FleshEater

As other reviewers have mentioned, Flesheater stars Bill Hinzman of Night of the Living Dead fame as the title zombie in an all out attack in the undead. The film by no means gets close to the entertainment level of the movie it draws inspiration from, Night of the Living Dead, but is still entertaining to a degree despite being highly predictable. As stated before, a farmer uncovers a wooden box with a bizarre warning on it that had obviously been buried for decades, and upon opening it releases the zombie Hinzman who starts his rampage of undead terror. The acting is not the greatest and the story drags at times, but some scenes are pretty spooky, such as when Hinzman and some other zombies wander into town and attack a family in a suburban house. The ending, which I won't reveal here, is highly predictable and you can see it coming a long time off. All in all, Flesheater may not be the greatest horror film ever made, or even a great zombie movie, but it's not totally awful, either.

This is another film in the long line of killer zombie rip-offs since Night of the Living Dead. This movie is not bad, but it doesn't have near the impact that the Living Dead series created by George Romero. The acting is very lame, and it's pretty predictable, but the gore makes up for it, kind of. The movie could have used some suspense along the line also. All in all, an alright zombie flick

Well, you can't expect anything original from a film like this, so I didn't. I just wanted a fun zombie flick that would entertain me for its duration and nothing more. Did I get it? No, because Flesheater features a serious lack of interesting scenes, and the way that it plays out with barely a lick of humour means that it isn't much fun either. Obviously the main inspirations for this film are George Romero's classic zombie flicks; principally Dawn of the Dead, but there's clearly things lifted from other entries in the series; not to give anything away, but the ending is a direct lift from Romero. As you can imagine, there is very little in the way of plot and the film is mostly made up of zombies eating people; which is OK, but really it needs some sort of story to go with it, or at least something else to keep the audience interested. The film starts by focusing on a group of kids who comes across the grave of an old man. It's not long before he comes back as the flesh eating living dead, and after some of the kids are bitten, things start to get out of control.

Considering there's not really a plot, you have to expect some decent gore...but Flesheaters even disappoints on that front. There's a fair amount of gore in this film, and it's not badly done; but it's boring and unimaginative, which fits the rest of the film but doesn't do anything for Flesheaters' credibility! Many post-Romero zombie flicks feature some sort of tribute to the master, often ham fisted stuff like calling a character "Romero", but this film goes a step further and not only does it cast Bill Hinzman - the first zombie from Night of the Living Dead - he's cast in a pivotal role! They might as well have just slapped a big banner over the cover saying "Romero Rip-Off" and had done with it! Most of the film takes place in a country setting, which is probably a result of the crew not being able to find a better place to film...still, it's one of the better things about this film. The film just kind of drones on for most of the duration - if you thought zombie flesh eating couldn't be boring, you'll reconsider after this. The ending is a real none-event too; overall, I'd recommend skipping this one!

Bill Hinzman (who played the zombie on the cemetery in the great horror-classic "Night of the Living Dead") was responsible for the production, the script and the directing of this flick, that is even better than the similar Romero-rip off "The Dead Next Door", which was shot about five years earlier! Of course, the plot and nearly all ideas were stolen from Romero´s brilliant cult movie, but in comparison to J.R. Bookwalter´s homage there´s just more suspense, a plenty of gore and sometimes surprisingly good acting! Hinzman himself plays a zombie named "Flesheater" and I wonder somehow that he still looks the same he did more than 25 years ago... If semi-professional shots like Peter Jackson´s "Bad Taste" or even "The Dead Next Door" blew your mind this is exactly the right stuff for you! Recommended to all zombie-lovers and the fans of Romero´s movies - you won´t bore a second!!!

My review was written in July 1989 after watching the movie on Magnum video cassette.

"Revenge of the Living Zombies" is a 20-years-after tribute to George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead", made by one of the pic's zombie thesps, Bill Hinzman. Gory direct-to-video release is aimed at cult fans.

Shot in the Pittsburgh area (as was the original), pic has Hinzman literally rising from the ground to reprise his role as "Flesh Eater" (pic's alternate title). He attacks two sets of partying teens on Halloween, turning them into flesh-eating ghouls.

Several scenes, notably a siege at a farmhouse and the mistaken identity finale, are direct re-dos of the Romero film. Hinzman also stresses that pic's invention that the sure way to destroy a zombie is shoot it in the head.

Some of the thesping here is amateurish but pic generally achieves its modest aims.