Zombi VIII: Urban Decay

I sat down to watch the 2021 movie titled "Zombi VIII: Urban Decay", given my interest in all things zombie. Sure, the "Zombi" movie franchise haven't exactly been great, but still, I opted to give it a chance.

And I should have gone with my gut feeling and just left this movie alone. Yeah, "Zombi VIII: Urban Decay" was that bad.

There weren't any properly well-written storyline to be seen in "Zombi VIII: Urban Decay", so I don't really know what writer and director Dustin Ferguson was thinking when he wrote and made this particular movie.

What you get when you sit down to watch the 2021 movie "Zombi VIII: Urban Decay" is a whole lot of nothing. There is no proper storyline, and even worse dialogue. Then there was the dubious and questionable acting, which was just painful to witness. And "Zombi VIII: Urban Decay" contains a whole lot of nothing, virtually nothing - film being wasted on people walking in the wilderness, or sitting in a cab. I feel that I should also mention the audio in "Zombi VIII: Urban Decay", because it was atrocious. I wonder how a sound that bad, which was at times so low you could hardly hear what was being mumbled on the screen, could ever pass through editing. Surely someone must have noticed it and raise a finger.

"Zombi VIII: Urban Decay" is one of the worst zombie movies I have had the misfortune of stumbling upon. And it is definitely a contender for the top 10 of bad zombie movies I have seen.

I am rating "Zombi VIII: Urban Decay" a generous one out of ten stars. You should really do yourself a favor and skip on this abysmal wreck of a movie. Some of us suffered through this ordeal so you don't have to. Another strike out for the "Zombi" franchise.

The movie is around 80% stock footage, 5% poorly shot original footage, 15% long shots of people walking to prop up the 70 minute run time, and 100% garbage. The writer/director makes Uwe Boll look like James Cameron.

Highlights include:

Taxi ride with in-camera audio to pick up more bumps than dialogue.

So much Adobe Stock they should get a credit in the film.

Characters walking through foliage between animal stock footage.

C-section stripper in the woods

Getting a bound, hooded, and blood-covered zombie through airport security off screen.

20 minutes of opening and ending credits in a 70 minute movie.

An 8/10 review by a friend or associate of the filmmaker.

"Zombi VIII: Urban Decay" is a 2021 horror flick from filmmaker Dustin Ferguson and the folks at Retrosploitation. It tells the story of a young woman who has been searching for her missing father, and by way of a database that specializes in finding missing people, is able to track him down on the sinister island of Matool. She is successful in finding her father, but it isn't a happy family reunion as he has been transformed into a bloodthirsty zombie. Vowing to get him help, the daughter and two friends bring him back to the states, but all hell breaks loose when he escapes and begins infecting the entire city.

Clearly made as a love-letter to classic exploitation and Italian zombie films, Ferguson creates a well-paced and fun adventure that spans all the way from a tropical island in the Caribbean to the urban jungle of Los Angeles. By creating references to Lucio Fulci's "Zombi" and "Zombi 3," as well as "Return of the Living Dead" and others of the same ilk, the director really succeeds in capturing the feel and aura of those films. What also takes the film up a notch is the superb soundtrack from composer Oscar Fogelström. He creates a sense of urgency to the entire film through his score, and the themes are very stylized and atmospheric. There is also some great location work here, as well as drone footage of the island and the city, which adds to the overall stature of the storyline.

Mel Novak (Bruce Lee's "Game of Death") headlines the cast here as Gov. Hadley, a shady politician who is rooting for the downfall of mankind. Although only featured in a cameo appearance, Novak always adds gravitas to the films he stars in. Other standouts in the cast include YouTube star Shawn C. Phillips in a quirky role as a pothead, Samantha McCullough in a sexy and fun tribute to Linnea Quigley from ROTLD, and the amazingly talented Noel Jason Scott as the film's lead zombie, "Patient 0." Scott was exceptional in his role, snarling and gnawing through his scenes like a champion. Bravo!

I have seen many of Ferguson's films, and it's safe to say that "Zombi VIII: Urban Decay" is my favorite. As a huge fan of this genre and classic zombie and splatter films, this was a real treat!

The Zombi series is quite the confusing franchise. But this film claims to be a direct sequel to the two original Lucio Fulci films. Other than original music cues and reference to the original island the zombies are on, there is no connection.

Here we have a zero-budget film shot in the United States made for the Australian market based on two Italian films that were made as unofficial sequels to an American film (Dawn of the Dead) which was also a sequel to Night of the Living Dead. Which they show clips of in this movie because public domain even though they film it off a TV and looks like crap.

You'll be bored watching this even though it's 57 minutes. In order to pad the runtime as best they can, they put in minutes of footage where nothing is happening as characters are walking around a forest. But that's better than when the characters are talking. Not only are the actors bad, you can barely hear them as the audio was recorded straight from the built-in camera mic.

They also stretch the runtime by long opening credits, lasting about 3 minutes, and about 4 minutes of closing credits. Leaving virtually no plot, no character development, or any lack of care for what's happening.

This feels like an insult to the Fulci films. Those weren't great either and were low budget in their own right but at least there was real effort, talent, and charm to them. Especially if you're familiar with the making of Italian horror films of that time.

If you're going to watch anyway, don't pay for it. It is not worth the money. I was fortunate to watch it for free on Tubi.

After learning of her father's disappearance, a woman brings a group of friends to go with her to a strange island to investigate, and when they learn that he's become a flesh-eating zombie inadvertently brings him back to the mainline where he starts a zombie outbreak that overruns their town.

There was a lot to like with this one. One of the better aspects of this one is a rather fun setup that manages to bring this one into the universe. The introduction of the trip to the original island and the desire to find the missing father echo many of the same beats and storyline points from the original films and end up tying this together rather nicely. The outbreak that occurs with the residents getting attacked and turned into fellow zombies making for a lot of rather fun subtle highlights and homages to films of the past with either fun callbacks or re-creations of not just zombie attacks but just simplistic scenes in the middle of the sequence. There's a lot of that running throughout here and gives the film a rather solid old-school vibe which is quite enjoyable. That goes hand-in-hand with some fun zombie action that carries on throughout here. The rescue mission on the island that results in the capture of the main zombie and removal from there into the suburban landscape is quite fun and features some ingenious tactics to acquire that body in the condition they do. Likewise, the scenes of it going around the community taking out the victims in her living complex or the gang of partiers in the woods are rather fun as well with the creatures arriving out of nowhere and ambushing victims providing some decent gore-gags and deaths. Combined with the stellar indie gore and zombie make-up, these manage to give this one a lot to like. This one doesn't have much wrong but it's got some minor issues. The main element that would hold this back is the usage of all the background stock footage in the first half that features most of the characters reacting to footage of animals in a jungle environment rather than delve into any kind of zombie action. It does feel shoehorned into the action with the extended amount of time it takes up with them going through the jungle with the padding to the running time it provides. Likewise, there's also a rushed ending that just seems to end the film on a sudden beat, getting a certain beat across and then just ending which is a bit distracting but none of these are truly detrimental in the slightest.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, and Nudity.