Director: Lucio Fulci
Starring: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson
The film was titled Zombi 2 to cash in on Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) which was released in Italy as Zombi. The two films are unrelated. In 1984 this title was added to the UK's 'video nasty' list and banned. The uncut version I'm talking about today was not released in the UK until 2005.
The story begins with an apparently abandoned sail boat, heading towards New York. When the police investigate they are attacked by a huuuge zombie. This towering monster gets straight to business by ripping a cops throat out. Cue lingering close ups of jetting blood.
It transpires that the owner of the boat is missing somewhere in the Antilles and his daughter, Anne, is desperate to find out what happened to him. Whilst snooping around the boat she runs into Peter, a journalist, who is also hot on the story. Finding a letter from Anne's father, the pair rashly head off to the island of Matul to track him down.
On the island Dr Menard is studying a strange disease affecting the locals which appears to be resurrecting the dead. The hospital where he works is vile. The dead and dying lie in rows covered in grimy, bloodstained sheets and the only treatment is a high velocity injection of lead between the eyes.
Anne and Peter hitch a ride over to the island with a couple of sightseers, one of whom has a near miss whilst diving with both a shark AND a zombie! Definitely one of my favourite scenes from the movie, and I suspect guys will enjoy it even more due to the incredibly teeny tiny bikini worn by the hot diver.
The action moves at a leisurely pace for the first 40 minutes. In theory, switching focus between the island and the travellers should add interest but I felt that it stalled the momentum and prevented tension from growing.
When the group reach the island and Menard briefs them on the situation they exhibit little surprise. Even when they visit the doctor's house and find a group of zombies chowing down on feast of entrails they remain remarkably stoic.
There is also a lack of screaming in the picture. Screams are reserved for when things get really, really bad. For example the eyeball scene. This one I won't spoil for you, but there is no wonder it was cut from the theatrical version.
Escaping the villa, the group stumble into a long forgotten burial ground which provides an opportunity to show the distinctive melted-waxy zombies in their full glory. When one of them popped out of the ground with real worms wriggling in its eye socket it almost put me off my spaghetti.
Unfortunately I found the final showdown a bit of a disappointment. The somnambulent zombies are so slow and dense that despite their number it is difficult to be afraid. The sequence is also let down by continuity errors and the complete feebleness of the female characters.
I recognise that this film was sensational in its day and the scenes of gore and bloody special effects stand up very well even after 30+ years, but as a whole the film doesn't build up the necesary suspense to really hit home with the shocks. It's a vivid feast for the eyes but I feel that I would have enjoyed it more if it was half the length and lost the dialogue completely. In my humble opinion the film rates a 6/10.
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