Noites Eróticas dos Mortos Vivos

Erotic Nights of the Living Dead (1980)

** (out of 4)

XXX version

Infamous Joe D'Amato film that mixes Italian gore with Italian sex. Three people head for a deserted island to have a lot of sex and to see if a hotel could be built on the island. They should have listened to all the rumors because zombies are there waiting. This is an extremely weird and bizarre film because the producer's wanted two films made. One a porno and another a horror film so the director just combined the two elements. Running at nearly two hours this thing goes on for way too long, which is why I wish the hardcore sex scenes would have been removed. There's a "soft" version out there that I keep meaning to see because I'm sure I'd like the film better minus the sex scenes. The zombie footage on the other hand is wonderfully done with a lot of great atmosphere and gore. D'Amato was a master behind the camera and the cinematography here is terrific as is the music score. Laura Gemser, George Eastman and Mark "Wart Nuts" Shannon star. This here is a lot better than the director's first horror/sex film Porno Holocaust, which was filmed at the same time with the same cast of this one.

Sexy Nights of the Living Dead (1980)

** (out of 4)

The version under this title is the pure horror version, which is missing all of the XXX scenes. For years I had been wanting to check this version out because I felt that the hardcore scenes in the uncut version were all rather ugly and did nothing erotic and instead they just dragged the film down. It was interesting watching the film without the porn scenes because you realize that the Joe D'Amato film has more problems than just the porn stuff. For starters, even without the hardcore sex there's way too many softcore scenes that are also not erotic. I was really surprised to see how silly the majority of the scenes are because it's clear that the main intent was just to show sex. Another major problem with the picture is that it just takes them way too long to finally get to the island where the zombie stuff happens. The zombies, as great as they are, are pretty much wasted because outside a couple scenes early on, the majority of their screen time happens at the very end of the movie. It's really a shame that they weren't given more screen time because I felt the horror elements were quite strong and they keep the movie interesting. Even though he was unable to make anything erotic, D'Amato did do a good job building up a rather bizarre atmosphere. This version clocks in at 100-minutes, which means it is missing twelve minutes worth of hardcore scenes. So, is this version better? I would say that it is simply because it's shorter and as I said, the hardcore scenes were rather ugly and added nothing to the picture.

One of the most interesting consequences of the brief period of "porno chic" in the early 70s was the resulting effect on the Italian exploitation industry. Never quick to miss an American cinematic "craze", a lot of film-makers found themselves curiously crossing genres and stuffing hardcore porn into other genres, as well as vice versa. The absolute master of this was the ubiquitous Joe D'Amato, and here he fuses porno with the zombie movie (which at the time was in the midst of enormous popularity in Italy).

THE EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD was shot back-to-back with the similar, but more sex-oriented, PORNO HOLOCAUST. In its full uncut form, the scenes of XXX are strangely innocent. There are a few explicit shots here and there, but no actual "penetration" (other than when one of the female characters hilariously opens a bottle of champagne with her genitalia!), plus many of the scenes seem to cut away at strange times. Whether this is due to an incomplete review print (a Midnight Video release, clearly made from two different prints spliced together) isn't clear. What is obvious is that as a sex movie, this fails horribly. Many of the "erotic" scenes also fall victim to Luigi Montefiori and Laura Gemser's obvious unwillingness to perform in hardcore sequences. Many of the sex scenes are made up of Montefiori watching a female character masturbate, before pretending to have sex with her- often without removing his trousers first!

The real benefit for Massacessi is that the sex allows him to pad out a horror movies that, in actuality, has only about 30 minutes of material. Almost all of the first hour revolves around sex, and the "horror" portion of the story really only kicks in after that. Massacessi was the first to admit that horror was not his forte (although after seeing this, it has to be said that porn clearly wasn't either!) and by structuring his film in this way, he can basically cover up his shortcomings whilst still producing a marketable zombie movie.

Still, as ever, this is strangely enjoyable. The final 30 minutes is actually quite atmospheric, and there is some nice gore in there. I hear that this movie is very difficult to get hold of in an uncut form (review print was in unsubtitled Italian), but as far as I can tell from my copy, it is certainly worth seeking out as the "cut" print looks absolutely anaemic in comparison...

its been quite a while i watched the movie. i rented it because i thaught it would be some funny trash like "zombie holocaust", but i was wrong. theres nearly no gore, no story, 3 zombies (or something), no FX, JUST PLAIN NOTHING! just stupid disgusting hairy (!!!) 70-ish porn. (i watched the full uncut version by astro). that was no fun.

Okay, PORNO HOLOCAUST certainly isn't going to win any awards, but it's a fun, dirty movie from a classic director. Joe D'Amato has given us some REAL characters in a totally insane situation, but wallows in the fact that it's all in good fun. The players continually screw their brains out until they reach the deserted jungle island... at which time they continue screwing. The film builds to a climax (no pun intended) when a well-endowed native man appears to crush a few skulls and choke some folks to death. Then we've got MORE SEX, a little violence, and... you guessed it... MORE SEX! It may be the lowest form of entertainment, vulgar, and completely inappropriate, but who cares??? It's fun!

An American businessman wants to build a hotel on a remote island, so he has someone sail him and his girlfriend there to check it out. The zombie scenes seem tacked on as an afterthought, so as a horror film this doesn't really work that well. However due to the ridiculous dialog and the hardcore sex scenes the film MIGHT be worth it for drunken party type viewing, but even that is stretching it (pardon the pun) Feel free to skip this one, as it's only remote interesting as a curiosity. That being said the way champagne is uncorked in the film is ingenious.

Eye Candy: more than you can shake a decaying limb at

My Grade: D

DVD Extras: 27 minutes of Alternate footage; Production stills & Laura Gemser stills gallery; X-rated Trailer; and trailers for "Zombi 2", "Emanuelle And The Last Cannibals", "Nightmares Come at Night", & "Slaughter Hotel"

Easter Egg: In the main menu, highlight scene access and press down to get to a hidden skull, click on it for the French opening credits