EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD
(le notti erotiche dei morti viventi)
1979 Joe D'Amato Italy
Starring: Laura Gemser, George Eastman, Dirce Funari, Mark Shannon, Lucia Ramirez
This strange hybrid of genres was actually much better than i would have expected. The film opens at an insane asylum. George Eastman (Luigi Montifiore) makes his way down to the basement and starts screwing the brains out of a co-ed patient. In flash back we are told how they ended up in the hospital.
George was a captain, who was hired by a business man (Italian porn star Mark Shannon) to take him to an island. The natives of the island are being picked off by zombies, and Eastman clobbers one with an anchor before setting off.
The island (actually San Domingo) is very creepy and helps to set the tone of the film. Strange voodoo rites are being performed on the island, which most of the population of was killed by a plague, and strange things begin to happen. The zombie that Eastman killed at the docks sits up on the coroners table and takes a bite out of his neck, a pretty effective scene.
Now, this film isn't technicaly a porno as most say. the sex is dirty and sleazy, but really just soft-core. Most of the scenes are pretty damn funny, like Dirce Funari uncorking a champagne bottle with her twat. Besides that, Mark Shannon is about the goofiest and most unsexy guy you could imagine.
The last half hour it really picks up. The group run into an old native man with a big old bump on his head. He warns them to leave (i think, my Italian's not that good) and they run into his daughter, Laura Gemser. Gemser seems to appear and disapear, playing tricks on the minds of the group (and having sex with one of the girls) and it's never quite sure if she is a ghost or not.
When Mark Shannon disturbs a voodoo idol, the dead rise from their graves in one of the coolest and creepiest zombie scenes this side of Tombs Of The Blind Dead. Shannon fights of a gang of zombies in a little shack, the runs out side for a quick BJ from Gemser. Not a good idea because Gemser bites it clean off! yowch! Eastman fights his way to safety by destroying the idol and starts bangin' Lucia Ramirez the same way he was at the begining of the film. It fades back to the present as nurses turn the hose on the two lovers. The ending is great, you're not sure if it was a flashback or just the fantasy of a deranged mind. A surprisingly intelligent script written by Eastman and nice photography by D'Amato himself combine to make a great film.
Erotic Nights Of The Living Dead was recently released in Japan on DVD in an English Dubbed Version, but from what i've heard it's missing several scenes, including the bottle scene and is optically censored.
PORNO HOLOCAUST
(delize erotiche in porno holocaust)
1979 Joe D'Amato Italy
Starring:George Eastman, Dirce Funari, Mark Shannon
Shot back-to-back with Erotic Nights, Porno Holocaust the lesser of the two. Shot on the same island and with most of the same cast, the plot only slightly altered. In this film, Shannon and Eastman again travel to a strange sparsley populated island, although instead of voodoo and zombies, Porno Holocaust treats us to a well-endowed black radiation zombie.
The first hour and 15 minutes are nothing but numerous scenes of hardcore sex. Well that couldn't be all bad, right? Wrong! I can't belive that hardcore pornography could be so boring and completely un-stimulating. Top that off with bad lighting and atrocious music by the usually quite good Nico Fidenco. Rumors persist that most of this film was directed by talenless hack Bruno Mattei, but i doubt the could afford two directors for this crud.
Finally, we see the zombie. He's a bug goon who has a pig nose a a HUGE shlong. The two rape/murder scenes are kinda funny, the monster gagging one girl to death with his radiactive sperm, and bangin' another bloody. He then goes on a rampage beating the guys to death with some kind of coconut or baseball bat, i can't remember.
The "climactic" ending, scissored from most prints is pretty gross as Shannon licks his own spooge outta Funari's butt crack, i can understand why that was cut.
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