After Death (Oltre la morte)

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!

What do you get if you mix an island of scientists, a voodoo witch doctor, zombies... and then open the third door to Hell (apparently neglecting the fact that Fulci had already opened all seven doors)? Well, you get "After Death".

The first thing you'll notice about this film is the 80s metal soundtrack thrown together by Alberto Festa (including his song, repeated throughout the film, "Living After Death"). Not unlike other 80s Italian horror films, this seems to make sense even though it really doesn't.

The second thing you'll notice is that this film features gay porn star Jeff Stryker. (Unless, of course, you don't know gay porn stars... then you won't notice at all.)

This film is greatly under-appreciated by audiences, I fear. I loved it, and it seems that the hardcore fans of Italian horror do, too, despite the general agreement that this film fails. Jim Harper says the film features "fast-paced, sharply edited action scenes that rely heavily on excessive gore", and despite the fact "the story is patently absurd" the film is "gruesome enough to please gorehounds." Likewise, Jay Slater praises the film when he says the picture is "a blast of energy, rippling with violent action and awash with gore", an "energetic splatter picture in the spirit of Herschell Gordon Lewis" This is absolutely right. While trying to pass itself off as a sequel to "Dawn of the Dead", it has much more in common with Lamberto Bava's "Demons". The splatter effects and rock music make it perfect for this series.

Director Claudio Fragasso laments that the most intense gore had been stripped by the censors. He also insists that the "special effects were all made laboriously by hand", which I think pays off -- most of the zombies are remarkable. What gore was cut is unknown to me... it's already a fairly gory picture as is... to increase it would make this one for the record books.

If you only know Fragasso from the "best worst movie" "Troll 2" or don't know his work at all, this is a fine introduction. Taking the zombie jungle island formula many others have used and mixing it with the gore and colorful blood of Lamberto Bava, "After Death" is a film worth catching, and at least for me, owning.

While working in a research for the cure of brain damage, a group of scientists are attacked and killed by a horde of zombies unleashed by a voodoo priest, and only a little girl saves. Twenty years later, she returns to the island with a group of mercenaries, while three researchers find a Book of the Dead and release the flesh-eater zombies again.

The lame and cheesy "After Death" has an awful screenplay with a terrible development of characters and their motives; the acting is laughable with histrionic movement of lips of the ham actors and actresses; the dubbing in English is unpleasant; the cinematography and locations are very poor and the soundtrack is annoying. The gore special effects are reasonable considering the extremely low-budget of this flick. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

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 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!