Zombies and Hippies

Here's a little history lesson for you: Every knows about the multitude of Dawn of the Dead ripoffs that occurred since the release of the original, including that 2004 remake. What you may not know is that the first George A. Romero offering Night of the Living Dead spawned its own copycats. The most notable of these (and by notable, I mean the only one people really know about) is from a Spanish director named Jorge Grau. The movie in question bore the title of Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, and much like Night of the Living Dead, it had the same socio-political message of not screwing with the environment or bad things will happen.

The movie begins with George closing shop for Holiday, which is the equivalent of a vacation in Europe, and meeting Edna at a gas station after she crushes his motorcycle while trying to park the car to get some gas. He hitches a ride with her as she is on her way to see relatives. However, the living dead begin to surface and soon, the two are fingered for murders that the recently zombified folks committed, namely eating the living. The couple try to clear their name while fighting off the zombies. That's the basic plot in a nutshell.

As for the movie itself, it is very strong on its own, and considering that it copies NOTLD, the movie actually is quite underrated. In addition to the environmental message being sent through the movie, it also touches on the conservative/hippie clash, as George and Edna represent the hippies and the cop that is chasing them represents the tight-butted conservative. There isn't a great deal of violence, but the one that stands out is when a receptionist gets cornered by a trio of zombies and gets her boob ripped off. Overall, this is one of the more under-appreciated movies to have come out of the 70's. A ripoff done right, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie is one of those must see movies if you consider yourself a zombie movie fan.