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Film / Hell of the Living Dead

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"Experimental project Operation: Sweet Death must be considered a complete failure. Some kind of degenerated process has begun which may be catastrophic for everybody. May God forgive us... for what we have produced here and... pardon us for this evil."
Professor Barrett

Hell of the Living Dead (also known as Night of the Zombies, Virus, or Zombie Creeping Flesh) is a 1980 Italian-Spanish zombie horror film written by Claudio Fragasso and directed by Bruno Mattei.

In Papua New Guinea, secret research laboratories called "Hope Centers" work to help feed impoverished nations... or so they claim. Unfortunately, one of the labs' projects, Operation Sweet Death, has a chemical leak that causes the facility—and the country—to be overrun by zombies.

The film is largely known for its plagiarism of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, with characters wearing similar uniforms to the heroes of Romero's film, as well as using some of its music, although much of Hell of the Living Dead's soundtrack also came from the Alien rip-off Contamination, which like Dawn was scored by Goblin.


This film has the examples of:

  • Boom, Headshot!: As with most zombie films. Zantoro figures this out, and is increasingly annoyed by the lack of this, though he himself fails to make headshots when really upset.
  • Break the Cutie: Lia, the journalist, after finding out that developed nations had created the zombie plague to thin out the populations of Third World Countries.
  • Chewing the Scenery: Zantoro, and the film is all the more entertaining for it. Actor Franco Garofalo did most of this by improv, according to the DVD bonus feature documentary on the blu-ray.
  • Crapsack World: New Guinea is a third world country in the first place, and the organization providing foreign aid is actually wanting to unleash a zombie gas to stop overpopulation. Then the gas leaks, and the country goes full Zombie Apocalypse. The ending shows that the zombie plague is spreading to the rest of the world.
  • Creator Cameo: Mattei and Fragasso appear as police early in the film.
  • Downer Ending: All of the main cast is eaten by the zombies. Meanwhile, the zombie plague is spreading across the world.
  • Everything's Deader with Zombies: It starts out as a basic action movie about a bunch of mercenaries going after terrorists targeting a chemical facility in Papua New Guinea. Then the zombies show up and it turns into a full-blown Zombie Apocalypse.
  • Exploitation Film: It's a cheap Italian-Spanish knock-off film blatantly inspired by Romero's zombie films.
  • Eye Scream: A zombie forces its hand into its victim's mouth, and pops her eyeballs out from the inside.
  • Gorn: The movie
  • Gory Deadly Overkill Title of Fatal Death: The title is literally "Hell of the Living Dead".
  • The Hero Dies: Lt. Mike London is eaten by the zombies.
  • Hostage Situation: A group of terrorists take hostage of Consulate, demanding closure of the Hope Centers.
  • I Shall Taunt You: Zantoro spends half the movies taunting zombies.
    Zantoro: *Completely surrounded by zombies* Hey you, what are you staring at? Are ya hungry?! Ah, I get it, you want a little bite outta me. What meat do ya like, drumstick? *Zombie grabs arm* A wing? *The others watch him in disbelief.* Ohhh, oh yeah, that's great, a wing, eh? Well, suck this! *Pull back, shoves gun into zombie's mouth, and fires.*
  • Jerkass:
    • After Lia threatened but failed to kill Lt. London, Zantoro points the very same gun at her, fires, and mocks her because it wasn't loaded.
    • As noted on The Bruno Mattei Show, this is like if Wooley from Dawn of the Dead got his own film.
  • Kill the Poor: The zombies are the product of a cruel experiment by a secret cabal of the elite to cull the population of the third world by releasing chemicals that will cause the impoverished to eat each other alive.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Lia knows how to blend in with the natives. Cut to: pulling her shirt off...
  • Operation: [Blank]: "Operation Sweet Death".


 
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Hell of the Living Dead

All of the main cast is eaten by the zombies. Meanwhile, the zombie plague is spreading across the world.

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Main / DownerEnding

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