Of course, I own the classic Lucio Fulci (Demonia, The Beyond) zombie horror film Zombie Flesh Eaters (also known as Zombie and Zombi 2). It was one of the earlier films I picked up on DVD, so was surprised to see I hadn't ever reviewed it on this site. With the release of a new 4K version on streaming service ARROW, I figured it was about time I revisit this.
An apparently deserted yacht appears in the New York bay area and two police men are sent to investigate. They discover a strange blood soaked man who attacks and kills one of the officers before his partner ends him. The boat belonged to the doctor uncle of Anne Bowles (Tisa Farrow), someone who she lost contact with three months previous, so she wants to trace where the vessel came from so she can try and locate her uncle. Meanwhile, Peter West (Ian McCulloch - Zombie Holocaust) is a reporter who conveniently enough has been assigned a story on where the boat came from. The two end up meeting up and hiring a boating couple; Brian (Al Cliver - Demonia) and Susan (Auretta Gay). Together they head toward where they believe the boat originated from, an island that the locals see as a cursed place. Eventually arriving there, the group meet Dr. Menard (Richard Johnson), someone who is trying to survive and understand a disease that turns anyone affected into the walking dead.
Initially I was a little underwhelmed with this. In my head, I had been thinking this was Zombie Creeping Flesh, a film that I have fond memories of. Alas, it wasn't that, but it also meant that lots of this was film I had forgotten about. Some parts had stayed with me, the shark versus zombie battle, and especially one very gory scene involving a giant wooden splinter getting impaled through someone's eyeball! I hadn't recalled how relatively slow the film was, with zombies not appearing in force until the final act. I liked this drip feed of undead goodness, with the undead initially shown mainly under sheets. The last twenty minutes is where it really is at, a great siege sequence featuring plenty of ghouls. The make-up for these creatures is make-do at best, a repeated use of effects that kind of look like people have had paper Mache added to their faces, so that they can look suitably rotted, and able to house real worms and maggots. These corpses are able to effortlessly rip victims apart, at least the violence on the victims looked great, lots of spraying blood and torn flesh.
The story is straight forward, but was a classic tale. I loved that the outbreak was already going on by the time the protagonists had arrived. I thought Dr. Menard and his assistant (Stefania D'Amario) were great characters, in over their heads, but a ghoulish curiosity keeping them in the thick of the unfolding chaos. I also appreciated there wasn't ever an explanation for how the outbreak began, locals putting it down to Voodoo, but the doctor convinced it is some sort of natural creation. The island setting gave a bit of a Heart of Darkness vibe to the story, and the simple plot meant it was always easy to understand the motivations of the various characters.
Zombie Flesh Eaters is a classic of the genre, and is yet another statement that to make a good horror featuring the undead you don't need the best make-up effects, less is typically more. This sometimes doesn't have the scope to be able to sell the story beats it is trying to sell, and the dubbing is amusingly terrible at best, but this has a diverse soundtrack and some classic moments of zombie horror. The 4K version of Zombie Flesh Eaters arrives on ARROW on 28th July, and is the best way to currently see this flawed yet undeniable classic.
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