Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Crappy film

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Good female butt shot in opening minutes, leads to story about zombies waiting for a trio on an island, scouting out possible locations for a new hotel. (Oh, who are they kidding? It was just an excuse to get laid on a tropical island!) They encounter a strange, seven foot tall old man and his adult daughter, and a black cat. The black cat being first shown in cemetery was an amusing touch. Good effect, also, of a small amulet being picked up from a candle lit altar, being thrown to the ground, and turning into the black cat, which immediately jumps back at the guy throwing it and attacks him.Oooh, a machete! That should up the gore. One zombie gets their googley eyes gouged out, ala The Three Stooges, then decapitated with the aforementioned machete, and their head then kicked like a soccer ball. Attempted escape from the island (where the zombies are buried under what appears to be no more than an inch of sand) in a raft proves futile, no surprise there. Later holding the cat amulet hostage saves their lives, briefly at least.The brutally violent zombie gore clashes with the variably good porn/ sex scenes; did this film start out as a horror movie which had hardcore sex scenes added, or a sex flick with gory horror scenes added? Good island locations, decent sex and nudity, and the added twist of most of the action taking place in broad daylight is unique, but the film overlong and painfully slow, and it is marred by a really awful ending, in which everything is explained away as being imagined by a mental patient, as he is banging the nude nurse in opening minutes of the film, before he is carted away, back to his padded cell.

Le Notti Erotiche dei Morti Viventi, or Erotic Nights of the Living Dead & Sexy Nights of the Living Dead as it's more widely known among English speaking audiences, introduces us to John Wilson (Mark Shannon) who works for a company that are going to buy a tropical paradise called Cat Island & build a holiday resort on it. John hires local sailor Larry O'Hara (George Eastman) to take him & his wife Fiona (Dirce Funari) to Cat Island so he can give it the once over, despite Cat Islands bad reputation with the superstitious locals Larry agrees to take them. Once there they encounter a mysterious young woman (Laura Gemser) & her Grandfather who act strangely & warn them to leave. John isn't having any of it & since the boats motor has broken down their stuck there anyway. Things take a turn for the worse when it becomes apparent that Cat Island is also infested with rotting flesh-eating zombies whom appear very hungry...This Italian production was directed by Joe D'Amato who also saw to the cinematography under his real name Aristide Massaccesi & there really aren't many films like Le Notti Erotiche dei Morti Viventi around, this has been released in basically two different versions an explicit one with hardcore sex & a softer one without although I think both versions contain all the gore. The script by star George Eastman mixes hardcore pornography & Italian exploitation horror. I'm not sure that the mixing of these two genres work particularly well as both the horror & sex elements are kept well apart in terms of the story & one has no notable significance in regards to the other which at times can make you feel that Le Notti Erotiche dei Morti Viventi is two different films pasted together. The hardcore footage consists of one scene where two prostitutes have sex with John, masturbation (at this point while giving John a hand-job one of the women says "they could arrest you for carrying a concealed weapon!"), oral sex & full penetration are present but that's where the hardcore ends really, there is a scene when Fiona masturbates & an infamous bit when a women opens a bottle by inserting it into her vagina. The horror doesn't really kick in until the last 20 or so minutes when the zombies rise. The pacing is a real killer as far as the overall film goes, it becomes quite boring towards the end & at almost 2 hours long in it's uncut state I found my interest waining well before the end. There are very few characters in Le Notti Erotiche dei Morti Viventi & those present aren't that well fleshed out, a lot of scenes & ideas seem unrelated & go unexplained like the Doctor who gets one scene, the black cat that keeps turning up, the zombie in the port that Larry kills, the man at the beginning killed by a zombie & why the hell are there zombies on Cat Island anyway? Some sort of explanation would have been nice while the opening & closing segments are completely unnecessary & feel out of place. On a positive note director D'Amato amazingly manages to create some good sequences, the blue lit zombie scenes at the end look fantastic & add a visual elegance. I wouldn't give D'Amato too much credit though as these scenes were shot during the day & a blue sepia tone was probably added in post production with the alternate sunny daytime shots as they were filmed presented on the DVD as an extra. The real life Santa Domingo locations in the Dominican Republic look beautiful, the beaches, the clear blue sea & the palm trees make me wish I was there zombies or not! The gore is not that graphic, a couple of zombies have their heads chopped off, a few are shot in the head, there is one brief gut-munching scene, a Doctor is attacked by a maggot ridden zombie & that's about it. There is lots of nudity, in fact everyone take all their clothes off for the slightest reason except Eastman who never strips below the waist in any part. The acting & dubbing are up to the usual low standards set by Euro exploitation films. Le Notti Erotiche dei Morti Viventi is an odd film, I liked it's exploitation elements but found it very choppy, poorly paced & despite the odd explicit sex scene & brief horror I didn't find it particularly enjoyable or entertaining as a whole, just in parts which is where my score comes from. Still it's definitely worth a watch for Euro exploitation fans like myself who should be able to find a few redeeming features in it. However, if you get hold of the uncut version make sure you don't watch it in front of your family...

Spoilers herein.I'm interested in genre mixing. Its a common thing, especially with various humor components. The gore branch of horror and the porn branch of the sex film try to be mixed here. I say gore rather than zombies because though zombies appear, the form is not that of a zombie flick. The gore and porn parts are okay I guess, except in the porn department these really are much nicer looking women than usual. This comment is on the 121 minute version which seems to be more complete than other 'uncut' versions. It seemed pretty explicit to me except for anything involving the native girl.The mood, especially with the score, is effective. But the pacing is a killer.Here's the real problem: the sex stuff and the horror parts of the plot have nothing to do with each other. Very few films mix the erotic and frightening. The only one I can recall is Kinski's 'Cat People.'And why in a porn flick are the zombies all modestly covered?Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

i think a lot of people where let down by this flick, as most catalogs and genre books describe it as a gore soaked zombie porno. honestly, this film isn't that graphic. the sex is what i would call "hard soft-core" and there isn't much gore (though what gore there is is pretty cool.)anywho, the story, from what i can tell concerns some kind of scientist/archetect/developer who travels to a strange island to do something or other, most likely something bad. once there, he angers the natives and a voodoo priest raises the dead which leads to a really creepy zombie attack-no really, it's right up there with fulci's zombie. as i said, there isn't much gore, but there is a neat scene where a doctor is examining a cadaver that was found floating in the bay, it sits up and takes a big bite out of the guys throat. then at the end there's a few bullet hits, some zombie carnage and star marks shannon gets his johnson bit of by laura gemser. the sex is fairly tame but there's a hilariously sleazy scene of a woman un-corking a champange bottle with her naughty bits. this film also has a great atmosphere and some excellent photography (also by Joe D'Amato) look out for some cool trick shots like when mark shannon throws a voddo idle on the ground and it changes instantly into a black cat that jumps up and attacks him. i had to watch that one again in slow motion i was so impressed! i would highly recommend this film for fans of bizarre cinema, and despite the lack of english, i think most will enjoy.