After Death (Oltre la morte)

A word of advice to anyone who couldn't get through the endearing badness of Zombi 3--go no further! Zombie 4: After Death is much worse. Let's just say that whenever neon laser effects turn up in a zombie movie my level 5 crap alert goes off. Zombie 4 somehow lacks the elements that made Zombi 3 entertaining and comes off as boring--and the worst thing a bad movie can do is be boring. A cute girl vacationing with some soldiers-for-hire (don't ask, I don't know either--maybe she's an A-Team groupie?) returns to an island she escaped from as a child. In the back story we see her scientist family upset a voodoo priest and he proceeded to wipe out the whole island in a fit. Of course the zombies are still there and the group quickly gets surrounded...you know the rest. A little statue necklace that looks like the one Peter wears in the Brady Bunch in Hawaii episode figures into it somehow, but whatever it was supposed to do fails miserably as none of the girl's lame attempts at recalling the dead ever work. Only confirmed bad zombie movie addicts should try this one. Or fans of weird mercenaries with very bad teeth and Village People mustaches; I do believe this had one of the strangest looking casts I've seen in a while!

I will admit. Although Zombi 2 was my gateway into the world of Lucio Fulci several decades ago, the zombie genre never was my cup of tea. Few movies in this genre ever impressed me, the two most important would be Return of the living dead and Zombi 2, followed by Dawn of the dead and then (sorry Umberto, I know you hate it being called a zombie movie) Nightmare City. However, among the Italian spoofs that came after these mentioned films I find some of them theoretically brilliant but horribly executed. Take the two shockingly overrated Fulci films Beyond and City of the living dead. They somewhat have story, potential, budget (from what it looks like) that could have been so promising but it's all very poorly put together with cheap zoom ins despite great cinematographer, sloppy takes with goofs, bad special fx, cheesy music repeated over and over - and in all that some terrific and brilliant atmosphere and a few brilliant scenes. This is why I have learned to appreciate the really low budget versions better, because they are more honest in what they are and what you get. Andrea Bianchi's Burial Ground was utter trash first time I saw it, but almost 30 years later I love it and keep it closer than most films of this decade. Then there are the real lows, like Bruno Mattei's "Hell of the living dead" or the Fulci/Mattei/Fragasso "Zombi 3" but it's almost even worse although Fulci directed like 65 minutes of it - but the guy was not well, we must not forget. Fragasso however still was young and capable of working in the jungles of asia to do this little action packed movie, which unlike the earlier films from the most recent years, sports a really cool soundtrack by Al Festa. I particularly like the instrumental cues. It really gives the movie a lift, similar to how Simonetti took on Cut and run. For being a low budget italian movie, I think it has quite decent acting and pace if you approach it with b-movie expectations. So far, this is by far the best Fragasso film I have seen, but with that said you should still expect something in the schlocky realm. The 2K scanned Bluray from 88 films is a very welcome release. These movies deserve this kind of love!

I would like to thank all who left comments here, good or bad.After all publicity of any kind is good publicity! For those of you who enjoyed the film, I have a blog where i am working on a book called Fish Heads and Rice. I have written a short story about the behind the scenes of Zombie 4 - After death. http://nicknicholson.blogspot.com/ It was fun to work on this film, and I am sure a lot of viewers found it funny to watch. None of us had a script to work from, but what the heck, when you know you will be probably be dubbed in another language you don't really care. It was the only film of the Horror genre that I have ever worked on. I wish i could do another one as these are a real gas to do!

If you are bored and want a funny read, please do visit! Thanks to you all!

A boatload of people run into `technical difficulties' and are forced to dock on a strange island where the dead are heard screaming. They join up with some survivors running from the zombie hordes infesting the island. It seems that some odd years ago the island was a research center where the world's top scientists gathered to defeat man's worst enemy…death. But during the experiments it seems that the scientists tried to cure a young girls' disease and end up killing her instead. Unfortunately for them her big bad voodoo daddy takes it personally and opens the third doorway to hell. One girl survived the zombie onslaught and now as a woman must unlock the secret that will close the gate to hell.

The script in the end is way too disjointed. It seems that whenever the scriptwriter came up with something he would just half hazardly throw it in and hope for the best. The action/ adventure element was a nice touch and kept the pace flowing nicely. As what seems to be a common factor in Italian zombie movies we get a soft-focus look that to me is quite annoying at times. Add to the mix a rather lush jungle, at times a choking (and blinding) fog and a synth score that owes a great deal to John Carpenter and you get a above-average but rather plain (and sometimes funny) zombie flick. The makeup effects aren't anything to write home about but the zombies are relatively intelligent (they even shoot and talk) and chew the scenery with mucho gusto.

I bought this on re-release from a video shop being a lover of zombie flicks and all. I was expecting maybe a boring low-budget but gory flick. I was absolutely shocked to find this being one of most outstanding zombie flicks that I'd seen in a long time! The start involves a man sacrificing his wife so she will live again on earth. (um...Makes sense) A group of scientists with Uzis confront him and kill him in a mad rage. The mans wife then returns as a horrifying demon who rips the faces off the scientists and goes in search of the rest. A woman scientist tells her daughter to run and leave the island while she goes back to fight an army of Phillipino ninja zombies! Yes, its true! We cut very quickly to about 15 years later and get involved with some likeable characters and the girl who are going back to the island to investigate. We have the young Tommy, a handsome former soldier. Dan, your everyday best friend. Mad, a great white hunter and soldier of fortune and Rod who is also a soldier of fortune. Along with the main girl and a chick who fancies Rod. We also have a trio of explorers on the island who are searching for the lost scientists and find a cave with dead reviving powers. In the trio we have Chuck, the other handsome but daft city boy, A girl who's name I forget and David, the smart leader played by Massimo Vanni who appeared in 'Rats:Night of terror' and 'The last Hunter'. After they revive the dead from reading a book they are attacked. David, however, looks like a nerd and the obvious first victim. Instead, he takes on about 10 zombies at the same time using a torch and various martial arts skills. He kills all of them and even snaps ones neck! David is definitely on my list of top zombie ass kickers. Uncle Les from 'Braindead(Dead Alive)' and Roger from 'Dawn of the dead' are among them. In the meantime, Chuck escapes and joins forces with the other group. They find a stash of Assault Rifles and begin to kick ass! There is a lot of gore! The movie really scores though on being an unrecognised gem. It has fog for a spooky atmosphere, Cool characters, gore, a great soundtrack, suspense, action and above average acting. It moves at a fast pace and tells the story well. There isn't any comedy though which is a downer but you won't care with as much spectacular stuff as this! A fearsome 9 out of 10!