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31 Days of Hell: Zeder (1983) - Reviewed
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| Courtesy of Gaumont |
Released in a heavily reedited cut in the US under the title
Revenge of the Dead featuring poster art of a zombie coming out of the
ground, Zeder frustrated horror buffs and was dismissed and forgotten before
being rediscovered and appraised years later as an unsung masterpiece of grim and
foreboding dread that got lost in the international distribution shuffle. While Code Red DVD and 88 Films took pains to
bring Avati’s film to the states in uncut form, the film like most of Avati’s
work remains a curiosity among adventurous cinephiles rather than the
contemporary psychological horror gem it should be regarded as.
In 1983 Bologna, young journalist Stefano (Humphrey Bogart
lookalike Gabriele Lavia) gets a most unusual gift from his girlfriend
Alessandra (Anne Canovas) in the form of a used typewriter. A sleuth at heart, Stefano’s fiddling with
the typewriter’s ribbon helps him piece together sentences in an effort to
trace the machine back to its original owner.
His searching leads him to deceased scientist Paolo Zeder who discovered
in the 1950s areas in the Earth known as “K Zones” or landmarks where dead
bodies can be reanimated after burying them in the soil. What follows doesn’t quite ramp up the levels
of terror generated by Laughing Windows but it comes pretty close in terms
of the body count and is equally bleak in its own right.
Featuring an out-of-the-gate angry and pulsating electronic/orchestral
score by legendary Italian composer Riz Ortolani whose keyboard strummings will
perk the ears up of Cannibal Holocaust fans, arresting cinematography by
The Last Man on Earth cameraman Franco Delli Colli (cousin to renowned cinematographer
Tonino Delli Colli), Zeder looks and sounds fabulous. With the Northern Italian backdrop of both
cityscapes and the remote countryside tempered by Ortolani’s nerve wracking
soundtrack, the feel of the world of Zeder is dangerous with leanings of
the occult. Though perhaps overstated in
this instance, an Ortolani score almost boosts the credibility of an Italian
picture if not being the single best element in the picture itself.
Deep Red actor
Gabriele Lavia makes the Bogie-lead of the piece, like the unfortunate hero of Laughing
Windows, in over his head and helpless against the encroaching forces of
darkness and Anne Canovas brings a certain amount of sex appeal to the film’s
overly curious cat swimming deeper into shark infested waters. Mostly though, this is writer-director Pupi
Avati’s show. Working from his own
original story and co-adapted for the screen by Maurizio Costanzo and Antonio
Avati, Pupi Avati’s gloomy psychological horror film like Laughing Windows before
it manages to conjure up feelings of fear and hopelessness as though we’re just
now learning of our doomed fates.
A solid underrated Italian chiller that was tragically misrepresented
upon initial North American release and is only now receiving the acclaim it
deserves, Zeder is a steady exercise in psychological horror less
reliant on the grisly gore the poster art would suggest and more invested in
creating an omnipresent mood of suffocating unease. Macabre and downbeat, Zeder marks
another important entry in Pupi Avati’s career which cemented the director’s
place in Italian horror film history as a master of building up just enough
subtle dread slowly but surely over the course of the movie to overwhelm you by
soaking into your system. One to never
let you off the hook even as the end credits have roll, Avati’s Zeder is
another example of serious-minded Italian horror with teeth that leaves
bitemarks long after the nightmare seems to be over.
--Andrew Kotwicki
