Virus [Hell of the Living Dead aka Night of the Zombies] (1980)

(In French, On TV, September 2020) The bad news is that Hell of the Living Dead (or whatever you want to call it) is a Bruno Mattei 1980 zombie film. The good news is that… well, there is no good news. This is all you get: Splatter gore sequences loosely strung along an incomprehensible plot about medical experimentation in the Third World, cardboard characters being killed one after another, an ill-fitting Goblin soundtrack, substandard acting, astonishing low-budget filmmaking shortcuts, scenes that feel recycled and a nihilistic ending. Don’t tell me that, for better or for worse, this isn’t what you were expecting. To be fair, Hell of the Living Dead didn’t strike me as being as heave-inducing as some of the truly atrocious Italian horror movies of the era, but that’s a low, almost nonexistent bar. See it if you want—it’s your time. As for myself, I’m steering clear of that era of filmmaking as soon as I’m done checking them off my list.