‘Death was the only living thing…’
Garden of the Dead is a 1972 American zombie horror film about convicts on a chain gang who sniff experimental formaldehyde fumes to get high. They attempt a prison break, are shot down by the guards and buried in the prison garden. Soon, they rise from the dead, using shovels and hoes to kill all who get in their way on their quest to get high once more.
The movie was directed by film John Hayes (End of the World; Grave of the Vampire) from a screenplay by Jack Matcha. It was also released as Tomb of the Undead.
The production stars Duncan McLeod, Lee Frost (director of The Thing with Two Heads; Love Camp 7, House on Bare Mountain) and Susan Charney.
Plot:
At the Hoover work camp of the Windsor County Department of Correction, a place where formaldehyde is produced, the warden, whose methods are cruel and outdated, realizes that his career is over. The camp soon will be closed.
Among the prisoners, there is a faction that has become addicted to the fumes of formaldehyde. Encouraged by their ringleader, Braddock, these men frequently indulge in an orgy of breathing fumes and dousing themselves with the liquid. Later, they make an initially successful escape but are then nearly all shot in the ensuing chase.
As guards dig the graves, barrels of formaldehyde that have been riddled by gunfire leak onto the corpses and into the graves. The corpses then come alive, some pushing their way out of the dirt, and kill the gravediggers. Taking shovels, an axe and other weapons, the zombies proceed toward camp, chanting: “We will destroy the living!”
“As a movie, it’s cheap and careless, with an awkward pace and ridiculously mismatched canned 1950s jazz score … But some of the convict actors seem to be having fun. If not for the slow pacing and dark lighting, the camp value would be higher.” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers book
“This scruffy low-budget production anticipates the pointless and depressing amateur zombie movies of the early ’90s by almost twenty years.” Peter Dendle, The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia book
Buy: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk
“It’s all incredibly silly, campy stuff.” Glenn Kay, Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide book
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