Zeder (1983)

While I had been familiar with the writing of Pupi Avati who wrote one of my favourite Italian horror movies Macabre, as a director I had somehow avoided his work. Avati received much acclaim for his incredibly dark movie The House With Windows That Laugh aka La Casa Delle Finestre Che Ridono in 1976; but his later work Zeder (1983) was much more commonly seen and cemented his career as an Italian legend.

Zeder (AKA Revenge Of The Dead / Voices From Beyond) pronounced Zayder begins with a young couple Stefano (Played by the legendary Gabriele Lavia) and Alessandra celebrating their first wedding anniversary. When exchanging gifts Stefano a writer by profession receives an electric typewriter that Alessandra found in a back street pawn shop. The typewriter had lost its electric cable and its ribbon was half used, but Stefano was pleased with his gift none the same and soon settles down to try it out. When the ribbon slips out Stefano is drawn to read the text of the previous user only to discover things written that to a casual glancer may seem meaningless, but to a professional in the readings of science or the occult might bring them to a sudden stop. As Stefano tries to piece together parts of a mystery his investigations lead in those around him being placed in terrible danger.

Zeder is a real oddity in Italian cinema, to my somewhat inexperienced viewing of about 600 Italian movies in that it’s half political thriller half horror, yet so carefully crafted that the two don’t seem to have separate lines between them. While the political aspect is limited I found myself in some way comparing it to the likes of the 1976 movie The Parallax View starring Warren Beatty. That movie rather like this one has lots of shadowy figures trying to cover up a conspiracy that it really does not want anyone knowing about, Zeder however rather than focusing on assassination focuses instead of bringing the dead back to life, with its protagonists as a whole being the Catholic Church and the current Government, that is of course until Stefano starts snooping around. The next portion of the movie reminded me of the Stephen King offering Pet Cemetery, here bodies buried in what they classify as K-Zones are returned to life, rather like Pet Cemeteries burial site.

I won’t lie I was relatively unimpressed with the first portion of the movie which focussed around a lot of science talk and Stefano zipping around investigating something that 95% of the viewing audience could not possibly understand, as a result I could not see the importance of the mission; but slowly director Avati reveals more and more, almost like we are being let into a secret in dribs and drabs. It was this revelation that swung the movie for me, you’re really not meant to understand the story and this is the storytelling of a real master, Avati taking writing credits for the movie also. Once your let into the movies big secrets and you along with Stefano are solving the big mystery together the film really picks up, and as the characters are going through the emotions so are you. A discovery in a hotel room sent an icy chill down my back, one that had been forming since Stefano’s visit to Rimini finds him outside a massive abandoned hotel development.

The music is phenomenal really atmospheric and creepy with lots of noise and terror putting you right on edge, I was unsurprised when I discovered that the score had been composed by Riz Ortolani who put his heart and soul into two classics of the exploitation cinema Cyclone and Cannibal Holocaust. While responsible for many more movies scores every time I hear Ortolani’s name I automatically think of these two features, now having a third to think about.

While elements of horror are shown at night Avati delivers all the real movie scares in the daytime, making those unfamiliar with horror realise that nightmares don’t just come at night. It’s incredibly hard to deliver scares in broad daylight, think about all the scary movies you have seen and how many of those real scares have been during daylight? No doubt you’ll be struggling to think of one. Zeder offers a few genuine scares, I’m not talking jump out of your seat scares, but the sort that make you go cold.

Fans of the mystery and thriller genres will just love the slow piecing together of the movies mysteries, all chiefly regarding the typewriter which you just keep forgetting about and is in reality the most important factor of the movie.

A word of warning about Zeder, while the movie gets much acclaim it also receives much criticism caused in part by the fact that many watch the movie expecting to find it to be a zombie movie. While zombies are most certainly a factor, this is no zombie movie; there is no massive body count or hoard of evil creatures stampeding round. Most of the movies killing is done by agents of either the church or the government, while the final killings are carried out by the three and only zombies of the piece, and one of those you only see the hands. The key factor about Zeder is that it has one of those endings, you can pretty much see it coming a mile off but the fact that your prediction comes true does not give you any satisfaction and just leaves you cold, but not in a bad way.