Daily Double

Horror Daily Double: The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue, The Beyond

We're doing 31 days of scary movie pairings! Today: A salute to zombies.

by Alex Vo | October 1, 2018 | Comments

Rotten Tomatoes is celebrating Halloween with 31 days of horror double feature recommendations. Each day of the week will have its own theme, with today’s being Monster Monday! And if you want see what’s in store or what you missed, see the Daily Double schedule.

(Photo by Aquarius Releasing/Courtesy Everett Collection)

Today’s Monster Monday pays tribute to the lovable, durable zombie. The undead have been around for nearly as long as horror cinema has been a thing, gaining massive mainstream popularity since the beginning of this century. This Daily Double dredges up an obscure but supremely solid entry in the genre, along with a little something from an Italian horror master.

Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974) 86%

George is on his way to help a friend fix up the house. Edna is on the road to meet her sister, an addict reaching out for help. Edna runs over George’s motorcycle, the two continue through rural North West England in her Mini, and encounter a newly installed radioactive pesticide machine that can kill weeds and bugs within miles…and give life to the dead! Manchester Morgue‘s dozens of different names (it’s also commonly English-titled as Let Sleeping Corpses Lie) suggests this is one of those Euro-cheapies cranked out in those days. Yeah, it mostly is. But the plotting is unusually intricate and tight; George and Edna not only have to fend off the undead, but convince the thick-skulled inspector who thinks the two are baby-eating Satanists. The inspector is kept in a shroud of reasonable suspicion throughout, and so Manchester plays out like a zombie cat-and-mouse game up until its mordant finale. And Ray Lovelock and Cristina Galbo as the two leads make a magnetic pair.

Available on Amazon Video Prime

The Beyond (1981) 68%

It takes a while for the zombies to show up in Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond. That’s because he’s busy throwing every spook and ghoulie up on the screen, including crucifixitions, tarantulas, rabid dogs, blind ladies in the street, and eyeball impalements. All shot with Fulci’s lovingly gratuitous taste for gore. The man never met an orifice he didn’t want to cover with corn syrup and red dye. It’s like every horror staple thrown into a gumbo — fitting considering its Louisiana setting. Fulci makes use of the area’s voodoo history and combines it with Lovecraftian themes to raise the dead for the story, which has something to do with a hotel being built on one of the seven gates of hell. It’s mostly an excuse for the gruesome set pieces, and if you can stomach it all, you’re awarded a chilling, gray ending.

Available on Amazon Video, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu, iTunes

Schedule | Tomorrow: Twisted Tuesday!