Claiming to know a little bit about cult, horror and extreme cinema, it would be something of a conundrum why I haven’t seen Zombie Flesh Eaters. The title always attracted me but I was probably most delayed from watching due to the possibly ethically questionable nature of one of the film – and genre’s – most bizarre scenes, involving an underwater zombie and a shark…
Getting back on the horror scene I decided to check it out. I had never seen a Lucio Fulci – legendary Italian godfather of gore – film, but had some idea of what to expect – thinking mostly that it wouldn’t be for me, myself not being that much of a gore-hound. Probably what spurred me on the most was hearing the incredible theme tune by Fabio Frizzi. At the very least I would get a kick out of the music. However, I went in with low and grimy expectations, thinking I may not even make it very far into a morally bankrupt and poorly made exploitation horror.
The film was marketed as a sequel to George Romero’s classic, Dawn of the Dead (1978) (Dawn being marketed as “Zombi” in europe)but as a fellow “nasty” reviewer, Lampyman101, once pointed out “if it’s Italian and it’s a sequel, chances are it’s probably not a sequel”. The story is straightforward, as is most of the plot development. It opens with an apparently abandoned sail boat floating into New York. When investigated a policeman is attacked by a big fat zombie. The daughter of the owner of the yacht is informed and her and a group (of not fully developed but functional enough characters) head off to the island of Matool, from whence it came, where it turns out a voodoo curse is returning the dead to life as her father’s doctor buddy struggles to work out what’s happening and cope with the plague of the zombies.
Okay, from here on in I might as well just list off the things that impressed me in Lucio Fulci’s Zombie Flesh Eaters. Initially, the gore wasn’t working for me. The fat zombie at the beginning – reminiscent of the big fellow in Shaun of the Dead (2004) or the arcade game House of the Dead III (2002) – looked fairly mediocre, and as the infamous eye scene approached I was scared to watch but when it came to it I was presented with a rather unimpressive, and silly death scene. However, as the film progressed it went from strength to strength as I started to get into the films own world and set of rules. The zombies soon turned out to be some of the best I’d seen on screen. I can’t say I’d ever seen zombies with worms in their heads, and saying that, it isn’t as stomach churning as you’d expect, but it looks about right for the dead returned to life. The make up isn’t in the league of some films, such as Day of the Dead (1985) but the overall impression works really well – they come across as an X-rated version of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. What most impressed me, however, was the zombies rising from the earth. This for me is a key part of the appeal of zombie mythology, and as far as I can remember, is omitted in Romero’s genre staples, and many others who focus on the epidemic of zombies rather than their initial appearance. Moreover, as the film continued I found myself fairly enjoying some of the gore scenes, truly gross but as in the general tone of the film, although explicit, the violence doesn’t come across as as traumatising or malevolent like the majority of films in this field, and makes it seems a little less bannable (the film being a video nasty in the UK) than I would have expected.
The cinematography was very impressive – I expected most of the films creative efforts to be in the make up effects, but very early on the way it was shot really stood out, although I did of course have low expectations. The scale and variety of locations was refreshing given the closed and claustrophobic nature of most films of the genre and meant the general look was great to see. Lush island scenery, and comic book zombies.
Of course I can’t review this film without mentioning the shark scene. A girl goes scuba diving – topless of course – it’s Italian! Whilst hiding from a passing shark she encounters an underwater zombie – WTF!? She escapes but the shark takes on the zombie. Uh-oh! On the surface level it’s a pretty amazing scene but for myself you can’t help but wonder about the treatment of the animal here. The zombie was the shark’s trainer but with Italian’s horrors bad record for treatment of animals we can’t be too certain how ethical the training was. But certainly it is something to behold.
To conclude, the film is of course ropey in places (often the editing diminishes the quality of the cinematography) and has many questionable moments (be it sexism, dodgy animal treatment or just general nastiness) but the tight pace means it all keeps moving along nicely enough and keeps it fairly harmless overall, considering its constituent parts. My mind is nudging me to say, in a top ten zombie films list, this would rank closely after George Romero’s films, this sounds impossible but this is a strange case, and yes I’m pretty impressed. Zombie Flesh Eaters, at least, certainly lives up to it’s name. It delivers the guts but is not of the calibre of its rivals. Whereas Dawn is a film, this is a movie – and a fairly sleazy one a that, but not as depraved as you may expect (in fact probably less squeam-inducing than Romero’s Day of the Dead) and if you enjoy zombie films I’m sure there’s definitely an enjoyable, if lonely, night’s viewing in here.
Getting back on the horror scene I decided to check it out. I had never seen a Lucio Fulci – legendary Italian godfather of gore – film, but had some idea of what to expect – thinking mostly that it wouldn’t be for me, myself not being that much of a gore-hound. Probably what spurred me on the most was hearing the incredible theme tune by Fabio Frizzi. At the very least I would get a kick out of the music. However, I went in with low and grimy expectations, thinking I may not even make it very far into a morally bankrupt and poorly made exploitation horror.
The film was marketed as a sequel to George Romero’s classic, Dawn of the Dead (1978) (Dawn being marketed as “Zombi” in europe)but as a fellow “nasty” reviewer, Lampyman101, once pointed out “if it’s Italian and it’s a sequel, chances are it’s probably not a sequel”. The story is straightforward, as is most of the plot development. It opens with an apparently abandoned sail boat floating into New York. When investigated a policeman is attacked by a big fat zombie. The daughter of the owner of the yacht is informed and her and a group (of not fully developed but functional enough characters) head off to the island of Matool, from whence it came, where it turns out a voodoo curse is returning the dead to life as her father’s doctor buddy struggles to work out what’s happening and cope with the plague of the zombies.
Okay, from here on in I might as well just list off the things that impressed me in Lucio Fulci’s Zombie Flesh Eaters. Initially, the gore wasn’t working for me. The fat zombie at the beginning – reminiscent of the big fellow in Shaun of the Dead (2004) or the arcade game House of the Dead III (2002) – looked fairly mediocre, and as the infamous eye scene approached I was scared to watch but when it came to it I was presented with a rather unimpressive, and silly death scene. However, as the film progressed it went from strength to strength as I started to get into the films own world and set of rules. The zombies soon turned out to be some of the best I’d seen on screen. I can’t say I’d ever seen zombies with worms in their heads, and saying that, it isn’t as stomach churning as you’d expect, but it looks about right for the dead returned to life. The make up isn’t in the league of some films, such as Day of the Dead (1985) but the overall impression works really well – they come across as an X-rated version of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. What most impressed me, however, was the zombies rising from the earth. This for me is a key part of the appeal of zombie mythology, and as far as I can remember, is omitted in Romero’s genre staples, and many others who focus on the epidemic of zombies rather than their initial appearance. Moreover, as the film continued I found myself fairly enjoying some of the gore scenes, truly gross but as in the general tone of the film, although explicit, the violence doesn’t come across as as traumatising or malevolent like the majority of films in this field, and makes it seems a little less bannable (the film being a video nasty in the UK) than I would have expected.
The cinematography was very impressive – I expected most of the films creative efforts to be in the make up effects, but very early on the way it was shot really stood out, although I did of course have low expectations. The scale and variety of locations was refreshing given the closed and claustrophobic nature of most films of the genre and meant the general look was great to see. Lush island scenery, and comic book zombies.
Of course I can’t review this film without mentioning the shark scene. A girl goes scuba diving – topless of course – it’s Italian! Whilst hiding from a passing shark she encounters an underwater zombie – WTF!? She escapes but the shark takes on the zombie. Uh-oh! On the surface level it’s a pretty amazing scene but for myself you can’t help but wonder about the treatment of the animal here. The zombie was the shark’s trainer but with Italian’s horrors bad record for treatment of animals we can’t be too certain how ethical the training was. But certainly it is something to behold.
To conclude, the film is of course ropey in places (often the editing diminishes the quality of the cinematography) and has many questionable moments (be it sexism, dodgy animal treatment or just general nastiness) but the tight pace means it all keeps moving along nicely enough and keeps it fairly harmless overall, considering its constituent parts. My mind is nudging me to say, in a top ten zombie films list, this would rank closely after George Romero’s films, this sounds impossible but this is a strange case, and yes I’m pretty impressed. Zombie Flesh Eaters, at least, certainly lives up to it’s name. It delivers the guts but is not of the calibre of its rivals. Whereas Dawn is a film, this is a movie – and a fairly sleazy one a that, but not as depraved as you may expect (in fact probably less squeam-inducing than Romero’s Day of the Dead) and if you enjoy zombie films I’m sure there’s definitely an enjoyable, if lonely, night’s viewing in here.
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