Garden of the Dead, 1972

    Camp Hoover, in Windsor, CO is a deeply-rural, hard-time penitentiary work farm that apparently makes and refines formaldehyde among its other products. And, wouldn’t you know, some of the prisoners have taken to sniffing the stuff for a cheap ’n’ easy high. Of course, some of these men become hopeless addicted!

    A daring, late-night jailbreak is planned! And seven or eight of the inmates tunnel out under the wall, and attempt getting to and highjacking the camp truck.

    One of the men, however, because he was so high on the vapor, accidentally alerts the guards.

    The old-school, hard-nosed warden, already planning on quitting the increasingly softening prison system, shows no mercy on the almost escapees and shoots them all dead. Then, for further insult to injury, all of the  corpses are tossed into a mass grave… in the formaldehyde-soaked ground. What could possibly go wrong?

    I'll tell you what! The dead rise up!!! They rise up and seek revenge on, well, everyone! Being still at least somewhat sentient, one, the undead ringleader, says, “We will destroy the living!” and starts handing out farm equipment - axes, shovels, hoes, (everything needed to grow formaldehyde, I guess!) to his newly resurrected cohorts.

    As the growling ‘zombies’ run stealthily around, ‘picking’ off the living with their farming tools, the remaining living prisoners and guards team up to seek a stronghold against the undead assassins.

    The breakdown: The Zombies in ‘Garden of the Dead’ are dead, but have retained some reasoning. They use tools, stealth, and, occasionally, language. They still crave the formaldehyde vapor like propaganda-film junkies, but still manage to attack and evade.

    So, the undead adhere to only the one of the ‘Rules of Romero,’ in that they are recently deceased. No consuming of flesh, no transmission of zombism, and no need to destroy the brain. As such, although no military correlation, these are most closely related to Nazi Zombies, or the ‘vampires’ from Matheson’s ‘Last Man On Earth.’ (Think, “Neville, come out!”)

    Acting was okay. About what one would expect from an early Troma feature. But it was sincere. And. perhaps because it was such early entry into the genre, (four or so years after Night of the Living Dead,) this means that “Garden” doesn’t need to try too hard to be different, (i.e. funny.) As such, it succeeds!

    Sure it never won any awards, or will ever be considered anything more than a D-grade, low-budget, zombie film, but I liked it!

    The ZMR, my Zombi Movie Rubrik, (which keeps me as close to impartial as possible,) gave Garden of the Dead a 1.8 out of a possible 4.0. Surprisingly, I agree with this rating. I mean, it does ring in as below average, but it takes itself seriously, and there were some genuine scares.

    Here is a YouTube clip, (can’t call it an honest ‘Trailer,’ just a few minutes from the flick. Enjoy!

GARDEN OF THE DEAD