Director: Andrea Bianchi
Writer: Piero Regnoli
Release year: 1981

LE NOTTI DEL TERRORE or BURIAL GROUND or THE ZOMBIE DEAD or whatever else aka-title this steaming pile of zombie-turd is known by, easily is one of the best bad zombie-movies out there. And a must-see for all Italian zombie-fans. You know, the slow, dry & dusty kind.

(Spoilers!)

Click play to listen to Karin Well screaming & endcredits score

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We could try to go into the utterly pointless plot. We could laugh at the totally inept acting performances. We could rave about the gore & sleaze. Or we could show various pictures of that illustrious, hideously creepy man-child actor (Peter Bark – just google his name and you’ll find him). But none of that. NIGHTS OF TERROR made it unto this page because of it being a nice example of another trend in frozen shock endings. A trend the Italians in particular seem to love: Not only do they freeze the final (shock-)shot, they also display a text on it. Preferably writings that are soaked in impending doom. Dreadful words that are not to be misunderstood and basically boil down to: “Folks, this movie doesn’t end well”.

So, how does it all end? After the complete cast has been eaten by or turned into zombies while partying in the Mansion of Terror, four people -- including blonde girl (Karin Well) -- finally manage to run away, through the fields towards a monastery inhabited by… more zombies (surprise!). In the final scene, they find themselves trapped in a room with countless zombies closing in. And what a scene that is! Peter Bark has his moment of on-screen glory (involving his mother’s breasts, one nipple and lots of blood). The zombies seem to have more fun capturing the last guy standing and teasing him with a viciously buzzing circular saw instead of just eating him. And Ms. Well is totally screaming her head off during all this (slow-moving) mayhem. She even gets a screaming close-up at the end with lots of zombie-hands reaching for her face… and the frame freezes.

Along with this wonderful shot (and the disappointment of not having seen the guy’s face ripped to shreds by the buzz-saw) the doom prediction pops up on the screen. Even more fun than reading it, is spotting the typos in it. Those Italians… Never have been good in English, have they?

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