Joe D'Amato's EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD

[Darth Tanner]

Just got done watching this. I had seen a bootleg of it several years ago but was far from impressed by it. Maybe it was the fact that the movie was in Italian without the benefit of English subtitles. Either that or the crappy quality of the tape that I saw. In either event, I decided afterwards it was one of the worst movies I had seen. However, I recently acquired the Media Blasters DVD of the "explicit adult" version and decided to give it another try. For some strange reason I seemed to like it a little better this time around. Maybe seeing it in better quality and finally being able to understand what they were saying helped out. But one of the problems I had on my initial viewing still remains: it seems that old Joe wasn't too sure what type of movie he wanted to make so decided to combine the sex and zombie elements into one. Only problem is that it doesn't go together well. The explicit sex scenes are just really out of place and drawn out too long (not to mention that I could have lived without seeing Mark Shannon's genital warts....YIKES!!!). The scenes on the island involving the zombies are better, but these stiffs don't even measure up to Fulci and Romero standards. However the zombie scenes at the end and early in the movie are actually pretty atmospheric and the music sets a nice mood. I wish Joe D'Amato would have spent more time on the zombies and less on the sex. George Eastman and Laura Gemser are quite good in this. Dirce Funari is also nice on the eyes as well:dsmoke: All in all, it's still not a classic but I'm glad I gave it a second chance and like it a little better now. Since my main complaint here was the sex I'm wondering if I should seek out the "general release" version that removes the explicit stuff and focuses more on the zombie story (anybody seen it?). But as far as Joe D'Amato films go, I still prefer MONSTER HUNTER and ANTHROPOPHAGUS over this.

What do you guys think about this one? I know there are quite a few D'Amato fans in here so surely some of you have seen it and can comment on it:smoke:

[DylanDog]

I remember being pleasantly surprised by this when I watched it. I was expecting it to be totally worthless, but it did have some nice atmosphere in parts.

[I am 138]

I've only seen the same boot you did years ago, and thought it was atrocious.

[Latte Thunder]

I have a tendency to steer clear of his movies that are not strictly horror movies. The sexploitation horror movies can never seem to decide what kind of movie they want to be, the gore rarely lives up to stuff like Anthropophagus or Buio Omega and the sex scenes are often way softcore and go on for too long or hardcore inserts that are very obviously shot much later on.

I say this when I'm sitting on three Emanuelle movies waiting to be watched.