“Let Sleeping Corpses Lie” / 「悪魔の墓場」, Original Japanese Movie Poster 1975, B2 Size (51 × 73 cm) I358
Sale price$125.00
This is an original Japanese B2 theatrical poster printed for the 1975 Japanese release of Let Sleeping Corpses Lie / 「悪魔の墓場」, Jorge Grau’s atmospheric Spanish-Italian zombie horror film.
Also released internationally as The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue and The Living Dead, the film combines rural Gothic horror, ecological anxiety, graphic violence, and the social tensions of 1970s Britain.
The Japanese title, Akuma no Hakaba / 「悪魔の墓場」, translates as “The Devil’s Graveyard.”
Film background
The story follows George, an antique dealer travelling through the English countryside, and Edna, a young woman whose car accidentally damages his motorcycle.
Their journey brings them close to an experimental agricultural machine designed to eliminate insects through ultrasonic radiation. The technology has an unforeseen effect: it reactivates the nervous systems of recently deceased human beings.
As corpses begin rising from their graves and attacking the living, George and Edna become trapped between the growing undead threat and an authoritarian police inspector who refuses to believe their account.
Convinced that the pair are responsible for a series of brutal murders, the inspector pursues them while the contamination spreads through the surrounding countryside and into a local hospital.
The film was directed by Jorge Grau, from a screenplay by Sandro Continenza and Marcello Coscia, with music composed by Giuliano Sorgini.
The principal cast includes:
Ray Lovelock Cristina Galbó Arthur Kennedy Aldo Massasso Jeannine Mestre
The film is particularly admired for its bleak rural atmosphere, unsettling sound design, ecological premise, and graphic practical effects. Its combination of Romero-inspired zombie horror with European political and environmental concerns has secured its reputation as a major cult title.
Poster design
This forceful Japanese campaign poster uses a dense collage of blood, grasping hands, terrified faces, and decomposing bodies.
The upper image shows a distressed woman leaning backwards as an enormous blackened hand reaches towards her. A second decayed hand presses across her body, creating an immediate sense of physical violation and entrapment.
The deliberately coarse photographic texture and brown, red, and black palette give the image the appearance of degraded crime-scene evidence or an underground horror publication.
Along the lower edge, smaller photographic panels show the principal characters and several of the film’s gruesome undead encounters. George and Edna appear together at the centre, surrounded by bloodied corpses and isolated figures emerging from darkness.
The enormous red vertical title reads:
「悪魔の墓場」
Translated:
“The Devil’s Graveyard.”
The English title appears above the lower montage:
“LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE”
The yellow-and-black badge at upper right reads:
「“はらわた”“いけにえ”に続く 悪魔シリーズ第3弾」
Translated:
“Following ‘Guts’ and ‘Sacrifice’—the third entry in the Devil Series.”
This identifies the film as part of Nippon Herald’s sensationally branded Japanese horror campaign.
“They want to tear out your entrails and devour them! They want to rip away your scabs and drink your fresh blood! Casting aside their heavy gravestones, the dead rise together from the cold earth!”
The lower-left credits identify the film as a colour feature and list the principal cast, director Jorge Grau, composer Giuliano Sorgini, and Japanese distributor Nippon Herald Films.
The result is an exceptionally vivid example of 1970s Japanese horror advertising, using extreme copy and graphic imagery to present the film as a visceral exploitation spectacle.
Condition
Very Good+ condition. The poster retains strong red, brown, black, and white tones, clear photographic detail, and very good overall display impact.
There are visible horizontal fold lines, light creasing, surface wear, and minor edge and corner handling consistent with an original Japanese theatrical poster from this period. These signs do not materially detract from the dramatic central composition.
Reference: I358.
Please review the photograph carefully, as it shows the exact poster for sale.
This is an original Japanese theatrical poster from the film’s 1975 Japanese release campaign, not a reproduction or reprint.
