Zombies unter Kannibalen

Dr. Obrero (Dan O' Brien) is experimenting on corpses on a remote Island. Well, an expedition team (which includes Zombi 2's Ian McCulloch) ends up on the island-and runs into the Docotor, who has some plans-as well as cannibals and zombies-in store for them.

Titled "Dr Butcher M.D." when it came to video in the 80's, "Zombie Holocaust" is an interesting-and fun-blend of two different kinds of Italian Gore flicks: The Italian Zombie movie, and the Italian Cannibal movie-only without any of the animal torture and mutilation of the later.

The movie has some nice gore (surgical and otherwise-including an awesome motorboat engine to the head death) and nudity to liven things up, as well as a fun score and tons of camp. Also, unlike other Italian gore flicks of the time, the movie features a little intentional humor to go with it ("The patients screaming disturbed me, performed removal of vocal chords"-that line always gets me), which after the downbeat feeling of Fulci's zombie movies, is something of a breath of undead air. It's nice to see an Italian gore flick that doesn't take itself too seriously for a change.

If there is any problem, it's that the zombie aspect feels rather underplayed, as they aren't used for much. Sure, there's that aforementioned death by boat motor, but they don't do a whole lot to threaten the team, as the cannibals are more of a threat. Still, "Zombie Holocaust" is a blast of exploitation that fans of over the top Italian Horror might enjoy. I know I did.

"Zombie Holocaust" has a little bit of charm and an idea of what it's going for, but a lot of (or almost all of it) the atmosphere is sacrificed because of the gore. But even with the gore, "Zombie Holocaust" is a very boring movie with few interesting scenes sprinkled throughout the whole thing and the glorious beauty of Alexandra Delli Colli whose nude scenes are one of the rare moments of joy in this movie. Because of that, I can't give this movie a higher score than 5.5/10! Only the most hardcore fans of B movies and horror movies will find something to like here, others should avoid it...

Another film known by many names (eight, to be precise, that IMDB has been able to track down), Zombi Holocaust is probably best known by American cult-film devotees as Dr. Butcher, MD. I ended up picking this one up because there are a rather large number of crossovers with Lucio Fulci's brilliant splatterfest Zombie-- writer Fabrizio DeAngelis was one of the producers of Fulci's film, male lead Ian McCulloch was the lead in Zombie, character actor Dakkar plays a native guide in both, etc. (Most interesting, one of the film's actors, Walter Patriarca, was Zombie's costume designer. Go figger.)

Simple plot, which should sound familiar to anyone who's seen Fulci's film; a number of deaths occur in New York City, and Ian McCollouch, a beautiful sidekick, and two of their pals end up going to a remote Caribbean island where there's an English-speaking doctor who treats the natives. Sound familiar?

For about the first forty-five minutes of this film, I was too busy thinking that it was exactly like Zombie to be impressed. (No one, these days, is sure which film came out first, and most people also draw parallels to another classic of the genre that came out the same year, Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust.) Then Ian McCollouch disposes of a zombie with a motorboat motor, and suddenly things started getting a whole lot more fun. Rather like The Evil Dead, this is a film where there's a whole lot of setup (though Raimi pulled it off miles better), but when the gore starts, the director lays it on thick, fast, and ugly. And while death-by-propeller is probably the funniest and nastiest scene in the film, there's certainly more than enough blood flowing/spraying/dripping/being drunk/etc. to please most fans of hardcore horror. Pound for pound, though, in comparison to Zombie, the latter stands up as the better film. As one reviewer put it, "Fulci... might have had the sauce, but [he] passed on the cheese." Fulci's obsessive attention to detail, better scriptwriting, and stunning score give Fulci the edge over Girolami. But man, it's fun to be the judge. ***

A splatter classic, Marino Girolami's "Zombi Holocaust" of 1980 doesn't scant with blood and gore. A true B-movie and pure exploitation, this movie is probably not high art, however, I don't suppose that anybody who is about to watch a movie entitled "Zombie Holocaust" is gonna expect Citizen Kane.

After several mutilations of corpses in the morgue of a New York hospital, and the appearance of a mysterious cannibal sign, a group of people, amongst them a beautiful female doctor and a bitchy journalist, decide to go on an expedition to a tropical island, where they expect to find out about the sign's origin. This is, of course, not a very good idea. Not only is the island inhabited by cannibals, but it is also haunted by the living dead.

One of the classic Italian splatter flicks, "Zombi Holocaust", is a fun and entertaining, although not very thrilling movie, that mainly concentrates on the enormous amounts of blood and gore and on constant very graphical violence. The acting in this movie differs. As a huge fan of Spaghetti Westerns, I found it cool to see Donal O'Brien, who delivers a great performance as a mad scientist in this, in a non-western role. The Italian and English title is maybe not the best to describe the movie, since its the Cannibals, and not the Zombies who kill the most people. The German title "Zombies Unter Kannibalen" ("Zombies Amongst Cannibals") is probably better to describe the film's content.

All things considered, "Zombie Holocaust" is a highly entertaining and very bloody Gorefest that fans of the Cannibal subgenre should not miss. Entertainment guaranteed!

I first saw this in the late 80s on a vhs. Revisited it recently. Found the film very shocking then due to the gore but aft revisiting it, found it to be boring cos almost for 34 mins nothing happens. We have lots of nudity by Alexandra Delli Colli, who in her short career is noted for the kinky female from New York Ripper. In this movie, there is nothing new except for the gore. Even the plot is stale - A team of scientists travel to a remote island aft witnessing cannibalism in various city hospitals by immigrants from a particular island. On the island, the team is shocked to come across cannibals n zombies. The make up effects of the zombies is lol. Jus plain human in torn, raggy clothes. Till now, i haven't been able to fathom how can u pierce someone's belly by a bamboo. In this movie, a female falls into a trapping pit laden with pointed sticks but survives.