Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

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.

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!