- Year
- 1974
- Country
- Spain · Italy
- Runtime
- 95 min
- Director
- Jorge Grau
- Updated
- 9 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- known (33/100)
- Also known as
- Don't Open the Window · The Living Dead · Let Sleeping Corpses Lie · Breakfast at the Manchester Morgue
Let Sleeping Corpses Lie
Spanish-Italian, shot in England, and much smarter than its stablemates.
A Spanish-Italian production shot in the English countryside, and far smarter than most of the cycle. An experimental agricultural device reanimates the local dead, and a bickering pair of strangers get blamed for the killings by a reactionary police inspector who despises them on sight.
The environmental angle and the class-and-generation politics give it real bite, and the location shooting in Manchester and the Lake District looks like nothing else in Euro-horror. The final line is a perfect sour joke.
One of the best zombie films you have probably never seen.
Trailer
The numbers
Nobody has rated this yet. Be the first to make a claim you'll have to defend.
Your call
Where to watch
Legal options in USA
Links open in a new tab (↗). Availability data via TMDB and changes constantly, so confirm on the service. Legal options only. Checked 9 Aug 2026. All options ↗
Discuss with AI
Open a chatbot with a question about this film already typed out. Useful for a second opinion, plot detail, or where to find a copy.
Written about
- Gut-munchers: the Italian zombie boom, 1979 to 1983
There was no first one. Argento recut Romero, Fulci forged the sequel, and Italy spent four years feeding the British censors.
- Fantaterror: the Spanish horror boom, 1968 to 1976
Two cuts of every film, one for the censor in Madrid and one for the drive-in. Democracy killed the trick in two years.
Filed alongside
▶ watchobscureHorror Rises from the Tomb
A decapitated warlock's head, still working. Naschy wrote it himself.
▶ watchcultThe Loreley's Grasp
A Rhine myth relocated to Spain, with a monster that only works in long shot.
▶ watchcultSugar Hill
Revenge via Haitian zombies. The best of the blaxploitation horror crossovers.
▶ watchcultMessiah of Evil
Made by the couple who then wrote American Graffiti. A nightmare that never explains itself.
▶ watchcultThe Living Dead Girl
Rollin's best late film. Melancholy where the Italians were loud.
▶ watchcultNight of the Seagulls
The Blind Dead ride out one last time. A quiet, sad closer to Spain's best monster series.