Zombie (1979)

Do not be fooled by the fact that this film very often has a digit '2' in the title. This makes no sense. That was solely done to create the illusion that this was a direct sequel to George A. Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead'.

This one has nothing to do with that one. Literally the only link is the topic of zombies. Director Lucio Fulci hated this as well, but sometimes studios do stupid things.

If you want to go by the English title, it is 'Zombie Flesh Eaters'.

There, now we have gotten that out of the way, on to this film.

As is well documented, George A. Romero's breakthrough phenomenon introduced the world to a different kind of beast, the zombie that tears flesh and infects those that are not completely devoured. Not to be outdone in the box office department, the Italian filmworld opted to cash in on this success and also create zombie films. But what to do in order to stand out?

Rather simple: go for the jugular and toss in loads of gore. And I do mean loads. Where other zombiefilms are often rather restrained in showing dismemberment and entrails wrapped around pretty much everything, the Italians just go all out.

But luckily for most people, they often had the directorial reigns of Lucio Fulci. As with most of Fulci's films, there is not a lot of narrative to speak of. A couple of people go to an island, island has zombies, zombies kill people and that is about it. But what Fulci does have oodles of, is the creation of a foreboding atmosphere and that does the trick.

The acting again is not all that great and the distracting dubbing does not help a lot. But let us not kid ourselves: we did not come here to see wonderful acting and deep, meaningful conversations about the meaning of life. We have come here to see zombies kill hapless wanderers and oh dear, how spectacularly they do die!

Not to get too much into spoilers, but by mentioning the 'splinter through the eyeball'-scene, it is a rather safe guess most people will know what is being referred to. If not, that is at least one of the reasons why this film is perhaps so infamous, as it still has the ability to make anyone cringe. A rather nifty feat, considering all these effects were done practically, because computer generated imagery did not yet exist. That makes everything feel so much more grounded and real (fleshy, if you will). Call me old-fashioned, but it always feels better if there is something done practically in camera. Very often, CG feels much too light and fluid, whereas life is not always like that.

Another spectacular stunt that would never fly today, is a zombie wrestling a real live tiger shark.

You might want to read that last sentence again.

That stuff happened.

Is this the best zombie film ever made? Probably not. Even in Fulci's filmography, this is not one of his best. But it is however, a legendary film that does deserve praise for expanding boundaries and for giving us all scenes and images that remain indelibly imprinted upon our brains.

So in all honesty: you should really see this one if you have not already. In the end, you will not regret it. Unless you are queasy by nature, in which case you might want to keep a little bag handy.