"Burial Ground" is the epitome of Italian zombie films. The film utilizes the ancient Etruscan civilization as the origin of the zombies. In the opening scene, a Rasputin looking professor is killed before the opening credits. Several couples come to visit at the house near the mausoleum providing us with a steady flow of victims.

The zombies in this feature have missing eyes and maggots. They utilize a slow zombie walk, a walk perfected in Haitian zombie movies, created before the foot drag became popular and a must. These zombies can also use simple tools like a battering ram.

And PLOT SPOILER...if you think you have seen this film before and can't place it, it is the one with the classic scene of young son Michael taking a bite out of mom's naked bosom.

A fun film in a campy kind of way. Not for serious film watchers. For those who want to learn more misinformation about the Etruscan civilization from horror films, try "Neverlake."

Guide: Sex and nudity, (Antonella Antinori)

If you thought that ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS was a low budget, poorly-made film, then wait until you see this rip-off! Andrea Bianchi disposed of a story entirely and instead hired Gino de Rossi (son of Giannetto) to create as many gut-wrenchingly gruesome moments as he possibly could on the film's poor budget. The plot consists of a group of people hiding out in a variety of locations - a mansion, a monastery, a model storeroom (!) and being picked off one by one by a pack of unruly zombies which have risen from the local caves after an interfering professor accidentally re-awoke their corpses!

Just about everything in this movie is inept and that's what makes it fun. The lighting is almost non-existent; scenes are either bright or dark with nothing in between, no shadows for suggestion or anything. The dubbing is particularly stilted with inappropriate voices for the actors and actresses which don't match their characters at all. The sound varies between a laid-back jazz score and some weird computer noises in the zombie scenes which don't have the desired effect. The zombies themselves look pretty mouldy and scary thanks to some good masks and make-up, although you can see human skin in between the joins once too often for my liking. They are also tool users and grab a wide variety of weapons to help with their conquest. Although they are some of the slowest shamblers ever to grace a horror movie, they seem to have no trouble cornering the humans at every stage, at one point disguising themselves as monks to capture an unwilling victim!

The movie is full of weird and wonderful characters. The first person we meet is a professor with a huge beard. Upon encountering the zombies, he cries "Stand back - I'm your friend!" Hilarious. The most memorable character of all is 'Michael' a supposed teenage boy actually played by a dwarf actor (why? Was there a shortage of child actors around or would they not allow a child to partake in some of the more adult scenes?) who sniffs a piece of rag and says "Momma! This cloth smells of death!". He also has Oedipal desires which come to a climax in the infamous scene at the conclusion! Another guy shouts "Whatever it is, it's not human!" on his encounter with a zombie - but isn't that obvious? Many scenes explicitly rip-off ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS, like a guy having his leg grabbed while embracing a girl ("Who are you?!"),a zombie rising from the ground, and a scene where a girl is pulled toward a shard of glass and killed. It's genuinely funny throughout, especially in scenes where people just stand and watch the zombies as they come towards them! Hello - you're about to get eaten - don't you think you better do something? Those crazy Italians! Other amusing moments have the zombies setting a man-trap in the garden for their next victim and working as car park attendants! One of them is particularly handy with knives and must have worked in a circus before he died.

The setting of the deserted mansion is actually pretty eerie, although again it has been stolen from NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. There's an atmosphere of unease in the sense that a zombie could be lurking behind any door or corner. Of course such few eerie moments as there are, are countered by ludicrous others like the "shooting gallery" scene where a victim repeatedly shotguns the heads of the zombies causing them to explode all over! This causes the rest of the zombies to run off into the woods and return with better weapons next time. One other extremely weird moment has a zombie being thrown over a wall, and for some reason this is filmed in slow-motion. Whatever the intention, the effect is absolutely hilarious.

Oddly, the freeze-frame ending actually works in this film; it closes in a downbeat fashion with one victim being shoved into a circular saw blade, the other being artistically surrounded by zombie hands. There's an amusing poem that comes up on screen that talks about the "nigths of terror" and the "profecy of the black spider" - hilarious stuff. And that's the ending of what may be one of the most poorly-made zombie movies out there, but is also one of, if not the, most hilarious with it, although I'm not sure how it would stand up to repeat viewing! Cheesy stuff from pasta-land, to be sure, so don't go in expecting a proper "film", as this is as far as you can get from a mainstream movie.

The cheap gut-munching effects are plentiful but hardly realistic, only seen in close up to disguise the fact that its sheep offal or whatever. Most of the blood and gore is poorly done and lacking in realism - Gino obviously didn't inherit his dad's ace makeup talents. Even the nastiest scene - in which a woman has her breast bitten off and eaten - is really schlocky and the film-makers don't even go to the trouble of hiding the model breast that's used. However, at least the movie has a purpose now as a low budget stomach-churner, a bad film come good and a howl for genre lovers. Behold the "nigths" of terror!

Professor Ayres (Renato Barbieri) discovers a secret in an ancient stone and when he opens a crypt, he revives zombies that kill him. He had invited three couples of friends to visit him in his manor to reveal his discovery; however, they never meet the professor. Out of the blue, the zombies attack them and they seek shelter in the mansion. The creatures put the manor under siege while they protect themselves trying to survive to the horde of zombies.

"Burial Ground - The Nights of Terror" is a hilarious and cheese Italian horror movie that has a stupid story, with characters that are dumber than the zombies. There is no development of the characters or the situation; the plot begins with zombies attacking the professor and his guests having sex as soon as they arrive in their rooms (or in the garden). The lines are awfully dubbed in English and the unreasonable attitudes of the characters are so imbecile that it is impossible not laugh. The make-up and the gory special effects are magnificent, with gruesome zombies with maggots in their heads; however the weirdest character is Michael, performed by Peter Bark. His dysfunctional relationship with his mother with an exaggerated Oedipus complex is comical. The acting is terrible, and there are many mistakes in the sequence and edition. For example, the blonde Janet, performed by Karin Well, injures her ankle, but in some moments she runs away from the zombies without limping. When she is trapped in the bear trap, there is a ridiculous mistake in the edition. In the end, this movie has potential of cult, Last but not the least; who are the braindead in this story? The zombies, the humans or the writer and the director? My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Noites de Terror" (Nights of Terror")

Note: On 29 January 2017, I saw this film again. My vote is five.