FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Theo Robertson According to the plot summary this film is set in remote 19th Century Scotland but some reason the signs on the village train station read Skopje and the characters refer to the location as Skopje which I assure you is not a Scottish sounding place . The characters too don't have Scottish sounding names either and I can assure you I've never met a Scotsman called Igor . This mistaken geography is matched by the title of the movie which is known under several different titles one of which is given as the title on this website which is misleading because Dracula doesn't appear but the living dead do . Well done IMDb because the zombies don't appear until the final third and the plotting revolves around this plot turn . Perhaps if the title was the oft used THE HANGING WOMAN it might have made for a better film ? This Spanish film plays out very much like one of those British Hammer horrors with Gothic overtones . A stranger arrives in a small village and he's met by locals who are the usual types who mutter " A stranger sir ? We don't get strangers here sir " . As it stands the protagonist finds himself investigating a mysterious death and if you know the film as THE HANGING WOMAN some mystery is built up unlike if you go in to the film knowing it by the title on this page and it's strange watching zombies stumble around as if they've taken an overdose of methadone rather than the Olympic sprinters they had become after 28 DAYS LATER but I guess the film works better as a horror film than the big budget zombie movie starring Brad Pitt Two things let the film down . One is the rather ill paced structure where not a lot happens throughout much of the running time but for a film trying to build up an air of mystery this is understandable . The second thing is being a dubbed Spanish film many of the accents are laughable with a butler sounding like he's dubbed by Dick Van Dyke from MARY POPPINS . Walt Disney meets zombie horror ! What's not to like ?

t_atzmueller This film definitely isn't for everyone. It doesn't have much appeal for the younger generation, not those who're used to sophisticated CGI effects nor those who enjoy the average fare of Hollywood horror flicks.For friends of 70's Gothic Euro-horror however, this is a rare gem.The story is, typical for it's time, rather simple and predictable yet the atmosphere of the film is superb.A young royal travels to an unnamed country (the names are mixed English and Russian, the towns name Serbian and the landscape is unmistakably Spanish countryside) to inherit the mansion of his recently deceased uncle. As he arrives at the foggy hamlet there are numerous murders which circulate around the estate. It turns out that the dead - for somebody's nefarious plans - have been reanimated to walking killer machines.As said: the story itself has little flesh but the soundtrack, the claustrophobic settings and lighting and the excellent camera work make this film the perfect film to watch on a dark, rainy, cold evening, while sitting in the warm living room - perhaps with a candle instead of electric light and a snifter of port wine in one hand - enjoying a spooky film from a time when horror was still a little more innocent.I doubt that I'll recommend fans of "La noche del terror ciego" (Night of the blind Terror) or "Los monstruos del terror" (Dracula vs Frankenstein) something new here - likely they've already seen it. However, if you're into the 70's Euro-horror-genre, this is a secret yet top notch tip!

The_Void The Hanging Woman takes obvious influence from both the classic Hammer Horror films and Mario Bava's Gothic masterpiece Kill, Baby...Kill. The result is a slightly plodding, though undoubtedly interesting and very atmospheric little horror film. Like many European films from the seventies; this one has a whole slew of titles, which range from those that don't make sense - 'Dracula the Terror of the Living Dead', to cash-ins; 'Zombie 3: Return of the Living Dead', and innuendo; 'The Orgy of the Dead'...but The Hanging Woman is the best on the merit that it actually fits the story. The plot focuses on a man that travels to an old Scottish village in order to claim his inheritance; an old house, currently inhabited by his uncle's science partner. Upon his arrival; a woman is found hanged in a graveyard; though the circumstances are suspicious as she was already dead before the hanging. Things turn a little more awry when the nature of the experiments going on at the house are revealed, and the village may be harbouring a dark secret.The plot features a number of different elements, which includes black magic, zombies and grave digging. It has to be said that it can be a little messy at times; though nowhere near as much as many films of this ilk and the plot really flows rather well and the various different elements are well used. Undoubtedly the best thing about the film is the atmosphere and director José Luis Merino succeeds admirably in this respect as the atmosphere is thick and foreboding and this helps to further the plot. The film is essentially a mystery with horror elements, and the director keeps our interest with lots of good ideas and some interesting characters. Paul Naschy is the only cast member likely to be recognised by anyone watching the film; but the unknown cast all do well with their roles; particularly Stelvio Rosi and Dyanik Zurakowska. There's not a great deal of blood in the film; but patience is rewarded towards the end with an excellent decapitation sequence. The film is not very well known and I can't say I'm surprised about that; but it's certainly well worth a look and fans of this stuff shouldn't be too disappointed with it.

Jonathon Dabell I'm always suspicious of films with many titles. I invariably find myself musing as to why the film can be found under so many guises. Could it be that the film is absolutely awful, so its makers and distributors have re-named it and re-marketed it again and again in the hope of eventually finding an appreciative audience? This is such a film - a Euro horror zombie flick which has more alternative titles than cast members! The version I saw was entitled "Beyond The Living Dead", and most of the cast members were given nondescript pseudonyms on the credits. For instance, hero Stelvio Rosi was billed as Stanley Cooper, and principle female player Dyanik Zurakowska was billed as Vickie Nesbitt. It's not a particularly good film, but to whole-heartedly savage it would be a touch harsh as there are just a few interesting elements which drag it up above "awful" to somewhere in the "slightly-below-average" category.Serge Checkhov (Stelvio Rosi) arrives in an East European town (Skopje in Macedonia is hinted at) for the reading of his uncle's will. He soon discovers that he is to inherit his uncle's mansion, much to the annoyance of his cruel and ambitious aunt Nadia (Maria Pia Conte). Something creepy seems to be going on in town at the same time - his cousin is found hanged from a tree in the cemetery; necrophiliac grave-digger Igor (Paul Naschy) starts to act more outlandishly than usual; Aunt Nadia seduces and copulates with young Serge; a doctor residing in the house starts to show off his experiments to reanimate dead animals; and uncle's corpse occasionally goes missing as if it's got up and begun walking of its own accord. Gradually, Serge investigates and uncovers a plot that Baron Frankenstein himself would've been mighty proud of.Mainly the film is underwhelming. The solution to the mystery is revealed in a phony, heavy-handed scene which resembles the unmasking of the villain in a Scooby Doo cartoon. Sometimes the characters say and do such dumb things that you want to scream in despair. The performances are generally amateurish, and the film is thin on real terror. However, as I've indicated already, it escapes total damnation for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Naschy as the necrophiliac grave digger is hilarious and disturbing (at the same time) in all his scenes. Secondly, the location work is quite impressive. And thirdly, for some reason that I've never been able to figure out, the preposterous story is actually engrossing in a totally inexplicable way. Beyond The Living Dead - or whatever title you know it by - is undoubtedly a bad film, but at least it's ENTERTAININGLY bad.