The ‘Zombi’ series up to this point? has hardly been the bastion of continuity, but its a series I almost feel compelled to respect out of the sheer GAUL of the concept of this series. SOMEONE ACTUALLY sat there and went ‘Hey, y’know ‘Dawn of the dead’ yeah? that revolutionary zombie movie that helped shape the future of horror and zombie cinema for the next 50+ years yeah? Well in Italy its called ‘Zombi’, and Italian copyright laws were written on a cocktail napkin…so lets just…make up a sequel thats *Technically* a prequel and get a famous Italian horror director in to direct it…and we’ll call it ‘Zombi 2!’ GENIUS.

and…it kind of was!? Like…I dont think ‘Zombi 2’ (or ‘Zombie’ or ‘Zombie flesh eaters’ if your british) was anywhere near as influential as ‘Dawn’ but it cant be denied that the film really helped spin up a kind of alternate WAY more realistically gory iteration of the zombie, at a time when the whole concept was really still cooking…

WELL! almost 10 years after ‘Zombi 2’ lurched its way onto screens, some KERRAZY Italian producers hired Fulci back to make a sequel to his original work and ‘Zombi 3’ became a thing! Only…it almost didnt, because Fulci wasnt a fan of the script, to the point that between him and his daughter, the pair ‘maliciously complianced’ the CRAP out of the script, essentially blunting down what was supposed to be a campy supernatural horror film about black magic rituals and cannibalistic islanders raising the dead into ‘a group of people get caught up in a zombie uprising and try to hold out long enough to survive across a handful of locations.’

And to complicate matters even further! Fulci had a stroke after handing in a VERY rough 70 minute cut of the footage he’d shot up to that point (six weeks into the production) and had to leave the production early, with no chance of completion, Which left the producers in a spot because (allegedly) 20 minutes of that was just footage of the main cast canoeing up and down a river.

SO! They got Claudio Fragasso and Bruno Mattei, who just so happened to be ALSO working on a movie in the phillipines around the same time Fulci was taken ill, to pivot this flattened out script away from black magic supernaturalism, and into a more action/science fiction oriented production…and the results, are the best kind of messy I can describe.

So the films plot is basically as described above, We open with two scientists experimenting with a chemical compound called ‘Death-1’ which seemingly reanimates anything that comes into contact with it, with slimey/explodey results. Its…quite horrific honestly, so much so that the lead doctor on the project ends up calling his boss, one ‘General Morton’ of the military to explain that the project is too much for him to handle, and he wants to revert it back to the military. Morton obliges, but during the pick up and collection of ‘Death-1’ a raid occurs and the single surviving viral sample is stolen by theives who lead the military out into the jungle while trying to go into hiding.

Unfortunately for the theives, one of the militaries ariel corps manages to land a shot on the guy carrying the briefcase, and in doing so wounds the man, and breaks the case open, smashing the vial of ‘Death-1’ all over the crooks hand. He flees to a local motel to try and lie low. But its too late and a terrifying transformation begins. and from there things begin to spiral, as the military try to cover up a zombie incident in the motel by burning the corpse of ‘Patient zero’, they accidentally send infected ashes into the air, which infects the bird population in the area and turns all of them into rabid flesh hungry beasts who, on attacking the locals ALSO infect them with the zombie virus too.

and from there, we follow a rag tag group of survivors as they experience the spreading of the virus, manage to survive it, and eventually band together as a group of uninfected to escape the contamination zone, avoiding zombies AND the militaries ‘Clean up’ team, who have been ordered to essentially genocide the contamination zone as a way of trying to control the spread of the virus (which itself is a subplot, as the doctor who quit his role, begins arguing virology to General Morton, who really just…doesnt seem to care…)

And im going to be blunt when I say this, is this the most original film in the world? absolutely not, 50% of this film is essentially a campy poor mans ‘Day of the dead’ with 40% being made up of elements of almost every zombie movie from 1968 through to the present day of ’88. With notable ‘lifts’ coming from ‘Dawn of the dead’, ‘Return of the living dead’, ‘Zombie Flesh Eaters’, ‘Doctor Butcher M.D’ and ‘Hell of the living dead’. But is this film a fun rollercoaster ride through the ‘greatest hits of zombie movies’ and then some?! You better believe it!

The one and only major issue I have with this film is the pacing of its script. The first act is positively breakneck, unrelentingly dropping SO much lore, and character background and information for you to keep in mind as the film goes on, it feels like its setting up some kind of incoherent ‘epic’…which…it kind of is really! The second act builds on that fast paced energy and throws some UTTERLY bizzare curve balls (Flying Fridge head is all im gonna say on THAT front!)

But its the second half of the second act where it kind of starts to lose me a bit. the pacing begins to slow down, to rev down, it starts getting bogged down in setting up its own finale and by the time the 3rd act had really started to get underway, it was crawling. by the end, i’d very much felt like it had overstayed its welcome. Despite the ending being more than solid enough. This probably would have been a great hour and 15 to hour and 20 with heavy trims to the third act specifically, but that pacing really kind of hobbled what would have probably been one of the best Italian Zombie movies ever made for me.

Outside of that though? I had no real issues with this at all, its a somewhat campy zombie horror film that is taking itself seriously as a production, while absolutely NOT being afraid to be tongue in cheek about itself, its confident in what it wants to be, and the pairing on script duties of Fragasso and his partner, along with Fulcis tweaks has produced a film that I feel has just enough of the supernatural and ‘unknown’ to keep it weird, but just enough of the ‘butch’ action/sci fi stuff to really make things go with a bang (sometimes quite literally!)

The plot itself is a dogs dinner, im not going to lie. it skips around between WAY too many characters, it doesnt really try to balance anything out properly, geographically; its hard to tell where everyone is in relation to each other, and the tone shifts up and down like a slide whistle.

Its a bad script, but its an entertaining script, one that rarely if ever has dull moments. is genuinely surprising in places and given the behind the scenes dramas, its amazing something so fun and coherent was able to be churned out on such short notice. its not elegant, its not considered, and its hardly original, but I guarentee, if you’ve ever played any of the ‘resident evil’, ‘silent hill’ or ‘left 4 dead’ games, you’ll feel SUPER at home here with the pacing style and aesthetics of this storytelling.

The characters are all VERY hammy and minimally scripted, we basically get just enough background to get a vibe for the character, the events that led to them finding the wider group of ‘survivors’ and from there, its all about staying alive for these guys and gals, while delivering some of THE most faux macho campy dialogue i’ve heard in a long time. I had a BALL even beginning to guess what these guys were going to say next!

As for the direciton? it’s equally messy, but you can at least see each directors influences here, and its a heady brew of strong coloured light work, gore, titilation and explosions. Its not the most competent of productions. But again, given this went through (at least) 3 different directors, all of whome have different fundamental production styles and at least SOME claims to fame between them at this point, Infamous or otherwise.

Whats presented here, is fine. If, like me, you get the most out of these films in the company of friends and a couple of beers, you really wont notice continuity issues as broadly, and the work between the various crews on this production is inconsistent, but it still kind of works for me? we jump from heavily styalised lighting scenes, to clinically lit pieces, to colourful outdoor sequences in a manner I can only describe as ‘ADHD Addled’ and, as a neurodiverse person, I was SO happy with the end result, its a production thats just…racing to get its ideas out as quickly as possible and the coordination between the directors, the cast and the crew results in a largely competent but manic end product that I was glued to for the vast majority.

The cine is much the same, lots of different styles being thrown into a melting pot, a lot of it works great, its nowhere near as ‘iconic’ or ‘memorable’ as the cine work in the original ‘Zombie’, but then, this appeals to me in a different way. the use of smoke and fog machines gives everything a dreamy woozy feeling, the coloured gel work adds to that supernatural undercurrent. the sequences are scattershot and frantic for the most part, colour work is varied and largely great. the edit is an absolute free for all, its chaos cinema at its finest and I had a real soft spot for it.

As for the performances? hamtastic in the best possible way, with Beatrice ring, Ottaviano Dell’Acqua and Robert Marius being definite highlights for me, they have a very over the top physical presence, and that tried and tested method of redubbing the entire audio suite in post lands us with some line deliveries that quite honestly have to be heard to be believed. I dont think there was a single performance in this that I didnt enjoy thoroughly.

All that AND a kickass 80s synth pop, syth rock and general rock soundtrack, the finest of Italia. Timed perfectly with some absolute stunners in the pack. I need the soundtrack for this on vinyl, in my collection as soon as possible.

I say this sincerely, this is probably the best film to recommend to someone who wants to explore the italian zombie movie subgenre. Its not the best technically, the story is a mess and it may not be as iconic as some other Italian zombie films. But its probably the best example of a good quality take on the type of film making your going to be getting into if your new to the genre, and its a self contained story.

Id honestly forgotten how enjoyable ‘Zombi 3’ was, it must be going on for 7-8 years since I last caught it, and I was actually quite surprised at just how pacey it really is as a work. I think with beer and friends, this could be the making of a great evening. and yes, while I know deep down this is kind of a cheap rip off of several other better movies. It is nice to see that AND some original weirdness all just bundled together into a nice neat package that gives you everything you could want in a Zombie movie with a healthy dose of 80s exploitation action and sci-fi to boot!

Definitely recommended, whether your here for the horror, the action or the weirdness…there really is something for anyone into ‘cult’.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/zombie-flesh-eaters-2/