Zombi Holocaust

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. ***

My review was written in May 1982 after a screening on Manhattan's 42nd St.:

"Dr. Butcher M. D." is the U. S. release (with some post-production alterations) of a 1980 Italian film originally titled "Queen of the Cannibals" and geared towards the explicit gore market. Canny marketing by Terry Levene (the M. D. of the title is spelled out as "Medical Deviate" on posters and ads) should attract fans who like their horror of the butcher-shop variety.

Filmmaker Frank Martin (an Italo Western vet who uses an Anglicized nom de film) pilots an absurd plot as an excuse to pour on the gore. Pic opens with some Manhattan-locationed scenes of Asiatics robbing hearts from corpses in local morgues. A doctor-anthropologist Lori Ridgway (Alexandra Cole) has her ceremonial knife stolen from her collection, and matching its inscription with the tattoos and the corpse-robbers, she deduces that native rites involving human sacrifices and cannibalism are in effect. She and a scientist (Ian McCulloch) mount an expedition to the Pacific island of Kito to investigate the local sect.

On the island their party encounters Dr. Abrera (aka Dr. Butcher, played by Donald O'Brian), a mad scientist in the Dr. Moreau tradition, whose work in human transplants has created many disfigured zombie-like people. Heroes also have to contend with numerous natives who are cannibals and very aggressive. They kidnap Lori, apply body paint and prepare her for sacrifice to their gods. She's saved when the cannibals hail her as a magical being, while McCulloch escapes from the operating table to wipe out (with the cannibals' aid) Dr. Butcher and his henchmen.

Gore makeup is not very realistic, but the plentiful dismemberments, scalpings and acts of cannibalism on camera will be appreciated by steady fans of this sort of thing, e.g., patrons of the 1980 Jerry Gross release "Zombie", which also starred Ian McCulloch. Acting is wooden, with McCulloch and Alexandra Cole almost comically blase as they stroll along ignoring island terrors. Biggest crowd-pleaser occurs when McCulloch jabs an aggressor in the face with a handy outboard motor. Blonde Cole displays a magnificent undraped (and painted) body for the camera in the tradition of Ursula Andress ("Slave of the Cannibal God") and Bo Derek ("Tarzan, the Ape Man").

Being an obsessive-compulsive fan of old-fashioned Euro-gore for several years now, I've come to expect the absurd (and usually nonsensical) plots, the constant 'borrowing' from other films, and the over-the-top gore, all mixed together to form what is usually an enjoyably trashy cocktail. I picked up "Zombie Holocaust" with some optimism and a little knowledge of its reputation, and after watching it, could only help but wonder what had just happened. No, it wasn't the incoherently surreal thrill of watching "City of the Living Dead," but a general, head-scratching confusion that raised questions such as: "How was this awful waste of time ever released?" As Tom Servo would say: "Meanwhile, in YET ANOTHER MOVIE..." "Zombie Holocaust" doesn't have a brain in its head (even though the title Doctor is a deranged neurosurgeon)--it's a low-budget splatter flick without even the slightest hint of innovation. It borrows settings and characters from Fulci's "Zombie" (not to mention a few actual snippets from that film), jungle savages from "Make Them Die Slowly," and a couple bronze-faced zombies that look an awful lot like the wooden-toothed wonders in "Burial Ground." Sounds like a swinging good time, but the movie is downright distracting in its own indecisiveness, flipping back and forth between these awkwardly, incompetently blended genres without a hint of wit or style. Perhaps this is attributable to Fabrizio de Angelis, who is known less for his screen writing capabilities than as a producer on Lucio Fulci's most notable works. It is conceivable that the producers wanted to churn out a genre-bending smörgåsbord knowing they would get some return on it, but the utter ridiculousness of the finished product is an endurance test for the viewer's patience.

Ian McCulloch (his usual stuffy self) and Alexandra Delli Colli ("New York Ripper") venture off to some faraway island to investigate a doctor's odd practices. Along the way, they encounter hostile natives, zombies, and an climax that looks suspiciously like another, better zombie flick. Eyeballs are gouged out, entrails are eaten, and Delli Colli is painted in the nude for a "Laugh-In" audition.

There's ultimately nothing in "Zombie Holocaust" that hasn't been done before, and better. Pass.

At a hospital happens strange deaths related with canníbal practices of immigrants from remote locations . That's why an expedition formed by Doctor Ian McCulloch , Alexandra Delli Colli and a reporter : Sherry Buchanan travel to East Indians, arriving in a particular island . There they meet a rare scientist undergoing weird experiments and doing his own research . Along the way , they come across bizarre people , ghastly incidents , a tribe of cannibals who attack them and living dead too.

Extremely gory film with thrils , chills , violence and lots of gore and blood, in fact , it isn't recommended for the faint-hearted . This bloody film follows the ordinary plot about a mad doctor operating weird experiments that go wrong , alongside sadistic cannibal natives and hungry zombies . Stars the Scottish Ian McCulloch as a stubborn Doctor , Sherry Buchanan as a journalist and Alexandra Delli Colli who married cameraman Tonino Delli Colli and played a few films as Gayarre and Fulci's New York Ripper. While Donald O'Brien is the mad doctor with dark purports that will stop at nothing to bring to life his fantastic experiments and at whatever cost .

The motion picture was regular but professionally Marino Girolami , under pseudonym Frank Martin. He was a prolific craftsman who wrote and directed several films from the 50s to the 80s . He was father of director Enzo G Castelari and actor Ennio Girilami who often played his movies . Marino directed all kinds of genres as Peplum, Spaghetti Western , Euro Spy , Sex Comedy , Poliziesco , terror and providing acceptable films , getting boxoffice enough . As he directed Spaghetti Westerns : Bullets and the flesh , Reverend Colt , Badmen of the West , two Ringos from Texas , God was in the West too at one time . Poliziesco and Thriller : Rome Violent , The other side of violence , Eros and Thanatos , African Story , A Special Cop in action . Peplum : Warth of Achilles . Comedy : Las Otoñales, Casanova Jekill , Ragazza Vía Veneto, Ferragosto in Bikini , among others .

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.