FleshEater

This movie would seem like your average low budget zombie movie when you look at it but it's much more. It's surprising that a movie with only around a 60,000 dollar budget ended up being so good. It also feels like if Night of the Living Dead met exploitation with slasher vibes thrown in for good major. The plot is really simple, teens go into the woods for a hay ride on Halloween and the guy running the hay ride accidentally awakens a zombie. The obvious result spreads from there and that's the plot. Now i will tell you what the movie succeeds and fails at. First the main thing is the gore, this movie is meant for gore hounds and the effects are for the most part good, there are a few scenes where with a keen eye you can see how the effects were achieved but I'm a big sfx guy so I notice it a lot easier than most. The film also has a crazy good atmosphere where it feels like combination of horror genres, also the sound track and music is mostly a repeating synth like sound that actually helps the film, this surprised me quite a bit since it's in the background a lot and it adds a fair bit of tension. There are also frequent gratuitous nude scenes if your into that you could even make a drinking game around it, take a shot for every nude scene. The movie does also fail at a few things, this isn't a spoiler but the ending isn't much of a shock, it didn't ruin the film but is a detractors. The acting in the film also ranges from slightly above average, to average to really, really bad, but it almost adds to how much of a B movie it is. Finally the sound and film quality is subpar on most but I feel like a remastered cut with a bit of editing could really help it out. It may seem like I'm giving this movie a high rating with all of the detractors but this film in it's respect is extremely underrated and often misunderstood and should become a mainstay of the zombie films, especially during Halloween. If you want to get this film there are a lot of versions mostly on dvd but my recommendation is the most recent dvd release or blu ray but if you want a bit more bang for your buck you can get it in the zombie pack volume 2 with 2 other zombie films and I see the set as low as 10 dollars on ebay. Definitely check this flick out you might be surprised at what you find.

As other reviewers have mentioned, Flesheater stars Bill Hinzman of Night of the Living Dead fame as the title zombie in an all out attack in the undead. The film by no means gets close to the entertainment level of the movie it draws inspiration from, Night of the Living Dead, but is still entertaining to a degree despite being highly predictable. As stated before, a farmer uncovers a wooden box with a bizarre warning on it that had obviously been buried for decades, and upon opening it releases the zombie Hinzman who starts his rampage of undead terror. The acting is not the greatest and the story drags at times, but some scenes are pretty spooky, such as when Hinzman and some other zombies wander into town and attack a family in a suburban house. The ending, which I won't reveal here, is highly predictable and you can see it coming a long time off. All in all, Flesheater may not be the greatest horror film ever made, or even a great zombie movie, but it's not totally awful, either.

As you can probably tell by my nickname, I love horror films, zombie films in particular. I have pride in my knowledge of horror films, as I own close to a thousand of them and have seen many more. But I have to admit, I had never heard of this flick before yesterday. Browsing through a video store in another town, I came across it,scratching my head wondering how good could this be if I've never heard of it before. I was pleasantly surprised by this film. I think it was just as good as The Dead Next Door(a B grade zombie flick that gets a lot of attention as being an unknown classic). This is a fun film to watch if you don't expect too much from it. Don't expect great acting,top quality production, and whatever else most people think it takes to make a good film. But if your a fan of B grade horror movies, or on a quest to see and own every zombie movie ever made(such as myself), give this one a chance. I was surprised to see one of the zombies in this movie was Bill Hinzman, the cemetery zombie who chases after Barbara in the original Night Of The Living Dead. I guess you could say he is reprising his role, so to speak. I think he also directed and produced this film. I must admit, this film does seem to borrow a little from the original Night Of The Living Dead, but I don't care. This movie was fun and entertaining to watch and that's all I ask for. I was surprised at the amount of gore as well. The version I got was an uncut one entitled Revenge Of The Living Zombies. Once again, a pleasant surprise. Well, I have to go now and find a copy of this movie to buy somewhere! Later.

My review was written in July 1989 after watching the movie on Magnum video cassette.

"Revenge of the Living Zombies" is a 20-years-after tribute to George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead", made by one of the pic's zombie thesps, Bill Hinzman. Gory direct-to-video release is aimed at cult fans.

Shot in the Pittsburgh area (as was the original), pic has Hinzman literally rising from the ground to reprise his role as "Flesh Eater" (pic's alternate title). He attacks two sets of partying teens on Halloween, turning them into flesh-eating ghouls.

Several scenes, notably a siege at a farmhouse and the mistaken identity finale, are direct re-dos of the Romero film. Hinzman also stresses that pic's invention that the sure way to destroy a zombie is shoot it in the head.

Some of the thesping here is amateurish but pic generally achieves its modest aims.

Well, you can't expect anything original from a film like this, so I didn't. I just wanted a fun zombie flick that would entertain me for its duration and nothing more. Did I get it? No, because Flesheater features a serious lack of interesting scenes, and the way that it plays out with barely a lick of humour means that it isn't much fun either. Obviously the main inspirations for this film are George Romero's classic zombie flicks; principally Dawn of the Dead, but there's clearly things lifted from other entries in the series; not to give anything away, but the ending is a direct lift from Romero. As you can imagine, there is very little in the way of plot and the film is mostly made up of zombies eating people; which is OK, but really it needs some sort of story to go with it, or at least something else to keep the audience interested. The film starts by focusing on a group of kids who comes across the grave of an old man. It's not long before he comes back as the flesh eating living dead, and after some of the kids are bitten, things start to get out of control.

Considering there's not really a plot, you have to expect some decent gore...but Flesheaters even disappoints on that front. There's a fair amount of gore in this film, and it's not badly done; but it's boring and unimaginative, which fits the rest of the film but doesn't do anything for Flesheaters' credibility! Many post-Romero zombie flicks feature some sort of tribute to the master, often ham fisted stuff like calling a character "Romero", but this film goes a step further and not only does it cast Bill Hinzman - the first zombie from Night of the Living Dead - he's cast in a pivotal role! They might as well have just slapped a big banner over the cover saying "Romero Rip-Off" and had done with it! Most of the film takes place in a country setting, which is probably a result of the crew not being able to find a better place to film...still, it's one of the better things about this film. The film just kind of drones on for most of the duration - if you thought zombie flesh eating couldn't be boring, you'll reconsider after this. The ending is a real none-event too; overall, I'd recommend skipping this one!