Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67946 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-08-27
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Format: NTSC
• Original language: English
• Running time: 101 minutes

On the DVD
Photo Gallery
Origional theatrical television spots
Origional theatrical newspaper campaign
Cult classic previews - the gates of hell

Synopsis
A scientific research lab dedicated to exploring the prospects of synthetic foods unleashes a wave of undead terror and unspeakable destruction that threatens to consume all civilization in this frightful tale of science gone bad. Hope Center 1 was a remote research facility that housed some of the world's greatest thinkers, but when an unidentified toxic gas overwhelms the center's inhabitants, all hell threatens to break loose. At first killed by the strange cloud and suddenly resurrected to feed on the flesh of the living, the cannibalistic creatures soon turn their attentions to a nearby village rife with flesh. When a military squad sent to investigate the strange happenings witness the horror of strange mutations firsthand, they prepare for the fight of their lives as they attempt to stop the malevolent plague from spreading to more populated areas. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

DVD Menu

• Side #1 --
  • Play Movie
  • Scene Selection
  • Slide Show
  • Theatrical Television Spot
  • Theatrical Newspaper Ads
  • Preview Zombie Classics
    • The Gates of Hell Trailer 1
    • The Gates of Hell Trailer 2

Customer Reviews

Get Hell Of The Living Dead instead!
For those who know the history, Night Of The Zombies is one of the many names for Hell Of The Living Dead. The transfer for this DVD appears to be the same master tape used by Vestron Home Video in 1985 and Creature Features in 1996. Both versions has tape creases in the same spots during the opening credits. And, for those who have seen the 10,000th generation copy version of Vestron's release (I have not personally seen Creature Feature's version on tape.) it is so dark you really cannot see what is going on during a scene! This transfer is, for sure, Creature Feature's release because the end copyrights state: "Copyright 1996 Creature Features." As stated, get the Hell Of The Living Dead DVD from Anchor Bay. That one has the exact same cut, with the different titles, plus an untruncated closing credits sequence, BUT most importantly, an original vault film print was used. It was cleaned up and letterboxed. FAR superior to this one... which, somehow, is even DARKER! The color even fades in and out almost as if Macrovision was detected during the transfer!

I got this DVD because I'm a Night Of The Zombies completist. And, even at that, I can't recommend this DVD over Hell, because for the same price or less, you can get the better DVD. This DVD does have a few extras not on the Hell DVD, but, they are not worth the price of admission: a TV trailer, which consists of the exact same text used in Dawn Of The Dead advertising, 3 "newspaper ads," even though they're the same ad just edited down and truncated, and a stills gallery which has some pictures not in Hell's gallery, including unused scenes or shots entirely for publicity modeled after existing scenes. There are also two trailers for The Gates Of Hell, interestingly also released by Creature Features in 1996 with Night Of The Zombies, but, one of them is just a shorter version of the other.

All in all, not even this Night Of The Zombies completist can recommend this DVD transfer. It's worse than the Vestron VHS; I could make a better one with my VCR and a DVR! The extras just aren't worth enough to own it and Hell Of The Living Dead.

Lastly, just to address the other question I had had over this DVD. Yes, this is the Night Of The Zombies directed by Bruno Mattei (As Vincent Dawn.) and not the one starring Jamie Gillis. So, for anyone else wondering, the front cover art is correct, despite some sites that have listed this exact same DVD as the Jamie Gilis release. (BTW, interestingly enough, the text on the back cover of this DVD release is exactly the same text used on the Vestron VHS home video release!)

"Why the long face, something eating you?"
So far most people reviewing this film are pretty much picking out its flaws, which are many indeed, so I won't bother re-listing them. I will say this though; Bruno Mattei's blatant and shameless ripping off of Goblin's Dawn of the Dead and Alien Contamination soundtracks would have certainly made Edward D. Wood Jr. proud. From reading the reviews I was prepared for the worst when I purchased this dvd. I was actually surprised that it was better than most people seem to give it credit for! Sure it has an amazingly inept "Ed Wood-ian" sort of quality... ok yes, it IS in fact a terrible film, but it does have a lot going for it. #1 - The entertainment value. Like Ed Wood's "classics" this film remains totally enjoyable and even has a certain lovable quality despite the fact that it's such an awful film. It's lots of fun and there's never a dull moment.
#2 - There are some truly effective Zombie sequences. The scenes involving the zombie priest at the mission, the zombie kid coming to life in his fathers arms, the dead native coming to life after his "funeral ceremony". Also the zombie hag with a cat inexplicably ripping out through her stomach made me laugh. It made no sense, but it was still cool. #3 - Last but not least, the gore. As the producers said, without blood and entrails, a film like this would be pointless. This film will make your stomach turn. It goes far beyond Dawn of the Dead as far as blood and guts. Even farther than Lucio Fulci's Zombie. The gore is probably not as disturbing as in Day of the Dead because Tom Savini's fx were just so realistic in that one. However the use of real raw meat and pig guts definitely helped "Hell" live up to the splatter genre and then some. The extreme close-ups of maggots crawling through rotting flesh and a native picking them off and eating them were absolutely nasty! Also there are some well done exploding zombie heads. The zombie attack and gut munching scenes are hit or miss. Sometimes they come off as startlingly realistic, other times they are obviously fake. But this film doesn't skimp on the blood and guts. Also towards the end, there's a facial "violation" scene that rivals Fulci's "splinter through the eye" sequence.
Overall, if you're looking for Zombie crème de la crème, stick to Romero and Fulci, but if you're just in the mood for something gross and fun, check "Hell" out.

Comical
This is a classic B-grade zombie movie. The dubbing into English is as bad as I've ever seen, the plot is borderline incoherent, and the actual film footage makes plan 9 from outer space look decent. The key actors comprise a commando unit who look and act more like a 70's heavy metal band. Then there are two reporters, including the female lead, (who takes her top off in order to get in sync with the natives). The movie has most of its action set in New Guinea but the location is simulated with the constant inter-splicing of safari/nature movie scenes. These cut shots are just so different from the main part of the film that they do not work at all and just seem laughable. The horror is pretty gore-filled without being over the top. The soundtrack by Goblin is somewhat of a highlight in terms of professionalism and ads value to this film. Overall this is worth a look and a laugh, but it does not have enough shock or horror value to keep you riveted. Worth having if you collect these sort of films, but not one of the top shelf examples.