The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue is known by many titles, including Let Sleeping Corpses Lie and Don't Open the Window. But it is this newly re-mastered edition from Synapse Films (supervised by restoration specialist and film historian Don May Jr. and scanned in 4K) that delivers the most complete cut of the film with the most accurate color and inarguably the most gorgeous transfer since it debuted at the Sitges Film Festival back in 1974.

While not the first film to be inspired by Night of the Living Dead (1968) it was one of the first color zombie films to get a wide release in its wake, and predates Night’s own official sequel, Dawn of the Dead, by four years. Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972) featured reanimated corpses, but their condition was not contagious in adherence with the precedent established by John Russo and George Romero. Director Jorge Grau ran with that concept, but Manchester Morgue arrived early enough in the modern cycle of zombie lore that the official rules had not been fully established. And so the film’s strong social message, a sort of ecological cautionary tale, has also become part of the fabric of zombie fiction–straight through to The Walking Dead.  

Grau got his start in much the same way as Italian horror maestro, Mario Bava –as an assistant to Riccardo Freda. Like Bava before him, Grau had a gift for camera placement and a proclivity for realistic violence, but coming from Spain, Jorge brought an earthy surrealism to his films that made him a unique talent in the European film industry.

in 1974, Manchester was an industrial metropolis, making it the ideal setting for a horror film addressing the dangers of pollution. While not quite as bleak as Joy Division lyrics might have one believe, it was not uncommon to see regular people wearing face-masks or to see factory smoke darkening the clouds above the city. The first hints of something amiss are manifested in babies and explained via television sets and radios rather than hitting audiences over the head with obvious shots in hospitals. This allows Grau to foreshadow the coming horrors without committing to a specific motif. Groundbreaking Italian make-up specialist Gianetto Di Rossi infused the film with extremely gory FX that imparted a more realistic flesh tone, blood tint, and medically accurate viscera to the violence than prior or even subsequent horror films. Di Rossi would go on to great fame for his work on Lucio Fulci’s Zombie, which established an entire cottage industry of Italian films which contributes to Manchester Morgue’s long-lived reputation as a bonafide (if rarely screened) splatter classic.

Five-time Oscar nominee Arthur Kennedy lends a conservative check to hippie Ray Lovelock with the former as a staunch police inspector and the latter an aloof art dealer, who find themselves uneasily united in a battle against the risen dead. And while the dialogue puts the politics of the day on display, the frank depiction of hard drug use and public nudity were quite ahead of their time, giving an almost Almodovar-esque flavor to what is otherwise a graphically violent horror film. 

The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue has long been championed by an influential cabal of filmmakers from the generation of rabid film fans who were forced to track down clandestine, tenth-generation copies on videotape in the pre-DVD era. Among them is Shaun of the Dead’s Edgar Wright, who has declared it one of his favorite zombie films of all time.

Thanks to Synapse Films you don’t have to surf the dark web in search of this previously banned video nasty. You can get a smart, three-disc package absolutely loaded with extras for less than your average Criterion Collection release. The deluxe steelbook package includes a CD of the film's atmospheric score by Giuliano Sorgini, who also supplied a memorable score to 1977's The Beast in Heat. A feature-length documentary on Jorge Grau includes some of the last footage ever captured of the director, who passed away in 2018, and Gianetto De Rossi is the focus of another documentary that covers his storied career in special FX make-up. Both are well produced and incredibly informative. 

The list of overlooked horror classics gets smaller every year, and The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue is not just worthy of its legendary reputation, it has gotten better with age. We may never see practical special effects this good again, and it may be another fifty years before we see another horror film with such lasting impact.

 Highly recommended. Available directly from Synapse Films.

The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue

[3-Disc (Blu-ray/DVD/CD) 6,000 Limited Collector’s Edition Steelbook]

Director: Jorge Grau

Starring: Arthur Kennedy, Ray Lovelock, Christine Galbo

Runtime: 93 minutes

Release Date: September 1, 2020

Language: English

Aspect Ratio: High-Definition 1080p (1.85:1) Presentation

Format: DVD/Blu-ray combo

Region: All Regions

$59.95

Features

 

• Exclusive new 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative
• New 5.1 English stereo surround remix made exclusively for the Synapse Films release
• Two audio commentaries featuring authors and film scholars Troy Howarth, Nathaniel Thompson and Bruce Holecheck
• Restoration of the true original English language theatrical mono mix
• Jorge Grau - Catalonia’s Cult Film King (89 mins.) – This extensive feature-length documentary explores the life and films of director Jorge Grau (BLU-RAY EXCLUSIVE)
• The Scene of the Crime - Giannetto De Rossi in Discussion from Manchester (16 Mins.) (BLU-RAY EXCLUSIVE)
• Giannetto De Rossi - Q&A at the Festival of Fantastic Films, UK (43 Mins) (BLU-RAY EXCLUSIVE)
• Theatrical trailer, TV spots and radio spots
• Newly translated removable English SDH subtitles
• Liner notes booklet featuring writing from Spanish film scholar, Dr. Nicholas Schlegel
• Exclusive CD soundtrack of the haunting original score by Giuliano Sorgini
• Included mini-poster of Wes Benscoter's amazing Steelbook artwork

 

Matt Kennedy is the owner of Gallery 30 South in Pasadena, CA, and host of the Pop Sequentialism podcast on YouTube. His collection of cult movie posters and original comic book art is the stuff of legend.