In search of some All Hallows’ Eve excitement, a sextet of horny teens steals a body from the morgue, hefts it to the local graveyard, and invokes the dark lord to bring it back to life. Meanwhile, a second gang of kids decides trick or treating is for the birds, and that a creepy night in the selfsame cemetery is just the ticket to sate their need for a fright fix. Also boneyard bound is a Dr. Loomis-style psychiatrist who is convinced that the recently filched body was, in life, one of Satan’s favorite vessels, and that bringing it back to the land of the living is a bad idea.
While elements of Halloween, Friday the 13th, and other slasher benchmarks are in evidence (particularly in regards to the central slaughterer, a Michael-Jason hybrid, but with more anger and less discrimination), this excellent Mexican offering has a wonderful spirit all its own, skimming over potentially tedious elements like back-story and character development, and focusing on the good stuffÑpsychiatrists stealing police cars, awkward make-out sessions, self-inflicted axings, and yes, lots and lots of zombies.
If originally released in English, this determination to give the horror fans what they love would have undoubtedly secured the film a place within the canon of ’80s horror crowd-pleasers. Hopefully a recent DVD reissue, still in Spanish but with English subtitles, will attract Cemetery of Terror the following it deserves.
by Thomas Scalzo | Source: BCI Eclipse DVD
01 Nov 2007 12:28 PM | Comments (1)
What I found most interesting about Cemetery of Terror was the extended sequence of very young children being menaced by the killer. Though played as slapstick, I couldn’t help that American slasher cinema missed out on a potential goldmine of transgression by never having Jason Voorhees menace a group of nine-year-olds rather than middle-aged teenagers.
David Carter
5 November 2007
4:38 PM