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

Murder Rock

Murder Rock

Genre: Giallo, Slasher

original title: Murderock - Uccide a passo di danza

AKA: Murder Rock: Dancing Death

Director: lucio Fulci

Year: 1984

The owner of a prestigious New York ballet school teams up with a male model to solve a series of bizarre murders of a few of the students

I'm not the worlds greatest Lucio Fulci fan to start with, most of his 'golden period' is a bit take it or leave it with me so I had little expectations for one of his films from as late as '84, however, It turned out to be better than I'd imagined. 

Given the success of Flashdance the year before in typical Italian style they decided to base the plot around a dance school. As you can imagine, the dance scenes are pure cheese with a soundtrack to match it's eightiesness. Also despite being often called a Giallo I'd argue that this sits more comfortably in the slasher genre as the influence of the American films of the time really shows here.

For a fulci film the violence was surprisingly tame. The kills, whilst shot well, barely showed any gore & were always over quickly. Something I cannot deny about Fulci's films are his unique visual style which I have to admire. Here we are treated to a really trippy dream sequence which is the films best shot sequence. 

The first third of the film is pretty entertaining, unfortunately it loses steam shortly after & kind of just fizzles out with a not very believable reveal towards the end. It's not the atrocity I was expecting, quite enjoyable at times yet too many problems throughout really prevent the film from being the entertaining flick that it perhaps should of been.

Rating: ★★½

One sweaty workout.

The New York Ripper

The New York Ripper

Genre: Horror, Exploitation

Original title: Lo squartatore di New York

Director: Lucio Fulci

Year: 1982

A burned-out New York police detective teams up with a college psychoanalyst to track down a vicious serial killer randomly stalking and killing various young women around the city.

By the early 80's the Giallo as most people remember it wasn't really being made anymore, they had with time, grown new influences and morphed into other genres. The New York Ripper is one of those kind of films. Mixing the slasher with the Euro-crime thriller with a huge amount of exploitation with a handful of Gialli elements. 

Now first of all let me come out straight, I'm not the worlds biggest fan of Lucio Fulci. His films tend to not sit well with me & this, for the most part, this is no exception. You have some really sleazy scenes, mostly of a sexual manor including a women being toe-raped whilst in a bar! Looking back it comes as little surprise that this was one of the films put into the video nasty list by the BPI. Infact the UK censor ordered all prints to be escorted to the airport and deported from the country, so you could say this film was somewhat controversial!

Somewhere in here there's a pretty nasty & mean spirited serial killer film, but then the baffling choice to have the killer talk like Donald Duck (even during the kills!) really becomes irritating and completely removed me from the picture. Also there is too much time spent on police procedure instead of delivering the goods.

This is one of the big infamous films of Italian cinema & one which many people love, it doesn't get anywhere near that level for me. I find it nothing more than a slightly better than average sleazy romp then there's nothing wrong with that.

★★½

The Sweet House Of Horrors

The Sweet House of Horrors

Original Title: La dolce casa degli orrori

Genre: Supernatural Horror

Director: Lucio Fulci

Year: 1989

A murdered couple return from the beyond to care for their two young children, as well as seek revenge against their killer, accept their children's step parents, and try to prevent their house from being sold.

I am not the worlds biggest Lucio Fulci fan at the best of times, so the prospect of a made for T.V film made near the end of his career didn't fill me with much hope. I should of trusted my own instincts as The Sweet House Of Horrors is absolutely atrocious. 

It starts off with a pretty brutal murder of two parents with poor special effects to boot, eyeballs are stabbed & blood pours out. This scene is backed up by a score which I can only describe as the sort you'd find on a Sega Mega Drive shoot 'em up. Tonally this is completely different to the rest of the film which plays out as a supernatural affair seen through the eyes of children. After this the shit really hits the fan. We are introduced to the now parentless children who in typical Italian style are fucking useless. To make matters worse, they are dubbed by adults which make them even more annoying. Every time someone tries to get in the way something will happen such as a step moving or some weird lights, that about as exciting as things get, the rest of the cast are pretty much as shoddy as the child actors too. Having a supernatural horror where the supernatural element is to protect children produces zero tension as there is never any real threat on screen.

To it's credit, it is pretty lean with its 80 minute running time & despite being terrible in almost every way, it doesn't seem to drag too much. That though, is about the only positive I can think of to describe this godawful Fulci flick.

Rating: ★

Like Charmed, but worse.