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Title: Zeder (1999)
Format: DVD
Score:
Starring: Gabriele Lavia, Anne Canovas, Paola Tanziani, Cesare Barbetti, and Bob Tonelli
Director: Pupi Avati
Rating: R (Restricted)
Runtime: 98 minutes
Hits: 152
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Review of Zeder

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Comments for Zeder

• Posted on 2005-04-25
  Pretty Good
  
  This is another pretty good Italian horror film, and a bit different from most of the other stuff I've seen. Though this film involves the supernatural and the undead and whatnot, it is essentially a mystery, making it actually rather like a giallo in a lot of ways. Suffice to say, this isn't a zombie film, so don't come in expecting that.
  
  'Zeder' is the story of a young novelist, Stefano, who receives an old typewriter as a gift. He starts fiddling with it a bit and looks at the ribbon. He sees that there's some pretty spooky stuff written their, apparently involving burials and potential rebirths and things along those lines. He is fairly intrigued and concerned about this discovery, and goes on to investigate this story throughout the rest of the film, and discovers that such experiments are still going on today etc.
  
  Much like Avati's `House with Laughing Windows' this is an atmospheric piece with little on screen violence, and without much of the flash that typifies Italian horror. This may be a cause for concern, as those things are typically what attract people to Italian horror, but, again like `House with Laughing Windows', `Zeder' has an atypically interesting plot, and manages to generate some genuine creepiness. The plot doesn't necessarily add up to anything all that brilliant or revelatory, but it is more than sufficiently compelling while you're watching, which is good enough for at least a single viewing. (I've only seen it once, so I don't know how it would hold up under repeated viewing)
  
  The acting dubbing, and dialogue is about par the course for this sorta film, meaning it is acceptable if far from remarkable and certainly not up to modern day Hollywood standards. Technically, the film is again competent if unremarkable, except with regards to the editing, which is really very jagged and rough at the beginning of the film. The film moves about from place to place quite a bit early on with few real transitions, so it's pretty damn jumpy. It seems to clear itself up a bit as the film goes on.
  
  The score is a bit weird, the most prominent piece being a throbbing, Goblin-esque bassline overlaid with some piercing shrieking strings. This piece is acceptable, if a bit overbearing. It can be pretty unnerving at times, particularly a nice pulsing little 2 note thing that come up every now and then.
  
  This film certainly isn't scary but it can be pretty creepy at times. The climax is well done, and there's a particularly nice scene towards the middle of the film where Stefano confronts a rather hostile, creepy old woman who is shrouded completely in shadow, except for her feet.
  
  The DVD of this sucks. Not widescreen, looks like crap, sounds like crap etc. But, what are you gonna do.
  
  Yes, another worthwhile Italian horror film. Certainly not the best of the lot, but worth a look for aficionados.
  
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• Posted on 2005-04-05
  ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzeder
  
  Zeder is a huge snore-fest. The beginning starts off promisingly enough but it fails to deliver the goods. There isn't a scary moment in this entire film and why it's not for sale for those under 18 is beyond me. I probably had an edited copy. There is little to no gore, bad bad BAD acting and the soundtrack. That soundtrack, yikes! I wasn't expecting a Fulci-ish bloodfest but I was at least expecting to be entertained. Watch it only if you're having trouble sleeping. It took me three days to watch the entire film from beginning to end because I kept falling asleep. Ugh!
  
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• Posted on 2004-12-01
  "Kai-zons", the Living Dead Return!
  
  *Plot/ending analyzed*
  
  This is a very un-typical horror film which makes it quite refreshing and interesting. For most of the beginning I was quite enthralled by the pacing and the effort of the protagonist to reach some sort of conclusion. The start of the film shows us a house in Italy in the early 1920's and it is haunted by some horrendous and malicious ghost who has recently killed an old hag, next comes a clairvoyant and a scientist who walk into the basement where the girl clairvoyant assumes the identity of the dead man from a previous life. Once they find the bones of the man, they find a wallet and it reveals that the man was 'Edward Zeder', an albino, lunatic-philosopher who had believed in "Kai-zons", areas which were places where death had no value, this is an ancient idea which stems from the Persians and the Greeks.
  
  Arrive in Italy in the 1970's where a struggling writer who smokes too much is using a typewriter and he finds that the ribbon has some used text upon it and he types up a few papers from what he finds and has a mystery upon his hands. He goes through the usual odds and ends in an attempt to crack the mystery of the "Kai-zons" and he visits a small village where there is a cemetery and all sorts of weird people. The end of the film, in which his girlfriend dies and he takes her to a "Kai-zon" to bring her back, is a result from the lack of his willingness to have loved a living creature while she was alive and it is quite expected when she eats his neck. This is a very good film and the director is quite capable of pushing a story of interest along. For those of you expecting a zombie film, this isn't it.
  
  
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• Posted on 2003-12-07
  K-Zones and zombies
  
  Italian director Pupi Avati's "Zeder" has received significant criticism from many horror film aficionados who thought that a picture about reanimated corpses should resemble Lucio Fulci's "Zombie" or the George Romero undead trilogy. A more attentive viewer adequately schooled in the subtleties of Italian horror films should quickly recognize that "Zeder" is a cerebral look at the living dead, a movie that moves beyond splatter effects and shambling creatures in an attempt to scare the socks off its viewers. Steeped in oppressive atmosphere and weird science, Avati's film achieves a measure of uniqueness even as it uses plot elements found in such diverse movies as "Pet Semetary" and "The Exorcist." Personally, I think Avati's "The House with the Laughing Windows" is light years ahead of "Zeder," but that doesn't mean this film lacks interesting ideas and, even if they do not always work, a few attempts to craft very scary scenes. In short, you should probably look elsewhere if your interest lies in exploding heads or crude tracheotomies performed by lumbering, undead brutes. If you want to think a little bit, check out "Zeder."

  The film opens in 1950s France, where a grim discovery made in the basement of a ostensibly haunted mansion turns out to be the body of the long missing Paolo Zeder. Although we don't learn much about this man's work until later in the film, the discovery of this scientist's corpse is of great interest to many people. How Zeder got here and why a young girl encountered a supernatural emanation over the exact spot where the police discovered the corpse initially begs explanation. Avati uses the opening sequences of the film to set the tone for the film, and what a tone it is! The house rumbles and bangs ominously as though haunted by a thousand ghosts. The basement where Zeder and the young girl turn up is a ghastly place heavy with menace. You know after just a few minutes that this film has the potential to be a very fearsome adventure.

  Flash forward into early 1980s Italy where Stefano, an aspiring writer, and his sexy girlfriend Alessandra live. In order to celebrate an anniversary, Alessandra gives Stefano a nifty electric typewriter. Her boyfriend is quite happy with the gift and sets out to start writing when he discovers an anomaly on the ribbon cartridge that came with the gift. A quick investigation of this ribbon reveals that someone, probably the last person who owned the typewriter, wrote a most unusual report about some weird thing called K-zones and how the barriers of death will be broken down forever. Intrigued, Stefano quickly launches a wider inquiry into the origins of the strange message. His sleuthing takes him and his girlfriend into a world few could imagine. It turns out that Paolo Zeder discovered specific places on the planet where the dead can rise from their graves. Elated, Stefano further learns that the typewriter belonged to a priest who once lived in Italy. Dragging along the increasingly reluctant Alessandra, Stefano digs into this man's background and soon learns that a group of researchers from France are working in the same region where this priest lived. Stefano witnesses first hand how the K-zones work, and when an act of treachery takes the life of his beloved Alessandra, our hero resorts to the sort of behavior exhibited in a Stephen King novel with the same horrific results.

  "Zeder" is definitely a cut above your typical Italian horror film. The soundtrack, done by none other than "Cannibal Holocaust" composer Riz Ortolani, throbs and bangs away with a sense of desperate abandon. The acting, mainly from Gabriele Lavia as Stefano and Anne Canovas as the beautiful Alessandra, works about as well as you could expect from an Italian film. I probably wouldn't have cast Lavia in the lead role, as he is a rather bland figure for such a big part. The biggest drawback with "Zeder" is the lousy DVD transfer, which often obscures scenes in a slight haze of grain and gives the movie a cheap look. Moreover, I thought the pacing lagged in a few places, especially during Stefano's lengthy investigations into the priest who owned the typewriter. Overall, however, I liked "Zeder" and thought the idea of K-zones an intriguing one. I even laughed in a few places, like the scene where Stefano watches the laughing corpse on the monitor. A slap in the face to Fulci and Lenzi fans, perhaps, but Pupi Avati's film should find a few stalwart souls who will see something in it despite its absence of over the top gore.
  

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• Posted on 2003-11-01
  Five stars for the film, but, oh, the DVD...ugh!!!
  
  This film is also released under the cheesily named title of "Revenge of the Dead," and the quality of that DVD release is apparently just as lousy.
  
  This is a wondeful film by Pupi Avati. Apparently there is a crystal clear copy available in Europe in the PAL format, Region 2, letterboxed, uncut, and all.
  
  What needs to happen is someone with brains needs to release this film in its proper format on DVD in the States. Yes, "Pet Semetary" is very similar and was perhaps inspired by "Zeder," but otherwise, this is a truly original film.
  
  Addendum (August 21, 2004): Get a region free DVD player...The only solution to some of these terribly important problems!!!
  
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