Zombie

Some folks fly to a small island in the Caribbean. Once they arrive, they find that there are murderous zombies roaming about as well as locals who are all members of a voodoo cult. In addition, there's a cancer researcher who is doing work with irradiated snake venom who seems a bit oblivious to the fact that the locals are into human sacrifice. Sounds like a nice place, huh?!

This is one of many horribly low budget horror films I have seen in my lifetime and the biggest thing that sets it apart is the title. After all, the release title "I EAT YOUR SKIN" sounds amazingly exploitative and sick. However, despite a promoter changing its title, the film itself is amazingly conventional--and it's just another grade-Z schlock horror film--complete with bad acting, camera work, makeup, and the works! While it's very bad, it isn't quite bad enough to be fun to watch and make fun of the film. No,...it's just bad!

In I EAT YOUR SKIN (aka: ZOMBIE), Uber-macho writer, Tom Harris (William Joyce), is pried away from his gaggle of fawning, bikini-clad fem-bots, long enough to take a trip to Voodoo Island.

Why?

It seems there's a mad scientist there who's working on a cure for cancer, using snake venom (!). Plus, there are zombies! And young, nubile voodoo dancers! Annnd, bongo drums!

So, why not?!

Harris is soon off for the island, accompanied by his agent, Duncan Fairchild (Dan Stapleton) and his unbelievably squeaky, utterly annoying wife, Coral (Betty Hyatt Linton). Oh, and Coral's poodle.

Within seconds after crash-landing, Tom spots his first bathing beauty! Shockingly, she's being stalked by a pop-eyed zombie! No, seriously, his eyes are basically two fried eggs! From here, things get a tad absurd. Thankfully, voodoo dancing and mad science merge to get us through!

If you enjoy hyper-schlock, especially the films of Del Tenney, then, nirvana is your destination! This brain-hammer is a personal favorite...

What can I say about this one? It's odd - it uses snake venom modified to create the zombies. The natives believe in human sacrifice but it has to be a blonde virgin female. The movie really is nothing new as far as your average classic zombie movies go but adds its own twist like most all of them do - and it's kind of an odd one.

If you like the older style of zombie films then this one is just "ok" to watch - it's nothing special but not a complete snooze to watch either. Another slightly less than a middle of the road production.

I like the dancers in the film, in fact the scenes of the voodoo priest and his group are the best parts of this film to me. The rest of the film is meh! The acting is lacking but tolerable to watch. And the story, again, is just so-so. Watchable zombie film.

4/10

I Eat Your Skin finds novelist William Joyce eating up his advance money without turning out any pages of his next potboiler novel. So his publisher Dan Stapleton says he knows of a great Caribbean island where the natives do do their voodoo real well and Joyce might get some local color there. So Joyce heads off with Stapleton and Stapleton's brassy wife Betty Hyatt Linton to an island where Walter Coy is doing some Dr. Moreau like experiments on the natives as the guest of plantation owner and medical doctor Robert Stanton and his daughter Heather Hewitt.

This all starts as looking for a cure for cancer using snake venom and who in the world suggested that line of research? Pretty soon these grotesque looking zombies get real restless and everyone has to abandon the island if they can.

Some nice calypso music is the best thing that I Eat Your Skin has going for it. It's bad, but it's deliciously campy bad and some folks have a taste for that sort of thing.

On all the scenes with the very hairy arms and hands feeding and handling the venonous snakes were filmed at the Miami Serpentarium, those hands belonged to the late William Haast, I'm surprised that wasn't mentioned in the Trivia section. I believe that Mr Haast passed away at over 100 years old in spite of dozens of venomous bites that would have killed an Elephant.