Jason Porter (Alex Cord) is a college professor and an archeologist working on an Etruscan tomb in Italy. Jason and his team have located the tomb but have not entered it yet. They drill a hole, insert a camera and take a few pictures inside the tomb of drawings on one of the walls. When it starts to rain the team stop what they are doing and run to a nearby workshop. While waiting for the rain to stop, Jason develops the pictures. In one of the photos is the depiction of an ancient Etruscan god, Tuchulcha. Tuchulcha was a demon god that demanded sacrifices.
The tomb is located near a villa owned by Maestro Nikos Samarakis (John Marley). Nikos is married to Jason’s former lover, Myra (Samantha Eggar) and has an adult son, Igor (Carlo De Mejo), from his previous marriage to Leni (Nadja Tiller). Jason and Myra’s relationship fell apart due to Jason’s alcoholism and his stint in an institution from blackouts and from attacking Myra in a drunken rage.
Not long after the photos are reviewed, a young couple decides to enter one of the tombs that have already been opened up to make love. They are bludgeoned to death. Police Inspector Giuranna (Enzo Tarascio) investigates the crime. He notes that the lovers were laid out similar to the sacrifices depicted in the wall paintings in the new tomb. Knowing that Jason was an alcoholic and prone to blackouts and drunken rages, Giuranna is suspicious of him.
As the murders continue, they take on a supernatural feel. Jason begins to suspect that either he is responsible for the murders or that there is a supernatural element behind them.
“The Dead Are Alive” AKA “L'etrusco uccide ancora” AKA “The Etruscan Kills Again” was released in 1972 and was directed by Armando Crispino. It is an Italian German Yugoslavian horror movie with some supernatural undertones and is a giallo. The film was based on a novel by Bryan Edgar Wallace and was released after Wallace’s death.
The movie is a bit confusing at times. The pace is slightly syrupy and red herrings abound. Everyone is unlikable, even the protagonist. The movie seems more like a soap opera than a horror movie. Everyone is having sex with everyone else, and everyone has a grudge against everyone else or is jealous of everyone else and they are all sadistic in their main character syndrome. It makes for an ineffective story and a rather bland mystery. You don’t really care who the murderer is because you hate everybody and would love to see all of them sacrificed.
The movie is often billed as a zombie movie, but spoiler alert; there are no zombies. I have to admit that I wasn’t fond of it. My expectations were of a bunch of zombies creating mayhem, but it ended up being more murder mystery than paranormal activity. Looking at it as just a murder mystery it’s OK, but even then, it’s not great.