Zombie
Posted February 25th, 2005 by GreenDemon | Zombie asin: B0002C9DK4 |
This Lucio Fulci film was made as an unofficial sequel of sorts to George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Dawn of the Dead was titled simply Zombi overseas where Fulci's Zombie was known as Zombi 2 or Zombie Flesh Eaters or at least 4 other different titles. A number of Fulci's films boast too many different titles outside of North America but that's fine with me once I figure out what it's called in the west.
The story begins with an unmanned boat floating into New York City. The Coast Guard boards and looks for any members of the vessel's crew. What they find is a severed hand and a fat zombie who kills the unlucky fella who finds him below the deck. Fatty makes his way to the deck and receives a few bullets for his undesirable presence and falls into the water.
A local paper gets wind of this myserious boat and wants the scoop on it's arrival. Peter West is on the job. When he goes to the guarded boat at night he runs into a woman, Ann Bowles. She claims her father owned the boat and was across the Atlantic last she knew. Before being ousted from the boat by the cop guarding it, Mr. West and Miss Bowles find a letter from her father. It states that Ann's father was on an Island and had contracted some kind of disease. So off to find the island go Peter and Ann.
Once they cross the ocean our protagonists need a boat to reach the small island of Mattool. Luck finds them when they discover two other Americans in the area, Susan and Brian, with a boat, who would be willing to give them a ride. On their way to the island we are treated to an amazing scene where Susan goes topless scuba diving for pictures. But that's not the amazing part, while underwater she encounters a shark and then a zombie. Susan makes it back onto the boat and then the shark and the zombie have an underwater battle. The zombie takes a nice chunk or two out of the shark! I wonder how they filmed that scene, it was magnificent.
Once on the island the crew of the boat meet Dr. Menard who works at the dilapidated, filthy, excuse for a hospital. The Doc tells them he knew Ann's father and treated him, until he turned into a zombie and then Menard "took care of him" just like he did to the other patients with that same disease. Menard states that the local natives say Voodoo is behind the malady but Menard will have none of that non-scientific answer. Dr. Menard then asks the group if they will go check on his wife at the other end of the island. When the group get there they find Mrs. Menard being dinner for some flesh eating zombies. Now the dead start to rise from their shallow graves as the sick patients die and return to life. Zombies are taking over the island. This culminates in a showdown between the living and the dead.
Fulci gives us some exquisite gore scenes in this movie. The zombies are very decayed and dirty looking, giving the viewer a vivid image of the island's living dead in all their splendor. They truly are disgusting, which is one of the great things about this movie. The story itself is a little slow and boring at times but it is rescued by the great gore and effects. Considering this movie was banned in Finland and Norway you should get a fairly good idea of what kind of gore is in store.
Overall I enjoyed this movie. As I mentioned some parts were boring but not enough to actually detract from the value of the movie. It's just not an action filled movie. But there is ample amounts of conflict between the living and the dead. If you are a fan of foreign horror or zombies I'd highly recommend this one. If you are not a fan of that sort then you may want to skip this one. But it can't hurt to check it out anyway.
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