Burial Ground (peter bark film)

[Roxy Robinson]

I don't typically enjoy or relate to 'so bad it's good' fayre. I do like things which are unconventionally entertaining, though, and Burial Ground (1981) perfectly fits that descriptor for me.

It's an Italian zombie siege flick, with plenty of cheapo gore effects, some lite breast-centric exploitation flourishes and a peculiar Oedipal throughline. It makes for a very fun 90 minutes, and I'd heartily recommend it.

88 Films just released a new 4K transfer and while it's far from a demo disc (the OCN is long gone), it looks good, nice rich colours and healthy, well-resolved grain. You can probably just stick with the new Blu-ray, though, I reckon.

Aside from the fun, unique and gruesome zombie masks and the exotica/50s sci-fi soundtrack, the other main draw is the character of Michael, played by Peter Bark. Without spoiling anything, Michael has an unhealthy fixation on momma's breasts and while the character was originally due to be played by a child, legal and moral duty of care meant that he is played by a 25-year-old little person with a ne plus ultra combover for the ages. Along with his shrivelled facial features and high-waisted jeans, this barnet makes his head look like a very timid, sickly bulb. He's genuinely one of the most memorable characters I've ever seen in a horror film and he has some superb lines.

His mother is played by Mariangela Giordano, a regular of 70s Italian sex comedies, and she's also perfect as the mollycoddling momma. Where this all goes is mental. Karin Well, a somewhat more familiar Euro starlet plays one of her pals and there's another actor I've never heard of who gets her tits out more. The three husbands/boyfriends/it's never explained are all very entertaining, almost completely inept aside from one scene with a shotgun. Their reasoning, passivity and hesitation are consistently very amusing. I don't think there's any social commentary here about male fragility but almost every single thing they do is ineffectual.

This is mighty fine film-making.

[bushwick]

Yeah it's fucking brilliant. Might be my favourite ever zombie film. Just bizarre and hilarious, entertaining all the way through. Wish Peter Bark had been in more stuff.

[Roxy Robinson]

We Happy Few Two

[The F Bomb]

Watched this again last night with my wife and she was howling with laughter throughout, particularly during the Peter Bark scenes until it got a little...Oedipal...and she was like jaw dropped to fuck. She was laughing in surprise at the ending. It is largely a load of shit and I really really don't like 'so bad it's good' as a concept, but this is so remarkably bad it's a genuinely unique experience. There are many many badly-made European 70s exploitative 'horrors', but there's only one with Peter Bark. I also couldn't help but notice how erotic the blonde girl's 'anguished' panting and squealing is after the bear trap. It's either utterly dreadful dubbing or very oddly deliberate. Either way, wonderfully puzzling.

[Mister Six]

This sounds amazing.

[The F Bomb]

This sounds amazing.

It really is. Some of the zombie stuff is pretty slow, but almost comically so. Everything around that is extremely entertaining.

Another great fact, Peter Bark is actually an amazing anglicised form. The dude's name is really Pietro Barzocchini. How he ended up with Peter Bark is just perfect.

[another Mr. Lizard]

An Italian zombie essential. I first saw it on the Apex VHS 'Nights of Terror' (a phrase correctly spelt on the box cover if not in the movie...), cut to fuck and running a few minutes over an hour. Even then, its charms shone through and no amount of censorship can negate the 'Bark effect' entirely. Severin's new release of the film included a limited edition Peter pillowcase with his face glaring out from the fabric!

So much more great stuff here. Just to single out one highlight, the murder of the maid... if you've never seen that, I envy you your first look.

[Famous Mortimer]

One of the greatest zombie movies of all time. When it kicks off, it doesn't really let up til the end.

[Egyptian Feast]

His mother is played by Mariangela Giordano, a regular of 70s Italian sex comedies, and she's also perfect as the mollycoddling momma. 

I love her, she's such a trouper. I'll watch any old shit if she's in it.

[phantom_power]

Coincidentally I watched this the other day. I pretty much gasped at the first sight of Peter Bark, in bed, covers up to his chin, starring manically, THAT haircut. The whole film is a ridiculous delight after that

Main highlights are:
The man in the tight red long sleeved top, tucked into tight trousers pulled almost up to his nipples. Very Mulligan and O'Hare

The incredible aim the man with the shotgun has and the explosive material that the zombie's heads seem to be made out of

The way the characters aimlessly wait around at a door being bashed in until the zombies break through and then they decide to run

As mentioned before, the general shitness from all the characters in trying to evade or attack the slowest, least threatening zombies in screen history

THAT mother-child reunion. I am pretty sure that is what the Paul Simon song is about

[phantom_power]

Oh and Peter Bark's IMDB page has this biography:

"Peter Bark was a supremely creepy and unnerving Italian midget thespian who bore an uncanny resemblance to a diminutive Dario Argento. He was reportedly born in 1955."

[ASFTSN]

Never really understood 'So bad it's good' as a motive for watching stuff like this. It's really tough to explain the difference though I can still watch stuff like it and revel in its complete bizarreness, treating it on its own terms and descending into insanity. Favourite line is when he's pleading with the zombies..."Please, stop. I'm your friend!" That'll work.  Great Wes Benscoter artwork on the recent edition too!