Zombie, la création

Bruno Mattei's latest and last flick brings more zombie madness to our bloodthirsty mitts. I for one am not the biggest fan of zombie flicks, but I respect a movie with loads of gore and with a high level of cheese. And yep, Zombies: The Beginning delivers just that.

The story revolves around some cuteass Asian babe who plays a scientist of sorts. She's the lone survivor of a zombie rampage which left her entire crew/team dead. Events lead her back to the island where the zombies live...unlive. And as you can guess, loads of zombies and gore follow. Some weird turns in the story take place, but really, you're only really expecting the next scene of violence. Which basically, this film is fine for.

Z:TB was pretty fun, but ultimately it was a tad too tedious, and just really amateurish. For example, in the first 20 minutes they show a nightmare our lead lady has been suffering from three times. No biggie if it's quick or cool, but nope. It's long and stupid....but understandable. Of course if you love cheesy, foreign zombie flicks, this shouldn't bother you in the slightest and you should feel right at home.

If you're a die hard fan of Mattei or zombies, there's no reason not to check it out. It delivers the red stuff, the awful (good thing) dubbing, and a ridiculous story. Just don't expect our leading lady to shed any clothing. Even with those nice boobs....no nudity. Oh well, at least there were some zombie boobs.

I found delight in the connection this movie shares with Island of the Living Dead, a film I had previously enjoyed. However, my sentiments take a turn when considering Zombies: The Beginning. The film unabashedly mimics the 1986 blockbuster Aliens to an alarming degree. Every element, from the narrative and dialogue to the music, sounds, and characters, appears ripped off directly from Aliens, albeit transposed to a remote island and replacing xenomorphs with flesh-eating zombies.

Zombies: The Beginning feels like a meticulous replication of Aliens, practically a frame-to-frame duplication. Some character names even bear a striking resemblance to those found in Aliens. The pervasive imitation left me grappling with conflicting feelings, prompting me to view Zombies: The Beginning more as a parody of Aliens than a sincere attempt at producing something noteworthy.

Notably, the film boasts an abundance of gore and an unusual inclusion of nudity, a less common feature in zombie movies. However, the movie's decision to opt for dubbing raises questions. While the dubbing's accuracy is lacking, my personal tolerance allowed me to overlook this flaw. Yet, for others, the subpar dubbing might prove irksome, accentuating the already prevalent issue of substandard acting throughout the film.

In conclusion, I hesitate to recommend Zombies: The Beginning unless it happens to be available for free, and you find yourself with absolutely nothing better to do or possess a peculiar interest in witnessing the epitome of cinematic mimicry.

Remember, big fan of movies in general and zombie flicks here. I am used to a bit of cheese in a zombie flick.

This one stunk like the cheese counter at your local supermarket, or that big bag of especially dank green you just picked up.

The first fifteen minutes involve plot set-up (tl;dr: zombies on an island. Yes we should visit it) and the fact that our heroine suffers from nightmares. We couldn't just see her have one nightmare, we had to see three just to really hammer the message home (and to get some zombies in early / use some cool footage they had. Probably). This sets the tone for the rest of the film; dragging things out.

Our "rough and tumble marines" actually scream and prance like highly strung queens at the first whiff of danger. Particularly embarrassing anyway (stuck in my mind) but then to read that in the strapline, well yeah.

The dialogue leaves a taste like tinned ham in your mouth. People repeat things and it is so painfully apparent that these are not trained marines (apparently people with such high training need to be told three times to open fire).

But, the worst part of the film is the camera work. The worst part because it is the best part (the film does look good). This means they had some money to make this film with, they just didn't feel the need to spend that money on a compus mentus director, a script that didn't only contain plot holes and cheese, and an editor who doesn't think repetition is the key to success.

I'd give the director, the script writer and the editor an honorary Razzie, then send them on a tour of film schools around the world armed with a copy of this film to show the students what not to do when making a film.

Oh there's about three plot twists. No one involved in making this had much to say, they figured they'd only get one swing at the ball so they threw everything into the mix.

I did manage to clip and file my nails while this was on and miss absolutely nothing, so that's something.

M

Zombies: The Beginning (2007)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Italian director Mattei ended his career with this sequel to ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD but don't expect a typical zombie flick. This film picks up right where the previous left as the sole survivor is asked by the government to head back to the island where her crew was killed by the zombies. That's pretty much all you need to know in terms of story as you really don't even need that considering this movie completely ignores what happened at the very end of the previous one. Yes, Mattei's final flick has a lot of zombies but it's actually just a direct rip off of ALIENS. This isn't the first time Mattei has ripped ALIENS and even though this movie is extremely bad, you can't help but somewhat admire how much ripping this guy can do. Not only do we get dialogue and scenes ripped from the Cameron flick but we get the typical stock footage stolen from other movies and this time it's CRIMSON TIDE. How Mattei got away with doing this his entire career is beyond me but quite a few of the sub scenes from that movie are lifted and used here. The movie actually looks like it had a fairly decent budget as the set design is actually pretty good and this is especially true at the end when we visit the alien/zombie tombs. Fans of gore will get quite a bit of that here as the red stuff is constantly flowing with various heads being shot off and parts being ripped or eaten. The CGI effects are quite poor but it adds a somewhat campy feel to the film. The performances, like the previous film, are hard to judge considering how bad the dubbing is but most people don't come to movies like this for the acting. The film doesn't mind ripping off other movies including dialogue from DAY OF THE DEAD and Mattei even rips off his own RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR. Fans of exploitation will probably want to check this out just for the cheese but the biggest problem is that it runs way too long and there's just not enough here to warrant the long running time. Mattei certainly went out with his comeback and this film contains all the bad stuff he'll always be remembered for.

This film takes up where its predecessor "Island of the Living Dead" left off with "Dr. Sharon Dimeo" (Yvette Yzon) left floating at sea where she had just escaped from an island populated with zombies. Not long after her rescue she is approached by a corporation which wants her to lead an exploration party back to the island to investigate what happened. At first she is extremely reluctant but after suffering from recurring nightmares for six months she finally agrees to go back. Yet even though this new search party is quite well-armed they soon realize that they are not prepared for what they eventually find. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this sequel was just as bad as the first film in that it still had a bad script, bad character development and bad acting along with bad costumes and sets. In short, it was bad and other than the presence of Yvette Yzon there really wasn't much of anything here that caught my eye and I have rated this movie accordingly. Definitely below average.