No profanar el sueno de los muertos (1974)

Spanish director Jorge Grau's biggest international hit was scored with this impressive Romero inspired zombie movie which, like Romero's subsequent Dawn of the Dead (1978), has a message to deliver behind the gore, though it does it with rather more subtlety and finesse than Romero's over-rated snooze-fest.

Grau's concerns are ecological, his sub-text exploring Mankind's culbapility in the destruction of the environment. The opening montage, a maelstrom of pill-popping businessmen, streakers and commuters clad in environmental protection suits, suggests that urban centres are already a lost cause and that our only escape is to flee into the countryside, just as hero George does at teh start of the film. Curiously, this is also one of the themes of Dawn of the Dead, at least in its early stages, as its quarter of protagonists also flee from the cities in search of a rural haven from the chaos that surrounds them.

One of the key differences between Grau's film and Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) (Grau is the first to admit that his film was a conscious effort to "do" a colour remake of Night) is that Grau places the blame for all the mayhem squarely at the feet of mankind, wheras in Romero's film the human race is merely a victim of some outside agency, possibly a virus from space. There's a cynicism that runs through No profanar el sueno de los muertos that springs from the late 60s / early 70s counter-culture (the single aspect of the film that has dated badly) - figures of authority are presented as either reckless and irresponsible (the scientists with their machine), impotent and confused (the doctors at the hospital) or opionated and bigotted (McCormick and his fellow police officers). The only ones who really know what's going on are the young and the marginalised - long-haired, motorcycling George, the young Edna and the junkie Katie, and they fall foul of the zombies in the end, destroyed by the fallout from the recklessness and impotence of their elders. Perhaps significantly, the majority of the zombies also seem to be noticeably older that the youthful leads.

The fact that the film has something to say, however, is simply the icing on the cake - setting aside intellectual concerns, No profanar el sueno de los muertos still works remartably well. It may lack the perverse lyricism of Grau's previous horror film, Ceremonia sangrienta (1973), but it's head and shoulders above many of its contemporaries. Grau's direction is quitely assured, though some fans, weaned on the post Dawn of the Dead style horrors, find the leisurely opening scenes uncomfortable. Unusually for a European film of its day, some credible attempts have been made to populate the soundtrack with a variety of authentic sounding regional English accents - George's London drawl might have a touch too much of teh Michael Caine's about it, but it was certainly arresting and a refreshing change to hear the distinctive Lake District tones instead of the usual bland mid-Atlantic twang.

The locations are chosen well and work disarmingly well in context - it's one thing to see zombies shuffling around a piece of anonymous US backwoods or stalking abandoned shopping malls, but quite an eye-opener to see them wreaking havoc in the green hills of one of Britain's favourute tourist haunts. Francisco Sempere's photography is quite simply ravishing and the very welcome release of the film on DVD in 2001 gave us a proper chance to appreciate the enormous contribution his work made to the film. The special effects are good and bloody too, though Grau wisely uses them sparingly - when they do appear, their impact is increased for their having been used so carefully.

Jorge Grau is perhaps not as well known internationally as fellow Spaniard Jacinto Molina Alvarez / Paul Naschy, nor as infamous as Jesus Franco Manera, and his later career was unfortunately bogged down with sub-standard psycho-sex thrillers. But his fine brace of early 70s treasures (No profanar el sueno de los muertos and the haunting Ceremonia sangrienta) are enough to convince us that his absence from the world of horror is depriving us of a major talent.
KEVIN LYONS

Last Updated: 1 January, 2009