Zombie

Zombie

Genre: Zombie, Horror

Original title: Zombi 2

AKA: Zombie Flesh Eaters

Director: Lucio Fulci

Year: 1979

Strangers looking for a woman's father arrive at a tropical island where a doctor desperately searches for the cause and cure of a recent epidemic of the undead.

Zombie, known as Zombi 2 in Italy isn't a sequel to anything. When George Romero's classic Dawn Of The Dead was released in Italy simply as Zombi, the Italians decided they'd name a new film that was being produced, Zombi 2, this to fool people into believing it was a sequel to Romero's smash hit. With this in mind it would be easy to assume that this is some kind of cheap nasty knock off but thankfully this is the complete opposite.

Directed by one of Italian Horror's most bankable names, Lucio Fulci begins this film in New York City where an abandoned sail boat is found floating by police after it nearly collides with other passing boats. They climb on to investigate only to find a Zombie on board who uses them for lunch. It is a fantastic intro with some expertly shot cinematography from Sergio Salvati who shot so many of Fulci's best known horror pictures.

A reporter & a women who is looking for her father travel to the tropical island where the boat had came from to investigate what exactly is going on & the film begins to unfold. On their way there we get the infamous underwater zombie vs shark scene where a women goes for a dive only to find a shark coming after her, she hides down in the seabed only to be grabbed by a Zombie! As she escapes the Zombie arrises and attacks the shark. It's bizarre as hell, yet somehow strangely effective with its well delivered make-up effects from Giannetto De Rossi & then the eerie score which dominates the picture by Fabio Frizzi. It really is one of horrors great scores.

When we reach the island the picture really does benefit from its slow pace, instead of hitting you over the head with thrills & kills it hangs about & sucks you into the films atmospheric tendencies which stem largely from the islands abandonment. Around the half way mark we get one of the most talked about kill scenes in the history of horror movies, THAT eyeball scene. It is beautifully staged with a slow build up & a brutal conclusion which will creep the shit out of anybody who has a problem with eyeball trauma. From here on in you know that the film won't be pulling any punches.

Eventually the inevitable happens & the dead all rise from their burial grounds & the film climaxes with the remaining humans of the island trying to escape whilst being outnumbered by the walking dead. It is a thrilling & action packed final 15 minutes with Zombies being blown to pieces & burnt alive. The films final scene of a huge pack of Zombies walking across the Brooklyn bridge as the credits roll is such a fantastic finish to a really atmospheric ride from start to finish.

For me personally, the zombies in this picture are the best looking & most intimidating zombies that I've ever seen, yes even more-so than Romero's breed of zombie. Whilst Night Of The Living Dead & Dawn Of The Dead remain my two favourite Zombie pictures this quite wonderful effort from Lucio Fulci I'd rate only slightly behind the pair. Considering how many Zombie films there has been made over the year this is quite some achievement. Zombie remains one of Fulci's greatest moments and one as far as Italian horror goes, this is top tier material.

Rating: ★★★★

Giannetto De Rossi's wonderful make-up effects, one of the films many highlights