Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror

Burial Ground is an Italian bonkers mix of audio horror, vile imagery and gutsy character work.

In the best manner, Burial Ground does all it can to make you feel uncomfortable. Forgetting the slow march of the decaying filth following the cast, the cast themselves are playing some of the most egregious characters ever committed to film. Each and every one of them seems wrong in some way. The framing of the violence, often in close up, with the camera remaining long after the skin's been torn, or the skull cracked makes for seat squirming viewing. The zombies, with live maggots and worms and eyes falling out of sockets, stir nasty feelings of disgust as they shamble and stumble and lay seige to the mansion.

In it all, though, is a sense of beauty. The grounds of the mansion and its interior are epic. The cast, even though they're being terrorised all night, look absolutely stunning in their pearls and perms and high neck sweaters. The blood flows like paint on a wet canvas.

But the kicker, the reason to watch this film, is the final scene. In a moment built up over the runtime, we get one of cinema's most depraved and insane developments ever committed to in film. A real horror crowd pleaser that I'm sure if played at any late night horror show would get whoops and gasps and screams of delight from the audience.