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 ?

Uriah43 This film is an example of a zombie movie which has zombies that are created rather than transformed by a virus as generally depicted today. The usual differences between the two are that those created (by voodoo, black magic or science) generally follow instructions from their creator, don't eat flesh and don't infect others. Produced in 1973 in Europe it had a good Gothic feel to it. Likewise, although it was originally filmed in Spanish and dubbed in English the overall effect wasn't too bad either. However, one clear fault was that the lead actor, Stelvio Rosi (as "Serge Chekov") sported a haircut from the early 1970's even though the film was supposed to have taken place sometime in the 19th Century. Not only that but I thought his performance was slightly below that of the rest of the cast as well. On the other hand, some bright spots involved two gorgeous actresses, Maria Pia Conte ("Nadia Mihaly") and Dyanik Zurakowska ("Doris Droila") along with excellent makeup for the zombies. In short, other than the slight miscasting of the lead actor, this was a competent zombie film which fans of this genre might find interesting.

Scarecrow-88 Slow moving Spanish chiller, has Paul Naschy in one of his more devious roles as an insane perverted necrophiliac gravedigger..it's a lesser role for Naschy but he makes the most of it. He's pretty hideous in it. Stelvio Rosi is Serge Chekov, an outsider entering a village corresponding to a letter naming him heir to his uncle's(..who was a wealthy Count)estate, put in charge of the man's daughter, but he arrives too late and finds her hanging in a cemetery after removing a letter from her dead father's coat pocket. Nadia Mihaly(Maria Pia Conte)was the Count's young wife, furious at not being left anything in his will. A practitioner of black magic, Nadia prides herself quite knowledgeable in the dark arts. Anyway, Nadia makes a move on Serge who is all too willing to embellish her advances, fully understanding her motives. Dyanik Zurakowska is Doris, the maid for the Count, and the daughter of scientist, Leon Droila(Gérard Tichy), begging Serge to allow her father to continue his research in the laboratory(Count Mihaly funded Leon's experiments in reanimating the dead)located inside the villa. Carlos Quiney is the Count's butler who doesn't like Serge's new position nor appreciates Nadia's interest in the new owner of Count Mihaly's villa. Pasquale Basile is the detective investigating the murder of Count Mihaly's daughter(she seems to have died of fright, not of strangulation as we so assume)and keeps an eye on Serge as developments regarding murder and intrigue soon surface after a séance goes awry and the walking dead appear. Also, Igor(Naschy)is suspected of robbing graves and becomes a suspect in a victim's murder at what appeared to be at the hands of the dead Count himself. Mad science; experiments with the reanimated dead. A beheading. Zombies. Organ removal. Secret passageways. Tombs raided and corpses abused. Possible witchcraft. A séance. Family secrets. Lots of salacious/grotesque goings-on in this little horror flick. Not a lot of gore, besides the decapitation, with some boobs and a smidgen of sex. Like many of these kinds of Spanish movies in the 70's, the atmospheric village setting features sinister behavior, motivations behind violent acts resulting from greed, not to mention Serge's plans to sell the Count's villa aren't popular. Naschy has some amusing scenes, peeping on Nadia, allowed to grope her, but scolding himself for "betraying" his other girls(..dead women whose tombs he carried to a secret passageway hidden within the villa!). He's quite an unpleasant site, the romanticism his characters often relate to in his El Hombre Lobo series removed..it's too bad there isn't more of him in this particular film.

Michael_Elliott Hanging Woman, The (1973) ** 1/2 (out of 4) This Spanish horror film has been released under countless titles including TERROR OF THE LIVING DEAD, RETURN OF THE ZOMBIES and even Dracula, TERROR OF THE LIVING DEAD even though Dracula isn't even in the film. It's best known as THE HANGING WOMAN and that's the title on Troma's most recent release. In the film, a man (Serge Checkhov) arrives at a small Scotish village to collect an inheritance from his late uncle when he walks through a cemetery and comes across the body of a woman hanging from a tree. This sets off some strange events, which might be coming from a necrophiliac grave robber (Paul Naschy) but black magic and zombies are also included. I had always heard good things about this film and it turned out to be pretty good. There was plenty of bloody killings, sex scenes and wall-to-wall nudity that will certainly keep people glued to the film but there's also some great atmosphere and some nice performances as well. I think this film will work best if you go into it as a murder/mystery because its heart is in that genre with just the horror elements thrown in for market reasons. That's not to say the horror elements are watered down or just thrown in because they mix in with the mystery stuff quite well. We get several bloody killings including a decapitation and an early autopsy sequence that has plenty of organs being pulled out of a body. There are quite a few beautiful actresses willing to part with their clothes and we even get one of the most bizarre sex scenes in any Spanish film I've seen. I found Checkhov to be quite appealing and believable in the lead role. While the film has always been sold as a Naschy film, in truth he has very little to do here, although he certainly milks the role for all it's worth. The atmosphere is extremely thick from start to finish and the nice looking sets certainly add to this. Fans of the genre are going to find plenty to enjoy here even if everything really doesn't add up at the end. This here is certainly much better than Naschy's VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES, which was released around the same time.