Zombie / Zombi 2 (1979)
Gushing over one of the greats in the specific horror sub-genre of zombie movies such as the aptly named film Zombie is almost too easy for me. It would be difficult to find a horror fan that hasn’t seen this film already or at least seen clips of some of it’s more infamous gore scenes. In my opinion this stands with the original Dawn of the Dead as the penultimate Zombie movie. Its continuing popularity today is a testament to its staying power as one of Lucio Fulci's best films.
Zombie begins with a man standing over a bed containing a body tied up and wrapped in sheets. He aims gun and shoots the head as it rises. The gore that ensues is only an small preview of things to come. He then declares "The boat can leave now. Tell the crew". And with that the title cards begin to appear.
Flash forward to New York harbor and a sail boat has floated into the shipping lanes. A police boat is dispatched to investigate the strange vessel and once on board they are attacked by a zombie. The owner of the ship is nowhere to be found but his daughter, Anne Bowles (Tisa Farrow), decides to start investigating the whereabouts of her father. At night, while she is snooping around the boat trying to find some type of clue as to her father's location, Anne runs in into Peter West (Ian McCulloch), a reporter investigating the strange situation. Together they find a note saying that Anne's father is on the island of Matool and that he is afflicted with some type of strange illness. Once out of New York Peter and Anne know they need to find a way to find the island of Matool since it isn’t charted on any map. They enlist the help of a couple, Bryan (Al Cliver) and Susan (Auretta Gay), that are heading out to sea for vacation on a boat they own. The four set out on an adventure to find the island of Matool and solve the mystery of the strange ship and Anne’s missing father. After a few bumps in the road (or ocean as it were), and through a stroke of luck, the group locate the uncharted island. There they meet Dr. Menard (Richard Johnson) who has brought his wife to the island and is researching the strange phenomena of the dead returning to life. Menard is trying to maintain some semblance of reason and scientific logic while impossible phenomena are going on all around him and his wife’s sanity is slowly cracking. The island's native residents claim that the dead are returning because of voodoo, but Menard thinks there must be some type of quantifiable explanation. Will the reason for this strange outbreak be found out? Or will all of the living on Matool become meaty treats for our heat-beat challenged anti-heroes?
The film isn't long, clocking in at a little under an hour and a half, so the action comes pretty fast. The short runtime actually is an advantage of the film because there is no drag like in some horror films. Even the exposition happens so quick that there is never a moment of boredom or pointless character interaction. Since the film is Italian, the actors are dubbed much of the time so the voice syncing may throw some people off who aren’t used to seeing older Italian films. Apparently this was an extremely common practice at the time this film was made to just shoot the film and then redub the voices later for international distribution. So I can't fault the film for that. The casts acting is above average for this type of horror film, with Johnson as Dr. Menard doing a great job as the scientist/skeptic who just can't wrap his head around what is going on. He really exudes fear as well as utter bafflement at his situation. At times his acting may be a little over the top, but at the end of the day his role is part mad scientist, so it fits. Ian McCulloch and Tisa Farrow (Peter and Anne respectively) also play their roles well. They are both searching for answers and the chemistry they create between their characters works very well.
The zombie make-up is top notch here, making the returning dead look more decayed and worm eaten than the blue faced cartoonish zombies of the original Dawn of the Dead. When the zombies return from the dead in this film, they are actually seen rising out of the dirt. It adds an extra touch of authenticity to the proceedings since the audience can see the dead actually rising from the grave and not just showing up. The gore effects are really great in the film as well. Giannetto De Rossi and Maurizio Trani are credited as the make-up artists on this film and it is apparent that they really gave care to making sure anything that was meant to shock and disgust does so. They would go on to work with Fulci on some of his other gore soaked films with both contributing their craft to The Beyond and House by the Cemetery, and Trani even going on to work on The New York Ripper and Manhattan Baby. Zombie, though, can arguably be considered their crowning collaboration with Fulci. Throughout Zombie's length, there are copious amounts of throat ripping and appendage biting where the red stuff flows very liberally during each scene of carnage. One scene in particular in which a character has her eye impaled on a giant wood splinter is stomach churning and needs to be seen. Not one death occurs without some type of torturous trauma occurring.
Another great aspect of the film is the tropical location. Once the group reaches the island it is very obvious Fulci had the film shot on location in the tropics. The palm trees and serene sandy beaches do a great job of contrasting the utter horror of what is happening on the island. The film doesn't feel like it is using sets at all, but real world locations throughout its run time, and that in and of itself is a testament to the production team. The masterfully shot dilapidated Matool mission hospital and the palm forests of the island just add extra authenticity to the film and elevate it's production quality over many other horror films of that era.
There is a serious nitpick I have with the underwater zombie vs. shark fight scene in the film. The zombie's makeup in this scene stops at the edges of its face and the difference where the make-up isn't is very clear. Also, the editing has cuts where the zombie loses his arm before the shark actually bites it off. The arm is gone, then reappears, then is gone again, then reappears. I don't know if this was due to lack of footage for the scene or if the editor got lazy or messed up. I might have noticed these issues more as well because I was watching a bluray on a larger television than I had years ago and the detail was very crisp. Either way, that one scene is a minor gripe with an otherwise great film.
Zombie is a film that needs to be seen as it is a great time capsule of how films used to be made. There are no fancy CGI blood sprays or computer generated zombie hordes. Everything in the movie was physically shot on location in a tropical island. Fulci may not be remembered with the likes of Steven Spielberg or James Cameron, but what they did for Scifi films Fulci has done for the Zombie film. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. He deftly weaves great gore effects and fast paced plotting to tell a story of hopelessness and survival in a tropical paradise. Fulci was at his best when he dabbled in horror genre, and Zombie is his crowning achievement in that arena.
I can't recommend the film Zombie enough to people. It's a great film. And I know many people will scoff and say "it's just another zombie movie", but this was a zombie movie before zombies were mainstream and "hip". Zombie is a movie that will make you want to re-watch other zombie movies because it is so much fun. Fulci created something special with this film, and if you haven’t seen it, check it out as soon as possible. You won’t be disappointed…or too hungry afterwards.
