Zombie Review

Written by: Steve Lewis   

Lucio Fulci's notorious zombie cult classic film, Zombie, becomes the unofficial sequel to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead which is called Zombi in Italy.  I can really see this being a sequel to the film.  It gives great effort in mocking the technique and style of Dawn but the Italian cinematography really sticks out like a black sheep.

I have to give credit to Fulci in making more appealing (or in some case stereotypical for today's standard) zombies.  The decay, the blood, and the ..well..disfigurment really capture the fear within you.  Where as Romero's zombies are just grey faced with some blood stains, which is ok because the story and the Savini's special effects add a little kick to it.  Along with the grey, there was chunks of skin (i think) or throw up from where they were dying before hand.  The dead heads were a little slower than in Dawn's which came off as more suspensful yet extravegant because they could always catch up the humans no matter how fast they ran. 

The story has unoticably gaps in it unless you watch it for a second time.  We don't really receive a reason why the good Doctors came to this island in the first place and then end up having to cure a dead to life virus.  Speaking of the dead, we don't really know how the dead comes to life.  Voodoo-ism is mentioned a few times but really not further explanation than that it's a mix of African culture and Spanish Conquistadores catholic orthodox.  To me, this is a big chunk missing.  It doesn't really affect the unity of the movie because it can work both ways but after I watch this film I end up wandering how did they become the way they are.  Now, that I think about it being a sequal to Dawn maybe it's the same reason as given in the Dead series, Radiation?  maybe...

I glad that the camera shots were actually quite different than Dawn because it would just have been a really cheap feeling.  I have one particular favorite scene where a zombie comes out of the ground and attacks a woman.  The editing really makes it intense because the zombie and the woman have sort of a stand off.  Editing back and forth between each character, then he attacks, striking toward the camera as if he was going to take a chunk out of us.  Then, we cut to the zombie at Susan's throat ripping the flesh from her neck.

The cinematography is really the same as every other film.  Pans, tilts, tracking..etc.  We do have some exetreme close ups on intense parts such as the medical examiner's officer with dead cop under the sheets starts to move and when a zombie appears the camera zooms to the face to show how disgusting and threatening it is.  The sound intensifies as the camera does it's exetreme closeups just to add to the effect.  It's all very basic cinematography and score but it's overall effective.

Overall, the movie gets an 8 out of 10.  Execellent film though most think it's a sham.  Take a look, worth a buy.  Out of the three versions that are out (Anchor Bay, Shriek Show, and Blue Underground) the BU edition has a very good transfer.