“What’s Wrong? I’m Your Son!” BURIAL GROUND This Weekend at The Des Peres – Late Nite Grindhouse

” Mother, this cloth smells of death! “

Destroy the Brain‘s monthly ‘Late Nite Grindhouse’ film series is back in its new location! Head to the Marcus Des Peres Cinema (12701 Manchester Rd, Des Peres, MO 63131) this Friday and Saturday (January 17th and 18th) at 10pm for Andrea Bianchi ‘s 1981 splatter epic BURIAL GROUND. Since this is a Marcus Theater, you’ll need to reserve your seats ahead of time HERE. There may (or may not be) Tickets available the nights of the screenings, but they may be going fast! Tickets are $8. A Facebook invite for the event can be found HERE

BURIAL GROUND is movie of such mind-boggling ineptitude It’s like watching Sam Raimi try to direct a movie while at the same time being beaten unconscious by a gang with aluminum baseball bats until he’s brain dead. And even then that’s probably giving director Andrea Bianchi more credit than he deserves. BURIAL GROUND also goes down as the only living dead movie where the zombies are more intelligent than the protagonists. Certain considerations must be given to Bianchi on this film however. He doesn’t flub the living dead film formula like the modern counterpart directors that try ineffectively to make living dead films these days. He is confident enough in the makeup FX to film the zombies in broad daylight. The plot – A professor opens a crypt and reanimates rotten zombies which attack a jet-set-group which is celebrating a party in a villa nearby. – falls on its face in most cases. There are plenty of examples of choices a protagonist in a horror film should never make. The characters just continually make so many wrong choices you may find yourself rooting for the zombies.

The creative graphic violence is excessive in almost every case, a plus for the Late Nite Grindhouse crowd in search of Fulci-flavored grue and gore. The best actor in the film by far is Peter Bark who (I believe) is a midget in his twenties or thirties (sporting a toupee no less!) playing Micheal, a ten-year-old boy. Michael adds so many levels of sleaziness to BURIAL GROUND. His character whines constantly and speaks in a strange, nasal voice. The icing on the cake is his incestuous relationship with his mom, the ultimate cinematic Oedipus Complex resulting in the film’s most infamous scene. Bark’s presence overpowers everyone else in the film. While you can’t say that his work here is ‘good’ in the traditional sense, he’s completely unforgettable in the part and makes for one of the most bizarre casting choices of all time. The dude is just fucking weird, and we love him for it.

Now you can catch BURIAL GROUND on the big screen when it plays 10pm this weekend ( January 17th and 18th) at the Marcus Des Peres Cinema