- Director: Lucio Fulci
- Screenwriter: Elisa Briganti & Dardano Sacchetti
- Starring: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, and Richard Johnson
I'm embarrassed to say that I've only become really well versed in Lucio Fulci in the past 2 years or so. I first saw "Zombie" in January of '09 with my boyfriend, Arron, and I saw "The Beyond" a few weeks later. They're the only Fulci films I've seen, unfortunately, but I'm eager to see more. The man was a gore-hound genius, which is on full display in "Zombie", which is apparently the first horror movie he ever made (although he did make a few gialli earlier, like 1972's "Don't Torture a Duckling"). I haven't seen his earlier work, so I can't comment on how similar or dissimilar they are to his more well-known horror films.
Anyway, I'm proud to say that a second viewing hasn't diminished the film's quality for me. It is a fantastic film that straddles the line between B-movie schlock and horror movie masterpiece quite nicely. The plot, as with most films of this type, is practically nonexistent. There's some fluff about a newspaper reporter going to find the source of a strange attack that occurred on an abandoned boat in New York, and some other stuff about a scientist/doctor that is trying to save the natives of some fictional foreign island named Matook from dying, and some more stuff about voodoo or something, but really, who gives a shit, we want to see some good old zombie action, and "Zombie" delivers that in spades... for the most part.
While I love the film like a fat kid loves cake, there are some things I find fault with. For one, the acting is painful to watch at times, and the characters are practically retarded in the stupid decisions they make that, predictably, get them killed. The main problem for me, though, is that the film starts off incredibly slow, and we don't get any really big zombie action until about an hour into the film, when some of the characters return to the doctor guy's house to find his wife's corpse being devoured by some members of the living dead. I didn't remember much about the film from my first viewing, so seeing it a second time was almost like a completely new experience for me, and I actually found myself thinking, "Well, there aren't a whole lot of zombies in this movie at all."
Luckily, just as I was beginning to think that, the film hit me harder than a semi-truck filled with hammers going at 120 mph. The final 30 minutes of the film is simply one of the best climaxes ever, with a huge shootout inside of an old church as the characters try to hold off the zombies with a smorgasbord of guns and Molotov cocktails. The ending is also surprisingly effective in it's minimalism. While most of the film relies on gore, the ending is actually creepy and foreboding, relying on what we don't see in order to scare us.
Now, most people are probably wondering what I meant when I said that this film straddles the line between B-movie schlock and a horror masterpiece, and it's things like that great ending that make it that way. See, the thing about Italian horror from the 70s to the early 80s is that they usually have simple, pulpy storylines mixed with amazing camerawork and a palpable sense of dread. Italian horror filmmakers often rely not only on gore, but also on slow, suspenseful sequences with very little use of dialogue. As Arron rightly pointed out, if it was an American horror film they'd always constantly have somebody talking. Look at all the Friday the 13th sequels where the characters will walk into an empty room and screech out, "HELLOOOOOO," at a moment's notice.
So, this film successfully balances intense suspense and beautiful camerawork with incredible, mind-bending gore. Not many filmmakers can do that. Also of note is the brilliant main theme by Fabio Frizzi. It's a synthesizer masterpiece, and is actually quite catchy, with a thumping beat and a sinister melody. The rest of the score is interesting as well, for the most part focusing on weird, slightly experimental electronic pieces, and it works, other than the quick cutting between scenes where the music suddenly stops.
Now, that's all well and good, but what I'm glad Fulci didn't forget about was the gore, and - whoo! - there's a lot of it, especially considering the year the film was made. The film uses old-fashioned prosthetic makeup effects, and it looks absolutely amazing for the time, hyper-realistic and disgusting. In most cases it actually looks more convincing than the modern CGI effects Hollywood seems to have such a boner for. Characters die in incredibly graphic, theatrical ways. A woman gets her throat torn out, blood spraying everywhere. A zombie gets shot in the head and a huge chunk of meat flies off with a big splash of blood. A guy gets his ear and cheek bitten off. And, of course, the film features one of the BEST eye-gouging scenes I've ever seen. It's slow and merciless, you keep thinking it's going to cut away but it never does, it shows you everything, it doesn't pussy out like so many horror films do these days.
But, of course, what is a zombie movie without a good slew of zombies for the characters to slaughter and otherwise be devoured by? And wow, the zombies in this film look great. They're some of the coolest filmic zombies ever. They range from rotting, desiccated corpses to freshly dead hospital patients, and that's what I like about it. If a zombie outbreak were ever to happen in real life, this is probably pretty close to what a lot of them would look like.
Some of them would be freshly dead, others would be rotting and gross, and the zombies in this film are not only realistic, but visually interesting. There is, of course, the famous zombie from the poster, with worms falling out of it's eye socket and crooked teeth, but there is also the fat, bloated zombie from the beginning and the weird old woman zombie with her eyes crossed. It's not very often that a zombie film goes out of the way to actually make the zombies look distinct from one another, but Fulci's does, and I appreciate that kind of attention to detail!
Overall, while there isn't much of a plot (I jokingly acted amazed when I read that there was actually a screenwriter on the back of the box) and the acting is almost universally bad, I still had a lot of fun with this film. It doesn't try to be anything but a big, stupid zombie gore-fest, and in that category I believe that this film still hasn't been topped. Fulci had a style that just can't be beat, which mixed creepy, minimalist horror with incredibly violent, gory sequences.
Amid all of this he also uses brilliant, vivid colors, which serves to make the film even more unnerving, and the blood, as in a lot of films from this era, is thick and bright red, and it looks great. This is definitely something you'd watch on a late night with friends. At least, if you're a geeky weirdo like me you would... anyway, gore-hounds have probably already seen this film, but if you consider yourself one and you haven't, give me your "Horror Fan" membership card. You don't deserve it.
Good review, you explained where the film's strengths and weaknesses were and who would want to watch it. If I was into gory horror films I would check it out.
ReplyDeleteAlso I didn't know the difference between Italian and American horror styles so thats a cool bit of background.
Thanks much for the kind words! Even if you don't like the film, you should check out it's main theme, it's "the tits", as the kiddies say.
ReplyDeleteVery well done sir, the Mirada was certainly lucky to have you. Keep this up, it's great!\
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'd be eager to hear what you think of the movie "To Catch a Thief."