In the end, this movie has potential of cult, Last but not the least; who are the braindead in this story? The zombies, the humans or the writer and the director? My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Noites de Terror" (Nights of Terror")

Note: On 29 January 2017, I saw this film again. My vote is five.

Needs to be Buried!

[BaronBl00d · 2/10 · 29 July 2001]

Well, Burial Ground was one of those Italian gore "masterpieces" that one hears so much about only to be ultimately disappointed that it was as bad as you thought it would be in a humorless way. A group of Italian rich are staying at a villa in the country. We are briefly...and I mean briefly...told that they were asked to come by a professor that has something to tell them. We see this professor for only moments in the beginning of the film. It is so dark that we really don't know what he is doing except that soon he will be no more and a horde of zombies with masks and maggots a plenty on their faces will start shuffling in this burial chamber waiting for the "right" time to come out of the earth. Hmmm. Anyway, that in a nutshell is the plot of this film. No more exposition. No more explanation why these zombies walk. Nothing. Zip. The rest of the movie shows this group of people and a couple servants get horribly butchered, scream a lot, and a mother feed her breast to a 14 year old boy(with a middle-aged face)who in moments rips the nipple off in a very non-titilating way. Hmmm. The zombies are made-up primarily with masks with lots and lots of maggots, worms, rotten teeth, etc... Some of them look very convincing while many look just ridiculous. The biggest problem with them is that they are not your normal run-of-the-mill zombies...oh no! these zombies think..and are quite shrewd. In fact, they are the smartest zombies I have ever seen on film. They trick their victims with disguises, use various weapons such as scythes and knives, throw a metal spike with accurate precision into a woman's hand at least twenty feet away, apparently used a bear trap(I will never figure THAT one out!),turn on an electric buzz saw(that one boggles the mind too!) and used a huge piece of wood to ram down a door! Zombie group work at its finest! The gore is, however, plentiful for those that like to see people literally stripped of intestinal fortitude, lots of organ-gnawing, flesh-eating, decapitation, and perhaps the most painful form of breast reduction around. Not quite my cup of tea. To be fair, director Andrea Bianchi DOES have some flair as a director. Several scenes were well-shot, with the one with the maid walking down a very dimly lit hall being the best for my money. Bianchi used very poor lighting, however, in many of the scenes. Some were very close to being unwatchable. The acting is in name only for these "thespians" have little to do with acting. They are primarily cardboard characters that you will care very little for. The director must have sensed this and therefore added a liberal dose of sex and nudity prior to the human buffet being served. Maria Angela Giordano as Michael's mother is at the very least a banquet for the eyes before she becomes an entree for the undead. Peter Bark plays Michael and at the very least he is definitely creepy. But if you are looking for mediocre acting in a somewhat plausible, cohesive story...Burial Ground is not for you. There is no plot and the film really is nothing more than an exercise in testing your constitution and good taste. Of course if all you want to see is blood and gore...then Burial Ground is for the gore lover in you.

One of the worst, most entertaining movies ever made!

[signalelectric · 10 December 2010]

To properly critique this film I will attempt to rate some of it's key elements individually.

Entertainment Value: 10/10 This is a very entertaining movie that moves at a fast pace. The best part is that the zombies are twice as clever as the living. The undead concoct plans to outwit the living, similar to tapping on the left shoulder then standing behind the right one.

Plot: 1/10 Thank goodness there were other zombie films made before this one, otherwise you wouldn't know what the heck was going on! This is basically derivative of all the better done, and known zombie films of the 70's, with some totally bizarre twists thrown in to keep you guessing. The script is very disproportional, and the dialog is awful. Basically, it would be extremely challenging to write another script as horrible as this one ever again.

Production Value: 2/10 This movie has almost no directorial style, and the class equivalent of an 80's porno movie. The gore and makeup is done with very little, or no attention to detail, so it's hard to believe that the same guy that did the make-up effects for Fulci's "Zombie" did the effects for this one. Also, the image looks murky and the camera compositions, undesirable. The crew is seen once, for certain, and the dubbing is sloppy. However, it should be noted that now and then the score is pretty good.

Acting: 0/10 or 10/10 (depending on how you look at it) The acting is completely overdone, and definitely one of the funniest parts of the movie. I found myself gleefully anticipating every line.

So there you have it, a very entertaining, very bad movie. Possibly, one of the most entertaining films I have ever seen. Check it out!

How Can You Not Love This Crap?

[Doctor_Cheese · 6/10 · 15 February 2005]

"Burial Ground" AKA "The Nights of Terror" AKA "Le notti del terrore" is magnificent crap by any name. Consider this: In addition to the standard horrible dubbing, ridiculous score, and awful editing, you get exceptionally stupid characters, MENSA-level zombies, and a 25-year-old guy who plays a 10-year-old boy with a severe case of the Oedipal blues. It all adds up to 90 minutes of prime entertainment (assuming you're a warped bastard like the Good Doctor).

The semi-coherent plot involves a professor who somehow manages to resurrect some corpses(who promptly tear his face off) and a group of idiotic people who come to hang out at his castle for some reason. The idiotic people include three nice looking women, two of whom bare their breasts within the first 10 minutes of the film, and the aforementioned superannuated "boy."

Goofy dialogue and absurd situations ensue. As mentioned, the zombies, who look decent for a movie of this type, are smarter than the humans. They use tools -- axes, picks, scythes, battering rams, even power saws -- while our hapless heroes pretty much just scream a lot and get killed. Well, before they get killed, two of them -- a pretty hot blonde who is apparently a model and her photographer boyfriend -- have this great exchange:

He: You're turning into a great little model.

She: Then I deserve a raise in pay.

He: You're getting a raise from me all right but it has nothing to do with money!

Uh, yeah. Anyway, of course this movie sucks, but it's pretty funny the way the characters don't really help each other as they get ripped apart by maggot-infested zombies. It's also curious that the zombies, who mostly appear to be rotted down to their skeletons, are still way stronger than the living losers they attack.

If the Good Doctor has one complaint, it's that extreme close-ups ruin the cheesy gore effects too often. But other than that, why not grab some popcorn, ring up your mom, and put this on the DVD player? She'll love it.

Scary and creepy film with loads of horrifying scenes , including lots of blood and gore

[ma-cortes · 4/10 · 4 January 2020]

A professor finds out an old secret , then he opens an ancient and sinister tomb where a lot of rotten Zombies appear causing massacre and wreak havoc . The creepy zombies escape from the crypt and attack a group of couples who spend time at a mansion.The spooky Zombie creatures put the villa under siege while the three couples flee and hide from the reanimated living dead.

This explotiation fim contains eerie scenes, ghastly images, some erotic scenes with nudism and lots of blood and gore . It is an inferior and low budgeted film , but being entertaining enough . The Jet Set group is mostly formed by unknown actors , however, being partially known the actresses Mariangela Giordano and Karin Well who played some Italian sex films and Peter Bark who is immortalized in his role as a kid-adult and Giordano's son . It displays a macabre slaughter against the unfortunate guests with plenty of loathing scenes and astonishing guts being eaten by the starving zombies. This terrifying movie ponderously and slowly paced , packs dozens of gory frames including slashing , slitting, heart ripped out , stabbing in the chest , beheading , cannnibalism , crushing to death and anything else.

The motion picture was lousily directed by Andrea Bianchi and in very short budget . He was an Italian director expert on explotiation movies . He made all kinds of genres with penchant for terror , thriller and erotic genre such as Malabimba , Strip Naked for your Killer , The Big Shots , Maniac Killer , Dangerous love , Massacre , Commando Mengele , Treasure Island , Night Child , among others . Being his most successful this Zombi Horror also titled Burial Ground , The Nights of Terror .Rating 3.5/10 , Below average but entertaining . The picture will appeal to explotiation and Italian Terror lovers .

Entertaining from beginning to end

[bujinbudoka · 7/10 · 26 March 2006]

I'm giving this a 7, due to the age and the fact it was a B-movie here. However, as far as Zombie movies go, this is on par with Dawn of the Dead. The movie begins with an opening of things to come, as Zombies attack a doctor researching the remains of a past society. Unfortunately he's awakened them from their eternal slumber! The movie moves along at a good pace, keeping you very interested in it no matter what happens. One thing which makes this movie stand out, and surely reflects what Romero thought of his Zombies becoming in later movies, was the cohesive teamwork between them in this movie. They literally get tools and a battering ram at one point in order to get to their quarry. Wicked effects, cool looking Zombies and more abound in this flick with one of the best surprise endings EVER in horror movies. Watch it today, especially if you can find it!

garbage with some nice touches

[dopefishie · 2/10 · 29 June 2021]

Garbage with some nice touches

I didn't like it. There is no plot. This movie gets down to business very quickly! Zombies appear, walk slowly, and eat people almost immediately. Nothing is explained. Things just happen.

The acting is terrible. With the exception of Mariangela Giordano who plays Evelyn. She was fantastically expressive compared to the other actors. I think she must have wandered into the wrong movie. Her talent is out of place here.

The quality of the special effects varies. Some of the zombies look pretty good. Other zombies look terrible. There was no quality control. It was like whenever the director yelled action they started filming regardless of what stage of makeup the actors were in. Many of them needed more time in the makeup chair.

But the gore is quite gruesome. And nihilistic. There is a pointlessness to this film. A hopelessness. It's a total downer. I can't recommend it.

Peter Bark is the everyman hero...

[leagueofstruggle · 10/10 · 29 April 2004]

A movie of such bombastic ineptitude it's not unlike watching Sam Raimi try to direct a movie while at the same time being gang beaten by a group with electric cattle prods until he's stupid. And even then that's probably giving Bianchi more credit than he deserves for this film. Burial Ground also goes down as the only living dead movie where the zombies are more intelligent than the protagonists although Nightmare City by Umberto Lenzi comes close. Certain considerations must be given to Bianchi on this film however. He doesn't flub the living dead film formula like the modern counterpart directors that try ineffectively to make living dead films these days. He is confident enough in the makeup FX to film the zombies in broad daylight. In this case the DVD reissue that cleaned the film up didn't do the movie any favors as the previously murky VHS release partially masked some of the more pathetic zombie FX. The plot falls on its face in most cases and could be a case example of choices a protagonist in a horror film should never make. The characters just continually make so many wrong choices you may find yourself rooting for the zombies. Then again if the characters made the right choices the movie would have been over in twenty-five minutes. Of course all these horrible choices have consequences in that characters do drop like flies throughout the film and meet one messy end after the other. The death scenes are creative and Bianchi at least stretched his imagination a little to give some interesting deaths to the characters in the film, ludicrous as some of them may be. As usual for standard B-movie fare the dubbing is weak at best, an insult to eardrum at worst. Dialogue suffers a similar fate, in this case it just stretches between illogical, silly, or plain sleazy. The dubbing doesn't help the representation of the characters' intelligence either.

The graphic violence is excessive in almost every case, a plus for those seeking grue and crimson splashes. The best actor in the film by far is Peter Bark who is a twenty (thirty?) something that plays the role of a ten-year-old boy. This was due to child labor laws in Italy at the time and Peter Bark shines in his role of the Oedipal boy, Michael. It adds so many levels of sleaziness to the film Bianchi is to be applauded for tackling this difficult social issue. The climax of the film is a guaranteed disappointment as the film feels more like it either just ran out of budget and closed shop or Bianchi just ran out of ideas. The ending is not unlike reading a book only to find out someone ripped out the last ten or fifteen pages, it ends that abruptly. The pacing of the film up to the end is decent, being that the characters are one step above an amoeba on the evolutionary scale we aren't bothered by such things as characterization or advancement of personality. From the moment the dead rise it's just a series of encounters where the protagonists make horrible judgment calls and pay the price for it. If anything the breakneck pace of the film keeps a person entertained rather than bogging down. Seriously, if the characters are not fornicating they are battling the living dead. It at least keeps the action, one way or another, flowing. If you enjoy the Italian living dead genre Burial Ground will not disappoint, others are probably better turned away.

"Mama!" Absolute bonkers zombie schlock that still has to be seen to be believed!

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 7/10 · 28 February 2022]

The term "so bad it's good" is one that gets used a lot these days, but I personally feel it really should belong to a special sort of bad movie that is naively unaware or ignorant of its own lousiness, and it has to be entertainingly bad, and have bad acting, bad pacing, bad special effects, and for me 1981's Burial Ground is one movie that definitely lives up to all of that in spades! It's about a horde of zombies that are unleashed after a mad scientist unearths an old stone tablet or something, and they proceed to terrorise a group of jet-setting swingers who had been invited to the old man's sprawling gothic villa, but these are not just your garden variety zombies - They're Italian zombies! A lot of the old zombie splatterfests of the early eighties and beyond were basically all just carbon copies of Romero's classic trilogy, it was zombie movies galore, and some of the most colourful examples came out of the Italian film industry, and Burial Ground, for better or worse, is one of the most bizarre offerings of that whole era! If you're looking for plot you've come to the wrong movie because this is one of the most plotless exercises in celluloid ever to be seen, and the structure is quite meandering and nonsensical, as virtually every scene is just a very tepid zombie onslaught as the slow as molasses zombies, who all wear the exact same silly monk outfit, awkwardly shuffle their way towards the victims as they try to fight back and keep them out and it's the same scene drawn out over and over again... It gets like a fever dream after a while because most of what you're seeing is so very monotonous and weird! It's like they didn't even know how zombies are supposed to work, I mean you ever see a zombie with a pitchfork, or use a battering ram? Burial Ground has you covered! That doesn't mean this fetid pile of zombie dung is totally without a certain tacky charm though, the dubbed performances are so unnatural and hilariously robotic and the spaced out music and goofy nightmare logic that drives the whole thing is so random, and that it's taken so seriously only makes it more unintentionally funny. L do just about like it, I guess, but it sure verges on being intolerably boring a whole lot, and it could have stood to have been a little more creative with its story, as it's got all the prerequisites for a great Italian zombie flick, the over the top gore, the noticeably shabby zombie masks, beautiful naked ladies, but for all that it never quite emerges as a low budget gem or even gets going. My favourite part of the movie and I think a lot of its fans is, is how in order to get around the child actor labour laws the producers opted to use an adult little person named Peter Bark to play a twelve year old boy, a rather freaky looking little person I might add, and it doesn't work for a second, he had a half-man half-child thing going on..but that's what made it so wonderfully strange and hilarious! And also just to make things even weirder, little Michael has an unexplained unhealthy attraction to his mother, and there's one breast scene that you will not soon forget! This is a remarkably terrible film that is somewhat endearing despite its many faults, it's a guilty pleasure if ever there was one.. So if you haven't had the pleasure before and you're in the right mood for some major low budget old school zombie horror movie cheese with a side of hammy robot acting, Burial Ground is the tasty morsel you're looking for, it's very crummy, but I must admit it's fun! You have been warned! X.

Insanely bad

[gutterworldking · 1/10 · 7 February 2000]

I nearly stopped watching this horrible movie several times while watching it. I now wish i had quit watching. This movie had horrible dubbing, horrible acting, and a horrible script. The story was stupid! The effects were just... bad. I don't see what people could like in this movie. I noticed it trying to rip off ideas from other zombie movies, too. It's pretty blatant at times. Only watch this movie if you've got time to waste and you're not paying for it.

A scary zombie movie

[Magnus Wersen · 9/10 · 26 November 2001]

'The Nights Of Terror' (which is its real English name) is one of the more forgotten Italian Zombie-flicks that they were churning out like madmen in the early eighties. The story is simple but effective, three couples is arriving at a remote villa where a Professor Ayres is going to announce something which have to do with the way we are looking at death. However, as we could see before the credits the good professor is dead and the dead is rising from an old Etruscan cemetery just outside the villa. Apart from some brief sex-scenes when the couples arrive at the house, the whole movie is a long chase between the zombies and their potential victims. What makes this movie worth watching is the fact that it's trying to be a real horror-movie witch creaking doors, old cemeteries and a fair bit of suspense. In fact, most of the movie almost feels like Blind Dead-movie (especially as the zombies use various tools to kill their victims). The zombie make-up by Gino De Rossi and Rosario Prestopino is impressing; instead of the tired Savini-blue-in-the-face make-up the zombies look genuinely scary.

Of course it's not without faults, the dubbing is terrible and the dialogue is laughable. Who can ever forget Professor Ayres' line when the zombies are attacking him (No! I'm your friend!), or the weird Michael (Mama, this cloth smells of death). To summarize it, this movie is like a Lucio Fulci movie with an Amando De Ossorio script and Jess Franco characters.

Bark Just As Bad As His Bite

[ferbs54 · 6/10 · 21 April 2014]

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....

What the heck? This movie sucked!

[Aylmer · 1/10 · 25 December 1999]

(Someone needs to say it)

Possibly the worst, most depressingly dreary and poorly lit movie ever made, I find it unbelievable that anyone could find any merit in this turd. Bad, bad, bad... even the gore is bad. I usually am a big fan of the red stuff, but here is was just cheesy and nasty. They didn't even try. Far too long and boring to be funny either. Barely 6 people die in the course of the movie, the zombies look terrible (Gino De Rossi went overboard on the maggots), the kid was an obnoxious freak, and the music caused my ears to bleed! Only see this if you are on the brink of suicide and need just a little push to go all the way through with it. It'll make you feel ashamed of being a fan of Italian movies or Horror flicks. Burn this movie.