Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980, DVD Review)

aka Sexy Nights of the Living Dead

Director: Joe D’Amato

Cast: Laura Gemser, George Eastman, Mark Shannon, Dirce Funari

Shriek Show / Color / NTSC R1 / Unrated / Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) / Dolby Digital Stereo / English Dubbing / 112 mins / PURCHASE

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Gather around the boob tube, it’s a reunion of the cast from Porno Holocaust and this time they invited the stunning Laura Gemser! OK, technically Porno came out after Erotic, but you get my drift. D’Amato has brought together the gang for, well, basically the same movie as last time. Why? Who the hell knows, but God knows I will watch it if Joe makes it.

John (porn actor, Mark Shannon), is an archaeologist/businessman who buys a cursed island inhabited by the walking dead to develop it for tourists. So he employs boat Captain Larry (D’Amato staple, George Eastman) to take him and his um, date (read: ho-bag he met at his hotel) to the island. But first he gets a couple other local whores and they have some of the sexy time. If I’m not mistaken, it’s the only “hardcore” scene in the movie. Unless, of course, you count a stripper squatting on a champagne bottle and opening it with her lady curtains. But I digress…

When they arrive on the island, they find an old lumpy-headed local and his granddaughter Luna (Gemser). They are warned of the impending danger of being on the island and John is promptly told that they cannot be bought with his money. They begin to hear strange noises and have equally strange and cryptic encounters with Luna who gives Larry a small statue that she says will keep him save. Cue the dead dudes. 15-20 minutes of the slow bastards rising from their shallow graves and chasing the 2 survivors (that’s right, one of the 3 gets turned into a dickless zombie!). There is also a prologue and epilogue of Larry being in a mental institution…blah, blah…yadda, yadda. It’s really not worth mentioning. Just enjoy the boobs, bush, and zombies. Sorry, I couldn’t think of a “B” word for zombie.

To say this is pretty typical D’Amato is redundant. Most of his stuff is typical of his other stuff. There is the sleaze complete with “hardcore” inserts. The slow, drawn out scenes to build atmosphere. And a few gore shots. Add an illogical plot, dialogue and character actions and you have the Joe D’Amato stew. Also typical is George Eastman NOT getting nude. The man has sex with his jeans on for Christ’s sake! And speaking of sex, there wasn’t as much of the explicit sex as I expected. Lots and lots of completely nude people running amuck, but not much of the ol’ in-and-out.

I did enjoy the slow moving dead with tattered clothes and head dresses. They kinda reminded me of the dead in Amando De Ossorio‘s Blind Dead series. Only not quite as badass. The dead make-up isn’t that great but it really doesn’t have to be. There aren’t many close-ups of their faces, mostly sweeping shots of their sloooooow moooooving saunter. I also like Eastman, he’s such a bad actor, but he tries DAMMIT! Gemser was under used in my opinion, but then again, unless she is in every scene, she is under used for me. I don’t know what it is about Joe’s movies, but they have an inexplicable Italian charm that I love. If you’re a D’Amato or Gemser completest, pick this up as a companion piece with Porno Holocaust. It’s worthy of your collection.

Greg Baty

Greg is a lifelong genre film fan who digs boobs, blood and beer. He also enjoys old school punk rock, comic books and spending time with his beautiful wife Ellen and his cats Sydney and Alabama. Greg is the webmaster, Editor in Chief and Head Writer for Cinesploitation.

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