The Dead Are Alive (1972) (2025)

Popular reviews

• Review by Ian West ★★★½ 3

  There’s a lot to dig about this weirdo movie... An alcoholic protagonist trying to seduce his now married former lover by saying “Doesn't the idea of an Etruscan burial ground turn you on?" lol, a slew of skeezy sleazy suspects, a tense car chase through narrow heart attack inducing streets, and the walls of an Etruscan burial site slathered in blood after numerous victims get their faces brutally bludgeoned by a metal pipe.

  Armando Crispino’s The Dead are Alive aka The Etruscan Kills Again is a solid giallo from the director of Autopsy that gets off to a slow start... in fact, I was almost ready to throw in the towel this go around when all the sudden a great…

• Review by Tony the Terror ★★★★ 4

  New favorite giallo and new very favorite poster alert!! Boy, Alex Cord and Samantha Eggar are a ridiculously sexy couple aren’t they?

  This was great, especially since I had somehow never seen it before. All the early 70’s hair and fashion you can handle including Alex Cord in a pair of denim short shorts. I loved the whole Etruscan angle and the archeological dig setting and if archaeologists look anything remotely like Cord or Harrison Ford then I really missed my calling in life.

  The music is especially superb and it’s all just a great bit of Italian giallo goodness. I knew this had to be decent since it’s from the director of the magnificent Autopsy, but I’m glad it ended up being more fun than I was expecting.

  Viva Italy encore!

• Review by Mandrakegray ★★★½

  “Doesn’t the idea of an Etruscan burial ground turn you on? Hmmm? Making love in a tomb?”

  Solid, sleepy little chiller. Alex Cord (“Chosen Survivors”) is cast as Professor Jason Porter, who is conducting an archeological dig at a remote tomb outside of Rome. After a teen couple are brutally murdered near the site, it becomes apparent there’s a killer on the premises. Although judging by the way the victim's bodies are positioned, could it be the corporeal manifestation of the specter of the tomb that’s being disturbed?

  Armando Crispino's 1972 giallo is a wonderfully shot slow burn thriller that elevates above it's few sluggish moments into an interesting whodunit (with more than a few red herrings). The initial killings…

• Review by Matt Winfield ★★★★ 2

  With a title like The Dead Are Alive, and a story about unearthing a 2,500 year old Etruscan tomb, I can't say that giallo style slashings and drama-laced lover's quarrels was what I was expecting from this, but man, I'm happy all the same! It ended up being a pretty solid thriller, with plenty of ridiculously enjoyable twists and turns. Alex Cord's alcoholic grump of an archaeologist makes for a great leading man, there's an awesome car chase sequence bangin' through some tight Italian streets, and more than enough sex-crazed locals getting bludgeoned to bloody bits by an ominous shadowy figure, so the story never gets too talky and dull. A fun watch overall.

• Review by Zay ★★★

  "Doesn't the idea of an Etruscan burial ground turn you on?"

  Remember seeing the poster years ago and wanting to track this one down asap. Finally watched the blu ray and its pretty cool. It's a giallo slasher hybrid with haunting atmosphere, beautiful scenery, and a engaging mystery element. The cast of characters were mostly unlikable, especially the leading man, Jason the drunk archeologist ex. Somehow that made him more realistic though. Solid 70s gialli style mystery thriller.

• Review by Ian Kemper ★★★½

  This might be the only gialli to show the dangers of drinking too much J&B, dangers like waking up in Etruscan tombs or getting committed to a psych ward or forgetting that you attempted to kill your ex girlfriend because she threw your fifth of whiskey away.

  This film is wild, wild stuff folks and is entertaining as hell. Our protagonist is a mustachioed drunk archeologist named Jason (Alex Cord) who drinks all the J&B, drives a shitty slug bug, calls his ex a certified whore and apparently has "temporary total memory loss" of all the shitty things he did while on the sauce. Yes, he's pretty awesome. Honestly I didn't think much of the character at the start of…

• Review by TheDionysiac ★★★ 2

  "There's No Place To Hide When ... THE DEAD ARE ALIVE!"

  Based on a novel by Bryan Edgar Wallace, 'The Dead Are Alive' aka 'The Etruscan Kills Again' aka 'Mystery of the Yellow Grave' aka 'The Death God Kills Again' is a bit it of an oddball giallo, thriller where the action takes place in the original setting of an archeological dig, where a woman (Samantha Eggar) is juggling her time between a romance with her ex-husband, the professor in charge of the excavation played by Alex Cord (pretty buff for a professor - he's a bit of a fitness nut?), and a conductor working on the elaborate musical show the Festival dei Due Mondi (John Marley - most famous…

• Review by AnonymousAndy ★★★

  "Doesn't the idea of an Etruscan burial ground turn you on?"

  The Dead Are Alive! is what I think every time I'm waiting in line at the grocery store, but it's also the title of Armando Crispino's first (of two) giallo. It's an ambitious little effort that appears to promise zombies, mummies or at least some good and gory deaths in the Fulci mold but mostly delivers murky plotting, soap opera stand-in characters and a subplot about burnt hair. Ah well, they can't all be winners.

  An archeologist unearths an Etruscan tomb, only to trigger off a series of grisly murders. Have the dead come back to life for revenge? Or are bodies just coincidentally stacking up? Also, who in…

• Review by mosquitodragon ★★★★½ 7

  "I get the most ghastly notions. LIKE I WANT TO KILL SOMEBODY!!!"

  Repressed sexuality rises unspeakably from the crypt of the psyche to burst forth and destroy the avatars of desire. Just like new Rome being haunted by old Etruria. Things thought dead for figurative eons may still persist.

  Check out our discussion on the Caliber 9 From Outer Space podcast - available on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon and a whole bunch of other podcast platforms.

  "Doesn't the idea of an Etruscan burial ground turn you on?"

  BTW, the movie can be watched for free here.

• Review by MrRomantic ★★★★

  Ein Giallo in Bestform:
  Eine soapige, leicht trashige Geschichte, die schnell zur Sache kommt, viele Verdächtige, wunderbare Musik, typische 1970er Mode, und neben der Verweise auf die Etrusker eine überraschende Lösung.
  All das läßt sich leicht genießen ohne besonders tiefgründig sein zu müssen.

• Review by morgue ⚰️🕸️ ★★★½

  went in expecting a zombie flick (i mean, look at the title and look at the poster-- would you not expect that as well) and yet got a decent giallo! once i saw a man in slutty little shorts, i knew this wasn't going to be bad. the mixture of archeology and mystery is pretty good (are all archeologists that hot?) which makes the dead are alive a decent entry.

• Review by Königin der Ameisen ★★★

  Ulkiger Giallo, der gattungsspezifisch schon viel vom späteren US-Teeny Slasher vorwegnimmt. Das Geheimnis des gelben Grabes schafft es sogar partiell immer wieder, auch jenseits seiner unfreiwilligen Komik zu unterhalten. Zudem sind die Effekte selten, dann aber sehr blutig.

  Dennoch, den Boden haut die bereits angesprochene unfreiwillige Komik aus. Dazu folgendes Beispiel: Die Morde geschehen nach den Motiven einer 2000 Jahre alten Fresko. Aber wie konnten die Leute damals einen Kriminalfall der Zukunft vorher sehen? Lösung dieses unglaublichen Rätsels: Der Killer kannte die Fresko und orientierte sich an den Motiven, statt umgekehrt. Man, Sherlock Holmes wäre neidisch.