Zombie

Zombie (1980)

Directed by: Lucio Fulci
Written by: Elisa Briganti
Starring: Ian McCulloch, Tisa Farrow, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver, Auretta Gay, Stefania D'Amario, Olga Karlatos, Ugo Bologna (!), Lucio Fulci

In Italy, this film was known as Zombi 2, being a sort of unofficial sequel to Romero's Dawn of the Dead (released as Zombi in Italy), though it almost feels more like a prequel. I put the American title in there because I'm like that, but according to my favourite website, the official title is Zombi 2. It's also known as Zombie Flesh Eaters in Britain and Yüzde 99 ölüm in Turkey. That clears that up. I guess.

The movie is about a young woman (played by Mia Farrow's younger sister, Tisa) and some other people who are looking for her father. As it turns out, he died on this tropical island which is slowly being taking over by the walking dead (oh no!). All of this apparently has something to do with voodoo (which now has something to do with the Catholic church). I guess there's a voodoo guy on the other side of the island turning good people into flesh eating monsters. I don't know what the point of that was.

It was sort of trying to mix voodoo zombies with flesh eating, Romero style ghouls (they're called 'ghouls' in the original Night of the Living Dead. I think that's cool (you do realize I could have used a hideously bad joke there)). That doesn't really work too well, but who cares, there's plenty of gore.

It was not, strictly speaking, a good movie. It was not a good movie loosely speaking. It was frigging stupid and disgusting, but I liked it. I'm sorry, I like zombie movies (like the population at large - they're in this year. Probably because, in this television addicted age, they are the monster we can most identify with. They're us. We haven't changed at all since Dawn of the Dead. Hordes of the shuffling living, with their vacant expressions and slow movements, are crowding our streets. The military is turning video game drones into fighting zombies to send overseas. Doom! Doom! Doom!).

Yes, I enjoyed it. It was entertaining. And really disgusting. I mean really gross. That eyeball skewering scene was unbelievably nasty. And some of the people munching bits were pretty damn graphic. But I can't help but like that awful '80s feel, the spurting blood, the relentless synth soundtrack, the painfully mediocre acting, the pointless nudity and unrelated shark attack (the shark does battle with a sea zombie, thus saving the topless diver. Cool). It was great.

But seriously though. It was moronic. I'm pretty sure it was shot half in English and half in Italian and then dubbed over. It sounds as though the whole thing was dubbed in English, but some people are really obviously speaking Italian. I could see their lips move.

The end was remarkably like that of 28 Weeks Later, I thought - the two surviving characters are just escaping Zombie Island (which would be a cool idea for a reality show - it would be like Survivor except instead of being voted off the island, contested would be devoured by the walking dead, kept on the other side of the island by a big, industrial, Kong sized fence) via boat when they turn on the radio and hear news of the zombies invading New York. Cut to a shot of zombies walking down the Brooklyn Bridge. That might have been lifted from something else, but I haven't seen it yet. It's a good ending.

Oh yeah. Spoiler warning.

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