Zombie Flesh Eaters (AKA Zombi 2)

Dir: Lucio Fulci

1979

*****

Before watching Lucio Fulci’s horror masterpiece you have to try and get your head round what it is, what it is a part of and where it fits. The easy answer is that it is it’s own film. It has been referred to as Zombi, Zombi 2 and Zombie Flesh Eaters – as well as many other titles but essentially it is Zombie Flesh Eaters, at least that’s my opinion. So on initial release it was known as Zombi 2 as it served as a sequel to Zombi, a re-edited Italian release of George A. Romero's 1978 film Dawn of the Dead. Zombi had been edited by Dario Argento and given a new score by the Italian band Goblin, and proved successful upon its release in Italy. As Italian copyright law allows any film to be marketed as a sequel to another work, the film was quickly greenlit and financed by producer Fabrizio De Angelis, even though it had nothing to do Romero’s original film. Director Enzo G. Castellari (famous for his poliziotteschi films and spaghetti westerns) was offered to direct Zombi 2, but turned it down as he did not feel he would be the right director for a horror film. Director Lucio Fulci (famous for horrors such as Don't Torture a Duckling) was De Angelis' second choice for the project, and was hired based on his handling of violent scenes in his previous films. Screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti had already worked with Fulci on The Psychic. Sacchetti has since stated that his initial script for Zombi 2 - originally written under the title Nightmare Island -had been influenced by The Island of Doctor Moreau and had been intended to return to "classic zombie tales" such as I Walked with a Zombie, The Walking Dead or Voodoo Island. Sacchetti began work on this script in July 1978, before it was optioned by Angelis' company Variety Films that December and re-tooled as Zombi 2. It became infamous as being one of the 1980’s ‘Video nasties’ as named by the British media after the British Board of Film Classification branded it evil and promptly banned it. It didn’t take too long before people realised that it was a horror masterpiece. It really isn’t a sequel, much like Romario’s zombie films aren’t, but it really has no connection to Dawn of the Dead. I personally believe that Dawn of the Dead is the greatest zombie film of all time but Zombie Flesh Eaters, or Zombi 2, (whatever you want to call it), is great and at the very least, it brought us one of the greatest moments in horror of all time: Zombie vs Shark. What an incredible idea. Zombies were popular at the time and thanks to Kaws, so were sharks, and without any doubts at all it was written into the script. This ‘nothing is impossible’ attitude was remarkable and went a long way in making up for the fact they pretty much cashed in on other people’s ideas. It starts beautifully as we see an abandoned sailboat drift into New York Harbor. It is soon boarded by harbor patrol officers and one is killed by a zombie, which falls overboard after being shot by another officer. The police question the boat owner's daughter, Anne Bowles (Tisa Farrow), who claims she hasn't seen her father for months. At the morgue, the officer's corpse stirs. Anne meets journalist Peter West (Ian McCulloch), and the pair follows her father's trail to the Caribbean island Matul. En route, they befriend Brian Hull (Al Cliver) and Susan Barrett (Auretta Gay), who are sailing around the area and agree to take them to Matul. On Matul, Dr. David Menard (Richard Johnson) has been running the hospital whilst researching voodoo rites. His wife Paola (Olga Karlatos) wishes to leave the island, but Menard insists on staying until he understands the phenomenon. At the hospital, patients are dying of a strange illness, and the islanders are frightened by reports of people rising from the dead. Menard begins shooting corpses to stop them from reanimating. Paola is attacked at home by a zombie and dragged out through a smashed door to her death, her eye impaled on splintered wood. On the boat, Susan dives underwater and encounters a tiger shark. Taking shelter behind a reef, she is attacked by an underwater zombie. She escapes as the shark and the zombie attack each other. Brian shoots at the shark, and the shark rams the boat, damaging it. Eventually, the group arrives at Matul, firing distress flares to request assistance. Menard goes to meet them, leaving his nurse (Stefania D'Amario) to supervise the mass burial of dead patients. He tells Anne that her father is dead - a victim of the troubles on the island - and asks the group to check on Paola. They are horrified to discover her corpse being devoured by zombies. The four escape in Menard's jeep, but the vehicle crashes when Brian swerves to avoid another pesky zombie, and in the process injures Peter's ankle. Making their way back to the hospital on foot, the group stops at a clearing which is actually a Conquistador graveyard. Anne and Peter are attacked by corpses rising from the earth. Brian rescues them, but Susan is killed after a zombie bites into her throat. The trio returns to the hospital, resolving to defend themselves against the zombie horde. Setting up barricades and making improvised weapons, they battle the zombies, but Menard is killed. The patients reanimate inside the hospital, killing the staff, as the zombies breach the defenses. Peter, Anne, and Brian escape as the hospital is consumed by fire. Brian is attacked by a zombified Susan, whom Peter shoots before the three make it back to the boat and leave the island. At sea, Brian dies. Anne and Peter lock his body in a cabin as proof of what has happened on Matul. His reanimated corpse begins banging on the door, as Peter and Anne listen to a radio report that the New York Harbor incident has escalated into an epidemic: as zombies advance on the Brooklyn Bridge, the entire city it seems is under attack. So much went into the film, it’s still sad that people think that it is largely just a rip off. I love how they went back to the roots of the zombie legend too, as all the zombies in this film were modeled to resemble the original voodoo legends of the walking dead from Hatian and Caribbean legends of people after being supposedly reanimated from being dead. In contrast to the zombies in George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, and other zombie films, nearly all of these zombies walk with their heads down, their eyes closed, and with their arms always at their sides. Only three zombies featured had their eyes open. The film is both traditional and inventive and I have much respect for Fulci for that as he really could have just made a cheap horror that entirely cashed in on the name and hype.