Land of the Dead hits theaters this Friday, but do you know about Zombie? If you're serious about the undead, you owe it to yourself to take a gander at this gloriously gory classic.
When
Dawn of the Dead was released in 1978, it was called Zombie overseas. When the Italian film called
Zombie was released, it was called
Zombie (or,
Zombi)
2 overseas to cash in on
Dawn's success and lure people into thinking they were seeing a sequel to Romero's groundbreaking film. In the U.S.,
Zombie was relegated to second-run movie houses and late-night showings, partially due to its unclassified rating by the MPAA (the tagline for the movie was "We are going to eat you!" and it would have probably been rated X). Unlike Romero's movie, though,
Zombie takes place on an island, where the dead seem to be returning to life. No explanation is ever given, but everyone suspects it may be a Voodoo ritual, as a steady rhythmic beat is always present in the background at different volumes. The story concerns a reporter trying to help a woman find her father, and, together with a sailor and his wife, they set out to find the missing man. Once the hapless searchers reach the island, though, there's shock after shock, and it all climaxes in a church-turned-hospital shoot-out followed by a "twist" ending.
Sure, Zombie can be disregarded as a cheap gore show, but the movie packs plenty of style, atmosphere, and some excellent special effects. Some unforgettable moments include an (unintentionally) humorous fight between a zombie and a shark, a graphic throat-ripping, and the classic topper where Olga Karlatos has a wood splinter shoved into her eye. These effects hold their own, even in today's computer-generated world. The director, Lucio Fulci, would go on to direct several other gory movies (such as The Beyond and The Gates of Hell, but he never topped what was produced here.
Zombie was available from a variety of publishers in the past, and the print quality barely qualified as above average. The colors were usually mushy, and fuzzy, and the music score was muted. All that changed last year, as
Zombie became available in two DVD versions of
Zombie--one from Blue Underground, the other from Media Blasters. First off, the print that was struck (reportedly from the original camera negative) is drop-dead gorgeous, with razor-sharp details and vibrant colors that bring the wandering corpses and oh-I-can't-look carnage to life. In terms of extras,
Blue Underground version (titled
Zombie) is kinda light (it's only one disc), but it does have the original Italian dialogue track (the movie was shot with American and Italian actors speaking their native tongues, and all the dialogue was dubbed into English for the U.S. release and Italian for that country's release).
Media Blasters' 25th Anniversary Special Edition (called
Zombi 2) is a two-disc set with tons of extra features, including interviews with the cast and crew (don't miss the part where one of the interviewees picks his nose on camera), and a still gallery with images of scenes that were deleted from the movie (such as the zombie rising out of the water just off Manhattan). It also comes with a reproduction of the original Italian theatrical poster.
If you are a fan of zombie movies, but this one slipped under your radar, now is the time to check out a cult classic.
