The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue
After an agricultural machine using ultrasonic radiation appears to revive the dead, a drifter and a young woman are drawn into a spreading wave of attacks in the English countryside. The film blends ecological anxiety, countercultural tension and zombie horror.
Film details
| Original / alt title | Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti; Let Sleeping Corpses Lie; The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue |
| Year | 1974 |
| Director | Jorge Grau |
| Country | Spain / Italy |
| Runtime | Approx. 95 min |
| Main cast | Cristina Galbó, Ray Lovelock, Arthur Kennedy |
UK status
Appeared on the DPP list but was later dropped.
Passed 18 uncut.
Why it caused controversy
UK censorship / Video Nasties history
A quick status check first, followed by the film’s censorship timeline. A DPP prosecution was an obscenity case against a particular video publication — it was not automatically the same thing as a permanent nationwide “ban”.
Detailed censorship timeline & facts
FACTS & TRIVIA
- Also known as Let Sleeping Corpses Lie and Breakfast at the Manchester Morgue.
- Directed by Jorge Grau, a Spanish filmmaker working in an international co-production context.
- The rural English setting gives it a distinctive look compared with urban zombie films.
- Its ecological theme predates many later 'nature strikes back' horror narratives.
- Arthur Kennedy appears as the stubborn police inspector.
- The artwork you supplied is a later illustrated cover design rather than the original 1974 poster.
- It has been critically reappraised far beyond its old cult-video identity.
Distributor / VHS label
Archive cover shown is the user-supplied scan. UK distributor / VHS-label attribution varies by edition and is not asserted here without a verified sleeve imprint.
Trailer
Open a search for the original theatrical / VHS-era trailer. This keeps the archive linking to publicly available trailer sources rather than hosting copyrighted film footage.
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