ZOMBIE ZOMBIE (ZOMBI 2) (ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS)
(director: Lucio Fulci;screenwriter: Elisa Briganti; cinematographer: Roberto Forges Davanzati; editor: Vincenzo Tomassi; music: Fabio Frizzi/Giorgio Tucci; cast: Ian McCulloch (Peter West), Tisa Farrow (Ann Bowles), Richard Johnson (Dr. Menard), Al Cliver (Brian Hull), Auretta Gay (Susan Barrett), Olga Karlatos (Menards Freundin), Stefania D’Amario (Nurse); Runtime: 85; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Ugo Tucci/ Fabrizio Deangelis; Variety Films/The Jerry Gross Organization; 1979-Italy-dubbed in English)
“A guilty pleasure exploitation zombie flick.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
director: Lucio Fulci;screenwriter: Elisa directed with a flair for gore by the overrated Italian horror filmmaker Lucio Fulci (“Gates of Hell”/”The Beyond”). It’s written as pulp by Elisa Briganti, and is seemingly an early rip-off of George Romero’s popular Dawn of the Dead (1978).
In New York City harbor two harbor patrol officers search an abandoned yacht, when a huge zombie suddenly emerges from below deck to kill one of the officers. NY newspaper reporter Peter West (Ian McCulloch) is assigned by his editor to do a story on the strange incident. Peter thereby meets Ann Bowles (Tisa Farrow, sister of Mia), the daughter of the missing research scientist yacht owner, who is concerned about not seeing her missing dad for a few months. The newspaper gets the couple transportation to the Antilles and the couple talk a vacationing boat owning American couple, the ethnologist Brian Hull (Al Cliver) and his scuba diving lady friend Susan Barrett (Auretta Gay), into taking them to the mystery island of Matul where Bowles was last seen.
On the eerie voodoo island they meet madman research scientist Dr. Menard (Richard Johnson), who runs a hospital to experiment on the dead and by accident revives the corpses through ancient voodoo rites. The flesh-eating zombies start multiplying, and Menard can’t stop it.
The zombies emerge in large numbers from the underground, and the four adventurers fight to survive their attacks.To keep an interest in the dull film, you can make a prop bet on who gets killed first and who survives in the end. Other than taking in a shark attack, a hard to watch “eye splinter” assault scene, a few gratuitous titty shots and a zombie takeover of the island, there’s not much to say about a film the filmmaker thinks he nailed it when he comes up with novel ways for his gruesome looking zombies to kill ugly.
REVIEWED ON 7/7/2019 GRADE: C+
REVIEWED ON 7/7/2019 GRADE: C+
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