1983 Directed by Pupi Avati
A young journalist buys a used typewriter and notices some text still legible on the ribbon; he reconstructs the story of a scientist who discovered that some types of terrain have the power to revive the dead.
Revenge of the Dead, Zeder - Denn Tote kehren wieder
Italy
Germany16
Germany
Italy
Spooktober IV: Morte all'italiana
My introduction to the work of Pupi Avati is what many consider one of his “masterpieces”. And as evident by my rating, I will not label it that way, though I wouldn’t say it’s bad either. To be fair, I really liked the little twists and turns, and I was invested in the whole mystery—with its nice blend of mystery elements with the supernatural—even though I was disappointed by the end. So much buildup, and what we got was pretty underwhelming and inconclusive. The cinematography is great, loved the use of shadow to heighten or build up the suspense. The music was fine, though there were a few places it got a bit goofy.
The performances…
Utilizing a gloomy atmosphere and deliberate pacing while bypassing the usual gore carnage in favor of the procedural aspect of giallo to tell a living dead reanimation conspiracy mystery, Zeder aka Revenge of the Living Dead is another well crafted and effective yarn from Pupi Avati. Slow moving but always interesting as it thrives on atmospheric eeriness via numerous settings—abandoned warehouses, gas stations, run down hotels, and the cherry on top is the creepy guy on the poster.
Not a classic by any stretch, more of a gem for slow burn fiends that kinda feels like Avati’s take on a Gates of Hell movie mixed with a little Pet Sematary.
A real weird mix of horror, mystery and sci-fi from director Pupi Avati. The film opens with an intriguing prologue which sees a young psychic girl uncover a body in a basement, which apparently is the remains of Zeder, an ancient alchemist. We then flick forward to present day, where a reporter gets wind of the situation after discovering some text imprinted on a typewriter ribbon. Zeder is structured like a Giallo. The mystery at the heart of the film is very dense, with numerous aspects not making sense at first only to revealed later on. It's a very Intricate way of creating suspense but it also makes for a film that requires attention to be paid. The central concept…
"Zeder" is a 1983 Italian horror film directed by Pupi Avati. Presented to Italian audiences under that title, the film was also heavily edited and released to the U.S. market under the title of "Revenge of the Dead". Personally, I am going to be making this review centered upon "Zeder" which I did watch, not knowing how different the heavy edits changed the film in the latter U.S. release. Really, I hadn't seen either before, so it was all new to me regardless essentially at face value. It's probably been talked about around this film in prevalence, even probably in the context of other's Letterboxd reviews, but it has to be mentioned how completely different the energy of the cover…
Pupi Avati's Zeder aka Revenge of the Living Dead is a moody tale of the macabre. A film that is steeped in a heavy fog like surrealism. Filled with tension and dread slowly moving in for the kill.
Stefano, an aspiring novelist receives an old type writer for his wedding anniversary. While changing the ribbon he finds a mysterious imprint of writing left by the previous owner. Stefano soon finds himself exploring the experiments of the occult carried out by a scientist named Paolo Zeder.
The cover art is misleading as it makes you think you are in for a Romero/Italian rip or default zombie cheesefest. Instead we get something much more layered in sophistication and melancholy. And not to…
Pupi Avati's sci-fi-dusted zombie/giallo flick is about as weird and singular as that sounds. The kind of bizarre genre picture that would be a let down if you expected full-on flesh-munching for 90 minutes, but also incredibly mystifying if you were expecting some black-glove murder-mystery.
This is neither film? Yet both? It begins with a prologue that feels as though we're entering the 3rd act of a mid-tier Fulci flick with a girl being attacked by a mysterious force in a basement.
We're then introduced to Gabriele Lavia and his wife Anna Canovas as she's gifting him an antique typewriter for his birthday. Lavia discovers ominous scripture imprinted on the ribbon and it leads him down a rabbit hole to…
Oh, I was not in the right place for this at all today. Really enjoying the beginning but then I found it to be too draggy and dull. But I think it's just cos my nerves are shot and can't concentrate. You see mid March last year my workplace closed down for six weeks. Six weeks turned into six months that turned into a year until here we are finally due to reopen early August. The thought of being around a couple thousand people everyday after such a long time and after the nightmare we've all been living through has given me a mini freakout. So I promise to come back to this again somewhere down the line cos I think it's not you Zeder, it's me :P
Not the zombie film I expected or the one the cover sells, but nonetheless a terrific Italian horror gem from Pupi Avati.
Like his best film, House with the Laughing Windows, this is a slow burn that relies on characterization and a gloomy, brooding atmosphere of constant dread to create something truly unsettling. There isn’t any excessive gore or anything like that, but there are some pulse pounding scenes and memorably creepy moments.
I must admit that the version I watched was a rip that was not professionally captioned so the subtitles were about a minute off from the action which made it confusing at times. I need to pick up the blu for this because I could see it shooting up to a 4.5 on a rewatch.
Love that American slasher inspired opening/closing theme!
Gabriele Lavia (of Deep Red and Beyond the Door fame) falls into a K-Hole (err sorry, K-Zone) and winds up in a fairly effective Italian horror film. It's not the Romero ripoff that the American retitling and poster would lead you to believe, though this does feel like a mishmash of ideas from other Italian and American films -- sort of like one of Fulci's Gates of Hell films meets Evil Dead, except with the gore and general insanity ripped out and replaced with a mean streak and an all-pervading grim mood. That undead priest that you see there on the poster art is legitimately terrifying. Not a masterpiece, but a hidden gem, regardless.
As a side note, Riz Ortolani's…
An ostensible Italian zombie movie about a young novelist and his beautiful Italian wife who he ignores in order to get to the bottom of an occult conspiracy of scientists and priests trying to make a special kind of electrified dirt that can reanimate the dead that he discovers in an old typewriter he gets from a pawn shop... Despite the reanimated ghoul premise (and talk of "the beyond") it resembles less Fulci or Romero than it does one of the slower, duller giallo's of the era. Taking a synthy, atmospheric supernatural horror story and trying to spin it more into an Edgar Allen Poe-adjacent mystery procedural, something Avati did with some success in The House with the Laughing Windows.…
2nd Pupi Avati (after The House with the Laughing Windows)
It's nice to be getting back to some off-duty horror in warmup for Hooptober. Don't by fooled by the absolute trash poster that's representing the film on here at the time of writing- Zeder isn't some cheap ripoff of Romero. It's a slick, stylish zombie flick that owes more to Fulci and Argento than anyone else but falls apart in the last act due to some completely baffling narrative choices. The plot has a number of similarities to the Real Estate Trilogy- supernatural reincarnation occurring within a singular location (or locations), the narrative's lead being accidentally drawn into the bizarre situation but having no way of fighting the powers that…
Cemetery Worker: Luigi Costa... hmm here. Here he is, he got put down in the night club.
Stefano: What did you say?
Cemetery Worker: The night club. Its always been called that, it's a sort of a.. sort of a crypt that's underground. Sorry I can't go with ya, I could picture myself doing a rumba with the little lady.
Cold and moody locations, shrouded by shadows and mystery.
I'm really glad I gave this movie a second try. I think I just couldn't feel get sucked into it's atmosphere the first time around, but man was I vibing on it this time around. What a finale, some real insane fun. I actually got a Vertigo vibe from this at times, as Stefano falls deeper and deeper into the mystery; which I guess is where the giallo vibe comes from as well. I will definitely be revisiting this again in the future.
