Day 3 of Zombie Week and…things are kind of grim. Not because the movies have been bad, on the contrary, they’ve been quite good, but because the tone and feel of our movies so far has been bleak and kind of hopeless. Unfortunately, we’re going to continue that trend with today’s film, The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue. We’re going a little back to the past for this one, it came out in 1974 under a few different, uh, make that about 15 different names, the most famous other being Let Sleeping Corpses Lie. No matter what you call it, let’s get into it and find out if The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue has stood the test of time.
While traveling through the countryside, a young man on a motorbike, George, is quite dismayed when his bike is struck and damaged by a woman, Edna, trying to get to her sister’s home. After convincing Edna to give him a ride to his destination, George tries to ask locals for directions and encounters a small group performing a scientific experiment in using a new form of pest control in a farmer’s fields. Edna is accosted at her car by a strange man who disappears by the time George returns, and the two continue on to Edna’s sister’s home, shaken but alright. During the night, reanimated corpses begin attacking, and George and Edna find themselves to be the only people able to help, as the police are useless, and the scientists refuse to believe their experiments have had any part in these strange events.
Continuing with the tradition of satirical zombie movies started by George Romero just a few years before this feature, there’s an incredible undercurrent of satire to everything we see here. From the tireless advances of scientific progress to the irascible police chief who blames all of the events of the film on drugs, devil worshipers, and hippies, there’s a lot to talk about and what occurs to me is how well this is all handled. The scientists and farmers aren’t evil, they’re reacting to things like food shortages and rising hunger, it’s irresponsible to try what they’re doing, but you can’t blame them. That police chief though, wow, it is shocking what an ACAB plotline this is. The chief hates everything and everyone different than him while completely ignoring all the real problems, which is all so on the nose that I would usually call that out but I can’t even acknowledge any of it as wrong.
It isn’t just satire that makes this movie feel modern, it’s the entire mood of the movie and its shocking use of violence. The zombie attack sequences, although slightly dated, hold up well, and there’s an atmosphere of doom that pervades the entire film, from the music to the lighting, and even the score. Everything here feels wrong, like you’re racing against time to fight something that people aren’t even willing to accept is a problem. It isn’t cathartic in the sense that everything goes perfectly and all the problems are solved, but it does offer the opportunity to empathize with a story. To be able to see this plotline come across and say, “Yes, I understand,” it’s a unique experience that most movies that try to have that feeling kind of mess up.
If you don’t mind some gore and some doom and gloom, The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue might be the movie for you.