Jorge Grau’s ‘LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE’ (1974) – 50 Years Later

Foreign horror has never excited me. It’s just never been my thing. However; If you can sit through the dialogue trying to create a story. Let Sleeping Corpses Lie is the perfect movie to dissect, what makes it so great? Does the storyline make any sense? Kind of, yeah. It is one of those movies that wait until the last 20 minutes to go haywire.

Synopsis

When a man named George (Ray Lovelack) is in a hurry for vacation and gets into a minor accident with Edna (Cristina Galbo). While she is forced to drive George to his destination, the two stop and ask a local farmer for directions. George notices a weird looking machine and the farmer ensures him that it is a new kind of pesticide.

Edna’s sister Katie (Jeannine Mestre) is a recovering drug addict and also has a secret addiction again. While she hides in the barn doing heroin, a mysterious man comes into the picture and murders Katie’s husband Martin (Jose Lifante) and the man is still in a murderous frenzy. It turns out the man’s name is Guthrie, who recently died by drowning, and a farmer with a secret plan to ressurect the dead.

As the zombies take over the town, the fight for survival begins.

There is so much more to talk about with this film. Let Sleeping Corpses Lie is a pretty decent movie. I enjoyed it the few times I saw it. I never really hunted down a copy either, I just enjoyed it in small amounts. It reminded me of a Fulci-style zombie movie, and Fulci is a hero in the horror community. The dubbing was terrible, and that’s just the way I like it. Did the movie bore me? At first yes, but now that I am older I can understand movies more, and reflect on the story because a lot is going on at once.

My only complaint is how they built up a moment that wasn’t anything to get excited about. The dead are coming back to life with no hope for humans in sight. Slowly, the zombies take over the entire town, very slowly. I can respect slow-burn movies, but if you were from that era, there is really nothing worth remembering fondly. It is a movie made purely out of love for the genre at the time, it’s just sad that the movie never took off with the horror community.

In The End

I can safely say I like the movie. I may not fully enjoy it, but it was decent. I remembered nothing from my original viewing of Let Sleeping Corpses Lie. I don’t mean that in a mean way, I just have a brain like a squirrel. I need moments to pick up so I can laugh, or feel uncomfortable watching. I am from a different era, however; as much as I love the classics, some just don’t fit in anymore. This was one of those movies I had forgotten for a long time. Finding it again was nostalgic. It made me feel nice and safe.

I would recommend everyone watch it once and form their own opinion.