After Death (Oltre la morte)

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.

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 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!

This movie (?) doesn't really have zombies...they are more like Talking Ninja Ghouls and doesn't really have actors...they are more like people off the street. Almost has a 'porno-like' quality and feel to it. Also, has way too much back-story and way, way too much over explanation. In a nut shell, it goes something like this...some scientists on an island are trying to create the cure for cancer but they create some kind of reanimation formula and to top it off...they let this voodoo guy's daughter die...so, the voodoo guy sends his wife to hell and she comes back as a demon-like thing and everybody tries to run away, but the Ninja Ghouls get them...oh except for this little girl who wobbles away then starts to stop wobbling...but she continues and somehow finds a travel agent and gets off the island (I'm guessing because they don't show this). Anyway, I guess, we flash forward to when this little girl is all growed up, but I don't know because nobody says so and they don't even have the little '20 Years Later' graphic appear on the screen...where was I? Oh yeah, so, this growed up little girl comes back to the island...I'm not sure why...to find her parents bodies or something? But she came prepared...she has a bunch of angry army guys with her and one guy is so tough that he actually chases a zombie down and starts to beat him up for no good reason. Also, these two tough guys and a girl stroll into town...I don't know where they came from either, nor what town they're walking through...oh and one is wearing glasses which makes him smart. I think they must have used the little girls travel agent. Then people start getting torn apart...basically introduced then torn apart, to the point where it appears quite random. After people are torn apart...they come back and taunt their old friends...these are very mean spirited zombies. Where was I? I don't know...watch it and I don't think you'll know either!

'Zombie 4' AKA 'After Death' AKA 'Zombie Flesh Eaters 3' is your typical sleazy 80's Italian zombie b-movie that features lots of gore, terrible dubbing, cheesy dialogue, and plenty of outrageous moments combined with a jumbled mess of a plot. The 3rd (or 4th) flick in the 'Zombie' series is not a good movie by any means, but it does have some atmosphere and enough disturbing and disgusting enough to satisfy gore fans, other than that there's not much else.

The plot = Jenny (Candice Daly) goes back to the island where her parents were killed many years ago where they had been working on a cure for cancer and accidently raised the dead by angering a Voodoo priest. Along with Jenny is a group of mercenaries and researchers who again raises the dead and all hell breaks loose.

Despite a promising highly stylized opening featuring some cool action and gruesome kills, it's a shame that the rest of the film doesn't maintain the same energy and flair, thankfully the movie moves at a breakneck pace that bombards you with constant action and mayhem, but its devoid of any intelligence or thrills. The zombies themselves looks very cheap and uninspired; they just look like a bunch of extras with white makeup caked onto their faces. The gore effects are pretty good for such a low budget production. The direction by Claudio Fragasso is fine and the movie is shot quite well, but the plot is just pure nonsensical, and the dialogue is stupid and horrendous. This entry is definitely lacking when compared to the other 2 movies in the 'Zombie' series.

The acting performances are really hard to judge when the movie is dubbed. Jeff Stryker gives a likeable performance as the male lead and emotes quite well. The rest of the cast range between average and over the top for this kind of film.

Overall 'Zombie 4' is a somewhat dumb yet entertaining Italian zombie flick, but there's much better out there and don't waste your time with this one.