Hell of the Living Dead (1980)
Commandos and a reporter and camera man must work together to survive a zombie apocalypse started in a chemical plant in New Guinea.
Genre
Characters/Groups
Lia Rousseau - Margit Evelyn Newton
Lt. Mike London - Robert O'Neil
Technician Lawson - Sergio Pislar
Technician Fowler - Bernard Seray
Josie's Husband - Pep Ballenster
Professor Barrett - Joaquin Blanco
Mr. Faray - Gennarino Papagalli
SWAT Leader - Antonio Molino Rojo
Terrorist Leader - Tito Lucchetti
SWAT Officer 2 - Claudio Fragasso
Character thumbnails with links to profiles
Detailed Synopsis
At the Hope Center in Papua New Guinea, Professor Barrett tells Technician Fowler to run a module check on sectors 5 and 6. Technician Lawson and Technician Vince are checking for leaking radioactivity in module Antares. Lawson and Vince get a high reading of leakage near a terminal and find what appears to be a dead rat. The rat comes alive and attacks and kills Vince and as Vince falls down, he causes a rupture in the machinery releasing a cloud of gas. An alert goes off and Lawson runs to the control room. Professor Barrett tells all personnel to report to module Antares after none of the fail safe measures work when tried by Fowler and Lawson. Barrett and Fowler go to the location of the leak and after Barrett finds a safety hood on the ground, Fowler is attacked and bitten in the shoulder by Vince. Barrett walks away and comes face to face with a group of dead technicians now Operation Sweet Death Zombies. He goes to his office and records a message that Operation Sweet Death is a failure and asks for forgiveness for the evil he has created.
At a United States Consulate in Spain, a hostage situation is occurring as SWAT Leader, SWAT Officer 1 and SWAT Officer 2 look on. A Reporter asks the police who the terrorists are, and the cops tell him to keep his head down. Lt. Mike London, Vincent, Zantoro and Osborne are getting prepared to raid the consulate. London then tells the team their next mission is on the island of New Guinea. The Terrorist Leader receives a phone call and threatens to shoot all of the hostages if the Hope Centers are not all shut down. A television is brought inside of the room. London and his team then make their way into the consulate and the Reporter asks a policeman who they are. A Newscaster tells the audience of the hostage situation. A SWAT officer tells SWAT Leader that London is calling him and SWAT Leader tells him to fire tear gas into the building. The Newscaster then shows the audience a live feed of the hostage situation. The Terrorist Leader tells the hostages the Hope Centers are all murderers and before he can start killing the hostages, London and his team break into the room and kill the Terrorist Leader and the other terrorists. Before dying the Terrorist Leader says that everyone is doomed to a terrible death to be eaten by others.
London and his team land in a graveyard 20 miles east of Goroka, Papua New Guinea. London calls headquarters asking for further instructions, but receives no response. They arrive in a housing project in a stolen jeep. Lia Rousseau, Max, Josie, Josie's Husband and their child are also in the housing project in Lia and Max's Land Rover. Josie's Husband blames her for their son being bitten. Lia tells Josie's Husband to settle down and he accuses her of chasing fame by bringing violence and bloodshed to her viewers. Lia and Max get out to look for water and Josie gets out of the vehicle to get some air. Josie goes into a church and finds a Zombie Priest in the building which attacks her. Josie and Josie's Husband's son wakes up after dying and attacks Josie's Husband. As Lia is getting water from a pool, an Operation Sweet Death Zombie jumps out of the water. Josie stumbles to the vehicle covered in blood and screams for help. Lia and Max see a group of Zombies walking their way. London uses binoculars to look at the village and decides to investigate to see if there are any people. London and his team arrive in the village as Lia and Max run to them and ask for help. London sends Zantoro and Osborne to investigate and Max starts to vomit when he looks inside the vehicle and sees Josie's Husband eaten by his son. Zantoro and Osborne see a Zombie and they shoot it. London pulls out the boy from the vehicle and it starts to attack him. Lia goes looking for Josie and comes across the Zombie Priest after finding Josie dead. Zantoro runs out and shoots the Zombie boy in the head and tells London you have to shoot the zombies in the head. The Zombie Priest attacks Lia, but she is saved by London and his team and Zantoro shoots it in the head.
The Newscaster tells the audience about reports of cannibalism. Mr. Faray is told that Anthony is waiting for him and he is then shown a video sent by Lia. Mr. Faray then says the Hope Centers must be working on something close to genocide like the rumors suggest. Vincent tells London the best way to the river is to go through a nearby local village and London tells him they should ditch Lia and Max at the village. They arrive outside of the village and stop when they hear drumbeats. Lia tells London and his team that she should go first and alone to meet the villagers and she gets naked and paints her face and body. She then goes into the village and tells the team to wait an hour. Lia watches as a burial ceremony happens. A medicine man shakes a brush at Lia and then hands her his ceremonial helmet. London and his team along with Max, drive into the village. Lia tells London the whole village is contaminated with many dead and the village believes they are there to help them. Max records as a villager eats maggots from a dead body. London, Zantoro, Osborne, Lia and Max then watch a celebration put on by the village. Lia goes to talk with Vincent, who is guarding the vehicles. She tells him she wishes she knew what is happening and wonders if it is connected to why Vincent and his team are there. Suddenly a body rises and attacks them and a large group of dead start to rise. As Zantoro is kissing a woman, a Zombie bites her and Zantoro shoots it in the head. London tells everyone to get to the jeep and the village is attacked by the Zombies. London and his team and Lia and Max then drive out of the village. Vincent tells London, Lia suspects why the team were sent to the island and London tells him they need to ditch them. The jeep breaks down and London tells his men to move their gear to Lia and Max's Land Rover and then tells Lia and Max to get their stuff out of it. Max refuses and when he swings at London, London knocks him to the ground. Lia steals London's gun and accuses him and his team of trying to pull a cover up of what is happening. London manages to grab his gun back and Vincent suggests they dump Lia and Max at the first village.
At night, Vincent tells Lia she will have to put her cigarette out and offers her chewing tobacco. He then asks her not to hold his job against him. London catches Vincent flirting with Lia and punches him for not paying attention while on guard duty. London and Zantoro go to see if they can find any water while the others wait. They come across Operation Sweet Death Zombies and they run back and tell the others a large group is coming towards them. Max takes his camera and runs towards the Zombies and Lia runs to him to try and convince him to come back. Vincent and London then runs towards Lia and Max and start shooting at the Zombies. Osborne tells Zantoro he thinks Zantoro is afraid of the Zombies and Zantoro runs in front of the Zombies and reminds London and Vincent they have to shoot them in the head. London then knocks Max unconscious and drags him back to the vehicle. Zantoro toys with the Zombies and then runs back to the vehicle. At a United Nations Security meeting, the Papua New Guinea UN Envoy accuses the western nations of destroying his people. He then tells the council that mothers are being eaten by their sons. London, his team, Lia and Max go inside of a house to check it out. London tells Osborne to look in the cellar, while Vincent and Zentaro search the ground floor and he looks in the top floor. Osborne finds a closet full of clothes and puts on a tiny dress over his shoulders. London enters a room and finds the body of an old woman. The dead woman's eyes open and she attacks London. Osborne is suddenly surrounded by Zombies and is attacked and eaten. Zantoro, Vincent and Max find Osborne being eaten and Lia is grabbed by Zombies as she rests against a wall. London saves Lia and Max holds the door to the cellar closed as the Zombies try to break into the house from the cellar. Zantoro lights a torch and toys with the Zombies while, London, Vincent, Lia and Max get into their vehicle. Zantoro lights a Zombie on fire and then gets into the vehicle and they drive away.
As they are driving, Zantoro turns his hat around like Osborne used to do in respect and then turns it back around. They make it to the river and get into an inflatable boat. They make it to the Hope Center, but find it abandoned. Zantoro and Max go to look for a freight elevator and when they find it, Max goes back to get the others. The freight elevator opens and Max is pulled inside and eaten by Zombies. The Zombies then grab Zantoro and kill and eat him. A Zombie jumps on London and bites him in the neck. London, Vincent and Lia continue on and London listens to the recording made by Professor Barrett. Vincent and Lia walk away and Lia figures out what the Hope Centers are meant to for, chemical research facilities tasked with figuring out a solution to the overpopulation of the world, specifically the Third World. A group of Zombies, including London and Zantoro then surround Vincent and Lia and kill them. A Coroner on TV tells the audience he was examining a cadaver when it opened its eyes. Man in Bar tells Woman in Bar that the Coroner on TV is telling a bunch of science fiction and they leave the bar. The Woman in Bar goes to ask a man for a light for her cigarette and he turns out to be dead. A group of Zombies surround the Woman in Bar and begin to eat her and another group surrounds the Man in Bar and attacks and eats him.