Movies •Books •Music •Food •Tv Shows •Technology •Politics •Video Games •Parenting •Fashion •Green Living •more >

Lunch » Tags » Movies » Reviews » Zombie » User review

Zombie

1979 film directed by Lucio Fulci

Edit Topic

< read all 3 reviews

Another one of Fulci's barely average romps considered a masterpiece.

Sep 23, 2011

by Madpenguin
posted in Movie Hype

Rating:

When a boat turns up in the New York Harbor, a Coast Guard patrol team begins to investigate. After an encounter with a zombie leaves one dead, the police soon get involved. The boat happens to belong to the father of Ann Bowles (Tisa Farrow), who happens to be missing. Not having too much faith in the police story. Ann joins together with a reporter named Peter Deston (Ian McCulloch) in an attempt to uncover his whereabouts. Their search unites them with a couple named Brian (Al Cliver) and Susan (Auretta Gay). Together they sail to the island of Matool in search for some answers.-summary

The title cult classic alone is frightening enough at times these days, but when cult classic is mentioned in the same breath with Lucio Fulci, it's down right terrifying for me. Face it, the term cult classic a majority of the time means "garbage that I like", and Fulci's films developed a reputation for a lot of people, as being garbage that some people like. At least to me, Zombie directed by Lucio Fulci doesn't fall into the garbage category, but it's cutting it somewhat close. This film actually gets worse every time I watch it.

There are two reasons why I somewhat enjoy Zombie. The first reason has to be the zombies appearance. I have never seen a real zombie before, but I'm sure if I saw these, I would more than likely be scared out of my mind. The make up artist out did themselves here. I would go so far to say that Zombie actually raised the bar and set the standard on what a zombie should look like. And up to this day, even though a couple are very close, I haven't seen a zombie film yet that can really compare. I haven't seen them all but I've seen a lot. I mean these zombies truly look like the living dead. They are completely decayed with earth worms running out the eyes. The make up is excellent. Zombie definitely overachieved in its style.

Reason number two is the gore. You have the famous eyeball scene, a few zombie all you can eat buffets, and some good killing altogether. The zombies take some realistic and flesh eating bites. The film definitely gave me what I want in a zombie movie, which is humans and zombies killing each other. This is another area where Zombie overachieved for me.

However, like almost all of Fulci's films that I've seen. He gets a few things right, but overall his films are very hard to sit through. I still cannot seem to understand what was the purpose behind a zombie fighting a shark. I find this scene worthless and nothing short of stupid. I do not find it anywhere near "cool" or "awesome". To include, the characters are just too unrealistic even for a horror film. While heading towards the end when the surviving main characters are fighting the undead. The doctor who has been killing these creatures for god knows how long never shares the info that a bullet to the head is what takes them down for good. I'm not exactly sure about this; But is it possible that could have been valuable information? Nah... Not at all.

This is an Italian film, so don't expect much from the acting, in which, I wasn't impressed at all anyway. There are some creepy moments with the most notable being the very first scene. I believe this scene which took place at the boat had the best build up in the movie. Since the viewer already knows the basic premise is a zombie attack. The very cramped quarters does an excellent job building suspense. You know something is going to happen. You just don't know when and how. Unfortunately, the film also has some boring moments due to its pacing. I found the pacing pretty bad, but when things finally picked up. The film no longer became a serious chore to watch.

Many fans advise possible viewers when it comes down to Italian films, Fulci's among many; one should forget the story and plot, and just watch the gore and laugh. Perhaps this is the secret to fool themselves into believing that Fulci was actually a genius, and most Italian horror is actually art. Well, some of these folks have been telling themselves that for more than twenty years. I just wonder how many actually believe that.

I highly recommend Zombie to die hard zombie maniacs, Fulci, and Italian horror fans. Since I'm a zombie maniac, I suppose this will forever be apart of my collection. But don't ever expect me to call it great, or a classic heaven forbid. This is a guilty pleasure and nothing more.

Pros:
-Great gore and zombie make up

Cons:
-Unrealistic characters, weak plot, worthless scenes, tedious

What did you think of this review?

Helpful

Thought-Provoking

Fun to Read

Well-Organized

Post a Comment

woopak_the_thrill September 24, 2011

My older brother really liked this one, me, not as much (he loved it). But it is worth keeping for me. I think like me, your feelings with Fulci is uneven...

Madpenguin September 24, 2011

Fulci had good ideas but horrendous to middle of the road execution at times. I'm not exactly uneven with him, because I don't like a majority of his work. This and Beyond are blade running on the borderline for me. While a lot of the others are just straight garbage.

woopak_the_thrill September 24, 2011

How'd you feel about DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING?

Madpenguin September 24, 2011

Man... I actually have to see that again. I was middle of the road with that one for a very long time. I'm a try to get to that so my review can speak for me.

show text editor

reply to this comment

Follow this review

FM_ALEX September 24, 2011

I actually really enjoy this one.

Madpenguin September 24, 2011

I see why so many people enjoy it. But it doesn't work that well for me.

show text editor

reply to this comment

Follow this review

More Zombie reviews

review by ryguy4738. July 13, 2011

posted in Movie Hype

Second time's the charm with this fleshy bit of fun.

*** out of **** I'm always willing to give a film a second chance unless I really, really hated it. I didn't really, really hate Lucio Fulci's "Zombie", so I decided to watch it again; this time with original Italian Audio (with English Subtitles), and a mood that was acceptable for this kind of movie. Fulci's film is a solid one, at best. At worst, people could see it as stupid and meaningless; as I once did. But this time, when I watched it and gave … more

Comments (1) Compliments (12)

review by cenobite7. May 05, 2009

posted in Movie Hype

Zombie Classick

If one must speak of the Citizen Kane as far as zombie films concerned, I think one would probably mention either Romero's Dawn of the Dead or Fulci's Zombie. In fact, I almost hate to mention both in the same sentence as they are two different works of art & have very little in common although Zombie was marketed as a sequel to Dawn of the Dead only in Italy. Fulci was, hands down, the king of splatter films in his time & don't think there ever was another director … more

Comments (17) Compliments (34)

see all Zombie reviews (3)

About the reviewer

Madpenguin
Ranked #2

Serious gamer and hardcore comic reader. Currently in my Nintendo Wii U: Currently … more

Consider the Source

Use Trust Points to see how much you can rely on this review.

Storm Warning (movie)

The Children

Eden Lake

Trick 'r Treat

rate more to improve this

Recent reviews by Madpenguin

Transformers Regeneration
a review of Transformers: Regeneration One Vol. ...

Conan PS3
a review of Conan [PS3]

Nova 1: Annihilation - Conquest
a review of Nova 1: Annihilation - Conquest

see more reviews

About this movie

Wiki

Zombi 2 (also known as Zombie, Island of the Living Dead, Zombie Island, Zombie Flesh Eaters and Woodoo) is a 1979 zombie horror film directed by Lucio Fulci. It is the best-known of Fulci's films.^[1] The movie made Fulci a horror icon. Despite the fact that the title alludes to the film being a sequel to Zombi (the Italian title of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead), the films are unrelated. When the film was released in 1979, it was scorned for its extremely bloody content notably by the at the time Conservative British Parliament.^[2].