Zombi 2

This was my first ever video nasty, originally viewed in the mid 80's, and for that reason it shall always have a special place in my heart. The first thing that struck me was that the budget must have been relatively high. Fulci was never a great one for narrative coherence (this is probably his most conventional film) and typically for the Italian films of the time this must have been pitched as a sequence of set-pieces (the shark battle, the fiery finale, and of course, the infamous eyeball scene). Unfortunately for the most part these are fairly flatly directed and fall short of their potential for tension. The earlier expository scenes are especially protracted, and throughout Fulci has a tendency to leave shots hanging well past their sell-by date. That said, the film is not completely artless, and whereas it lacks suspense, it does have a degree of atmosphere about it. After the political correctness of the 80's and the 'post-Modernist' knowingness of the 90's, Zombie Flesheaters, with its excessive gore and its leering nudity, its risible dubbed dialog and its a complete lack of humour, with its simplistic plotting and comic-book characterisation, is probably most interesting if viewed from the perspective that firstly, that there was ever a market for this sort of thing and secondly, that people thought that films like this needed suppressing. Yes it's true, they don't make them like this anymore!

A sail boat arrives in New York without a living soul but a zombie that attacks two guards from the Coast Guard. The daughter of the owner of the ship, Anne Bowles (Tisa Farrow), requests information about her missing father that was in the Antilles to the detectives that are investigating the crime without success. She meets the journalist Peter West (Ian McCulloch) and they decide to investigate what might have happened to her father. They travel to Matul Island with Brian Hull (Al Cliver) and Susan Barrett (Auretta Gay) in their boat. Once in the tropical island, they meet Dr. David Menard (Richard Johnson), who is trying to find a cure to a disease that brings dead back to life, turning them into zombies that eat human flesh.

"Zombie 2" is a horror classic of Lucio Fulci with a simple, but interesting screenplay. The unforgettable story begins like Nosferatu, with an empty boat arriving in a harbor with a zombie instead of a vampire; shows the naked body of two beautiful actresses, Auretta Gay and Olga Karlatos; is very gore, with a death that slightly recalls the famous scene of Buñuel in "Un Chien Andalou", when the zombie perforates the eye of Paola Menard; and has a very scary and impressive make-up, with zombies eating human flesh and biting and killing people. The sister of Mia Farrow, Tisa Farrow, has a good performance in this cult-movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Zombie - O Retorno dos Mortos" ("Zombie: The Return of the Dead")

Note: On 05 Jun 2018, I saw this film again.

Now this is how a zombie film should be made! Whilst Lucio Fuci never had the creative genius of Dario Argento in Profondo Rosso, Tenebrae and Suspiria, he certainly knew how to make a good old fashioned zombie/gore movie. In Zombi 2 or Zombie Flesh Eaters (what a title!) as it was known in the UK, a ship drifts into New York with a very large, hungry zombie on board. This leads to two investigative journalists, including gore stalwart Ian McCulloch, with two holiday makers going to the Island of Matul. After meeting a shark wrestling zombie en route, they arrive at Matul where things are not going well. The hospital run by Dr. Menard has turned into a morgue where daily zombie killing has become the routine. Things go from bad to worse as the zombies grow in number and various dismemberment, eye gouging, jugular bites etc ensue. What makes this film so good are various factors. Apart from being one of the first gore films I ever saw, it has no social commentary or hidden meaning and does not try to be a comedy (although some may argue with this). It is a good, honest gore film. The special effects are nice and gruesome, with fantastic zombie make up, great zombie attacks and loads of maggots and worms. The crazy underwater battle between zombie and shark is totally original and not surprisingly has never been tried since. The infamous eye scene whilst a bit creaky still makes the viewer cringe. The acting and dubbing are dodgy but don't detract from the zombie mayhem, the music is great with calypso music to greet the heroes and throbbing effects to welcome the zombies. I cannot recommend this highly enough for good old fashioned zombie related thrills. Also look out for The Beyond and City of the Living Dead in a similar vein.

A film that starts almost quietly, with low quality sequences of zombies not very suggestive and not very engaging, but which gradually improve more and more until they are terrifying towards the end. In some scenes the emotional reactions of the characters to certain events seem almost non-existent while others are very trashy (e.g. The woman who stares terrified a zombie but stays where she is and doesn't even attempt to escape, or the four people who are in a wood full of zombies but decide to split into couples). In many scenes, however, there is a lot of scary atmosphere and in others a little bit less; some shot are amazing and have a very good photography, some others not; all in all the plot is very good and the gory style of Fulci is stunning and result of a very creative mind. I think you won't regret to watch it, it's totally worth.

When it's good, it's really great. C'mon, this film has a shark fighting with a zombie...it doesn't get much better than that!

I liked the scenario - not the usual in the city - even if I would the vudu part to be much better explored. The acting is bad - especially when zombies are attacking - and Fulci brought a lot of the giallo bad tropes. That's the only reason why this isn't, for me, the masterpiece a lot claim to be.