Spoilers below!
"Le notti del terrore" is indeed a very pure Zombie movie in the sense that it really has no plot. Whereas even the lesser Italian Zombie movies such as Lenzi's "Nightmare city" or Fulci's disastrous "Zombi3" pack the Zombie mayhem into some phony criticism of military or ecological catastrophies, Bianchi's movie gets rid of the necessary background story just before the opening titles when Professor Ayres somehow raises the dead and immediately falls victim to them. The rest of the movie then focuses on people on the run from fairly intelligent, vicious, blood thirsty zombies. This refreshingly honest concept allows you to sit back for the remaining 80 odd minutes and watch what zombies have to do: eat people in the most disgusting way. Besides some references to Fulci's work, including a pale copy of the "splinter in the eye"-scene, there are also some genuinely macabre scenes. Two examples: The zombies throw a nail from afar to a women leaning out of the window, thereby fastening her to the window shutter. Then, they use a scythe to decapitate her (sophisticated, isn't it?). When one of her friends enters the scene and captures what has happened, he throws the remains of her body to the zombies to save his own skin. An oedipal child wants to touch his mother's breasts. He is only granted that wish after he is zombified. Then, he abuses this opportunity for ripping off his mother's breasts.
The special effects are not on the level of Romero's and Fulci's movies, but still work well enough.
All in all, not a great movie but recommended to friends of Italian low budget gore movies.
"Le notti del terrore" is indeed a very pure Zombie movie in the sense that it really has no plot. Whereas even the lesser Italian Zombie movies such as Lenzi's "Nightmare city" or Fulci's disastrous "Zombi3" pack the Zombie mayhem into some phony criticism of military or ecological catastrophies, Bianchi's movie gets rid of the necessary background story just before the opening titles when Professor Ayres somehow raises the dead and immediately falls victim to them. The rest of the movie then focuses on people on the run from fairly intelligent, vicious, blood thirsty zombies. This refreshingly honest concept allows you to sit back for the remaining 80 odd minutes and watch what zombies have to do: eat people in the most disgusting way. Besides some references to Fulci's work, including a pale copy of the "splinter in the eye"-scene, there are also some genuinely macabre scenes. Two examples: The zombies throw a nail from afar to a women leaning out of the window, thereby fastening her to the window shutter. Then, they use a scythe to decapitate her (sophisticated, isn't it?). When one of her friends enters the scene and captures what has happened, he throws the remains of her body to the zombies to save his own skin. An oedipal child wants to touch his mother's breasts. He is only granted that wish after he is zombified. Then, he abuses this opportunity for ripping off his mother's breasts.
The special effects are not on the level of Romero's and Fulci's movies, but still work well enough.
All in all, not a great movie but recommended to friends of Italian low budget gore movies.