ZEDER

A writer discovers, thanks to the used ribbon of a typewriter, some strange information about the "K lands". The man immediately becomes passionate about this mystery and begins his research, which will lead him to discover the existence of a particular type of soil in which those who are buried there return to life… A well-deserved praise goes first to 20th Century Fox, which after the excellent re-release of "The House with Windows that Laugh" gives us another gem by bringing back into catalog the second horror film of Avati's trilogy, "Zeder", for years unavailable and now finally available on DVD and VHS in an excellent audio and video transfer. It is an excellent film directed by a director who, in his unfortunately rare forays into horror, has always known how to leave an important mark of his passage. Excellent as always is the protagonist Gabriele Lavia, already interpreter of other masterpieces of the genre such as "Deep Red". "Zeder" is yet another proof of Avati's macabre talent: what could have been resolved into a banal story of zombies transforms, under the skillful guidance of the Bolognese master, into a fascinating gothic film that seeks fear in the darkest corners and in the atavistic fears of the human soul. As for his previous cult film, Avati once again chooses a sui generis setting, almost "unsuited" for a horror film, such as the Romagna Riviera. But thanks to his talent and his deep sense of the gothic and the macabre, the director manages to transform even the sunny coast of Rimini into a place rich in mysteries and unspeakable secrets. Overall, therefore, a nearly perfect film: an excellent screenplay (written, as already happened for "The House with Windows that Laugh," by the director himself with the collaboration of his brother-producer Antonio and Maurizio Castano), an unsettling and obsessive musical theme (composed by Riz Ortolani), suggestive sets and, above all, truly masterful direction. Curiosity: the starting point for the film's idea was given to Avati by a first-hand experience: at that time, in fact, the director had bought a used electric typewriter, trying to change its ribbon, discovered, just like the writer-protagonist of the film, that words written by the previous owner were still imprinted on it! Lastly, it is worth noting how the subject, with the story of the lands that bring back to life those who are buried there, reminds too closely of the one that Stephen King will propose to his readers a few years later in "Pet Sematary"; but Avati himself, in a recent interview with us, stated that he considers it a pure coincidence, not thinking at all that King had become aware of his film before writing "Pet Sematary".