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Post by Quorthon on Mar 30, 2005 9:19:38 GMT -5
Notice: For simplicity's sake, I mangled this one into a poll, (which I may do from this point on) so that anyone else who's seen it can log their opinion if they don't feel like adding a full review. Rather a choice of stars or something, I wrote a bunch of wackiness in descending postivity!
Zombie
1980
Color
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Unrated Version
This is one of Italian director, Lucio Fulci’s, gems. It was made in response to George A. Romero’s fantastic zombie flick Dawn of the Dead (1978), which was titled "Zombi" in Italy, and it shows. First off, the acting is not superb, in fact it was filmed in Italian—despite taking place in New York and (I believe) the Caribbean. However, some of the English dubbing actually seems synced well for some characters, and synced extremely poorly for others. It lends to an idea that some of the actors may have been acting in English—but the dubbing is a minor problem. No one really watches a Fulci film for the intense dialogue anyway. We’re here for a fairly decent story with plenty of gore. And Zombie delivers perfectly.
(Story Synopsis may contain Spoilers)
A boat floats into New York and has a zombie on board. The boat belongs to some chick’s father. Eventually the chick and a reporter find out that they need to go to the Caribbean to solve the mystery of her father’s death and need to visit with the scientist that Daddy worked with. They team up with a couple that agree to take them out to find the island with Daddy’s doctor buddy. The new chick we meet likes to go scuba diving topless, which is a real plus for us male horror fans. During her swimming time, she is confronted by a zombie underwater but manages to get away and we are treated to a stunning scene of a zombie attacking a shark. Fantastic. Eventually they get to the island and the doctor is studying to find, I believe, a cure for the island zombie-ism. The zombies, by the way, are caused by the old fashioned idea of Voodoo. Eventually the zombies over-run the island and have the few remaining humans cornered, and we’re treated to a lot of shooting, burning, blood, and gore in a chapel. (End Possible Spoilerama)
Overall, this film has pretty good atmosphere. The zombie effects are absolutely incredible—some of the best I’ve ever seen and appear to have been the influence for Capcom’s Resident Evil video games. There are, however, from time to time some pretty stale looking zombies made for the purpose of having the head explode or something similarly gory happen, so not much movement happens in the faces. But that’s a pretty minor complaint; overall the zombies still look awesome. The gore really flies and looks outstanding through and through. The acting is… well, passable. Not great, not terrible—you can never expect too much from dubs anyway. Every now and then it’s pretty entertaining, whether intentional or not. If you can, go for the unrated version, in fact, if you can, go for the unrated version of every movie. During the chapel scene at the climax of the film, the same explosion from a Molotov cocktail seems to have been used about four times, probably to save money, but it’s painfully obvious. Personally, I believe the characters work pretty well and the story is, for the most part, fairly clear but not overly strong. But as a pure violence and gore-coated zombie movie, this is one of the best.
Acting: 5/10
Violence/Gore: 8/10
Nudity/Sexuality: 5/10
Story: 5/10
Atmosphere: 7/10
Special Effects/Make-up: 8/10
Cheesiness: 6/10
Overall: 8/10
Crappiness: 1/10
An excellent horror movie for zombie freaks and gore hounds. Everyone else may want to avoid it, although, it's better than a lot of zombie-horror, so go for it horror fans!
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Post by Phoenix on Mar 30, 2005 10:54:51 GMT -5
One of my favorite italian horror films! But I gotta agree Quorthon it's best viewed by fans of the genre.
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Post by Bartwald on Mar 30, 2005 23:26:49 GMT -5
For fans of the genre - but it's one great movie and definitely one of the few best zombie films; come on: the undead versus the shark? - who would not like to see THIS? ;D
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Post by slayrrr666 on Nov 1, 2005 16:33:38 GMT -5
"Zombie 2" is the best Italian zombie film of all time.
**SPOILERS**
A ship is found floating in New York harbor. Investigating the incident, two police officers find a zombie. One dies, but the other is able to shot the zombie dead. This leads to a media frenzy that catches the attention of Anne Bowles, (Tisa Farrow) whose father owns the boat. Reporter Peter West (Ian McCulloch) is assigned to the story, and meets up with Anne. On board, they find a letter written to her from her father saying that he had a contracted a strange disease off the Caribbean island of Matool, and they learn of a couple, Brian Hull, (Al Cliver) and Susan Barrett, (Auretta Gay) who are heading to the island. After a narrow escape skin-diving, meeting up with a shark and a zombie, they arrive at the island. Once there, they meet up with Dr. Menard, (Richard Johnson) his wife Paola, (Olga Karlatos) and his assistant Missey, (Stefania D'Amario) and are given shelter until they can repair the boat and leave. On the island, a strange disease has infected the population, causing the locals to rise up after death. Laughing it off as a voodoo superstition, it proves real, and the dead conquistadors who visited the island long ago rise up as well. Everyone is forced to band together to fight off the undead, and only a few remain alive to discover that the plague has spread all over the world.
The Good News: This has to be the best Italian zombie film. The movie is already famous for so many things that I wouldn't know where to begin. The one scene that I had heard so much about and was really excited to finally see it was the eye scene. Fans of the film know what I'm talking about, but to those unfamiliar with the scene, I'll try to lay it out: After getting out of the shower, a woman is paranoid that someone is stalking her. She braces the door and looks relieved. Then, a hand breaks through the wooden door and grabs her hair and begins pulling her. She is lead right into a large wooden spike broken off from the door, and it pierces her eye. It goes all the way in, then is broken off in her eye and she is lead away. The beauty of this scene is that it takes so long to be shown that you are left in suspense wondering how close it would get to her eye before it cuts away, and you realize that the director isn't going to cut away. At that point, you realize how close the spike is and that she is very slowly being dragged into the spike. It is such a great scene and is one that I praise endlessly to all those who love to see such scenes. Another wonderful surprise when I first saw it was the simply grotesque zombies seen in the movie. I was really getting tired of seeing zombies that simply looked like they put a scar on the body, slapped make-up on the faces, and told them to shuffle around very slowly. True, the zombies here also shuffle around, but it's what they look like when they shuffle. This is the first film I have seen where the zombies look decayed and rotten. It really was like the zombies were dead for several hundred years. The dark brown made them look dirty and earth-like, which was so much better than seeing someone who had a few drops of make-up put on and are called zombies. That is the main reason why I don't like Romero's zombies: they don't look like zombies compared to these zombies, and I saw both films right around the same time. These zombies blow all other zombies out of the water. The rest of the film is great as well: it moves so fast that you don't realize it is only a complete hour and a half. You are caught up in what was going on so much that you lose all comprehension of time. Fulci clearly made an effort to have a rational storyline, much more than in following films and it comes across beautifully, as does the gore. This is one gory film, but "Dawn" does blow it away here in terms of gore. Still, gore-hounds will love this one, as there is no shortage of head-kills, limb dismemberment, piercing, skin ripped off, and also a full scene of a person being devoured by zombies. Really big here in terms of gore. I wish I could say more that's great about this film, but it does have it all. I even found that it had a large number of jumps. I can't name my favorite, because "Zombie 2" has a lot of great jumps. It caught me off guard, as there was the traditional thing-popping-into-the-screen, but there was also really thought out jumps and long suspense scenes, such as the eye scene. There is too much to explain: just watch it and see for yourself.
The Bad News: Aside from the zombie vs. shark scene being too short, I find no flaws here.
The Final Verdict: This film is all that a zombie fan could ask for: very high gore, nudity, lots of action, tons of jumps, really cool-looking zombies, comprehensive storyline, original setting, it has it all. Truly seek this one out if you call yourself even a small fan of zombie films, it will entertain to no end. Steer clear of this one if watching extreme violence is upsetting to you.
Rated NC-17: Extreme Graphic Violence, Nudity, and mild Language
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Post by Quorthon on Nov 2, 2005 15:24:37 GMT -5
Where did you find an NC-17 version of this film? My copy is unrated.
You are right that the zombies look absolutely fantastic--but these guys have been dead for a while. A lot of Romero zombies are "recently deceased," which may be why they look so tame.
If you want to see zombies that look that good again, look no further than Resident Evil. Not the original game, or the relatively crappy movie--I'm talking about the GameCube remake of the first Resident Evil game. They look almost exactly like Fucli's undead from Zombie.
By the way, in case you didn't read my review, Zombi 3 is crap. Just awful.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Nov 2, 2005 15:39:04 GMT -5
I had to put a rating on it, because mine too is unrated, but R seemed to light a rating to put on it. I don't dare show it to my younger sister, who is starting to get into horror films (we may have another crapics loving freak in the house, Q!!) and NC-17 felt like the perfect rating to attach to it. It is unrated, but I felt it captured the quality of the gore and abundant nudity quite well. It's intense suspense also helps make the gore stronger, and the realistic-ness of it also bring the score up as well, which is how I view films.
What's your favorite zombie design in a movie, Q? You watch so many of them, what's you all time favorite creepy design? I love "Burial Ground's" zombies myself, and if we're talking American zombies, (Italians do it so better) I'd have to go with "Land of the Dead." Decayed and rotting, that's what I think of when I think of zombies.
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Post by Quorthon on Nov 2, 2005 15:47:04 GMT -5
Best zombies.... hmmmm....
That's though. You know, Fulci's in Zombie are just brilliant looking.... But Romero's look good and have some personality. Clown zombie, butcher zombie, police zombie, soldier zombie, baker zombie, biker zombie, fat zombie, nude zombie .... Bub....
I think Day of the Dead's zombies are near the top of that list. They're probably my favorite--they look really gross and have some personality to them. Fulci's just look incredibly gross--and an awful lot like the ones in the Resident Evil remake.
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Post by slayrrr666 on Nov 2, 2005 15:50:27 GMT -5
Well, everyone has they're favorites. I prefer the dead for centuries look, but I do agree, Day has some cool looking ones, and what can you say about Bub? A cool zombie that only gets more charming the more you see him.
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Post by Quorthon on Nov 2, 2005 15:53:51 GMT -5
Well, everyone has they're favorites. I prefer the dead for centuries look, but I do agree, Day has some cool looking ones, and what can you say about Bub? A cool zombie that only gets more charming the more you see him. I want an action figure of Bub. I wish McFarlane would make one. He'd look so cool next to the Thing, the Fly, and Pumpkinhead! |
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Post by frankenjohn on Nov 2, 2005 17:00:31 GMT -5
Bub. Heh heh. He was like a dog. "Mommy, I want a Bub! Harry Cornwallis got one and so did Sally Perkins! PLEASE, MOMMY! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!" This makes no sense but it does: "Dawn of the Dead" is my favorite horror film of all time, but "Day of the Dead" is my favorite of the trilogy. BTW, "Zombie" Rocks!  |
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Post by slayrrr666 on Nov 2, 2005 17:08:40 GMT -5
Harry Cornwallis, Sally Perkins, I know I've heard those names before, just can't remember where.
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Post by Quorthon on Nov 2, 2005 17:35:29 GMT -5
Bub. Heh heh. He was like a dog. "Mommy, I want a Bub! Harry Cornwallis got one and so did Sally Perkins! PLEASE, MOMMY! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!" This makes no sense but it does: "Dawn of the Dead" is my favorite horror film of all time, but "Day of the Dead" is my favorite of the trilogy. BTW, "Zombie" Rocks! I take it then you have the GIGANTIC box set with all three versions of Dawn, then, right? Because I know I do. And I love it. |
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Post by slayrrr666 on Nov 2, 2005 20:56:42 GMT -5
I take it then you have the GIGANTIC box set with all three versions of Dawn, then, right? Because I know I do. And I love it.[/quote] I do, Q. It's actually a four disc set, with three different versions of the movie on the first three discs, and a fourth disc containing some wicked docs about the history of the movie. It's one of the best presentations for a DVD ever. |
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Post by frankenjohn on Nov 2, 2005 21:07:44 GMT -5
Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.
I found the box set in my parent's room. It was supposed to be for Christmas. The cover is messed up (natrually) too, so that rules. And yes, that means I do own the box set. I'm giving my single-disc version to my friend Fred with "NOTLD."
Ummm, Slayrrr, maybe...General Cornwallis and Anthony Perkins? I didn't get the idea to use their names, though. I just though of "common" names to use (yes, I find Cornwallis normal).
Why am I making such long posts all of the sudden?
And whatever happened to me posting a new review every week? ;D
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Post by Quorthon on Nov 2, 2005 23:04:12 GMT -5
I do, Q. It's actually a four disc set, with three different versions of the movie on the first three discs, and a fourth disc containing some wicked docs about the history of the movie. It's one of the best presentations for a DVD ever. Yeah, four disks, a booklet, and a comic book. Magic. Hey Frank, I also got it for Christmas--but last year. The only disk I haven't watched was Argento's European cut of the film--with Romero's funny stuff cut out. |
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