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Before we begin, let's just go over this one more time: "Zombi 2" is actually just called "Zombie," but was marketed in most territories as "Zombi 2," because at the time George Romero's now-classic "Dawn of the Dead" was so big that the Italian film board and some others wanted to market the heck out of every zombie movie they could, so Fulci's movie, simply titled "Zombie" was changed to "Zombi 2," as in Italy, "Dawn of the Dead" was called "Zombi." Okay, got that? Long story short: "Zombi 2" is not a sequel to anything, and it's actually just called "Zombie."
Now then, "Zombie" is truly worthy of its title. It pulls a total Tarantino in the first few minutes, showing something that won't occur until much later in the movie first which draws you in immediately making you say: "Wait, what? Why'd that happen?" The story is pretty simple, zombies run amok on a tropical island, a group of survivors fight them with disastrous consequences. But it's not so much the story that makes "Zombie" a masterpiece, but the cinematography and practical special effects which after so many years don't feel dated and can manage to make gore hounds like me twitch just a little, deep down inside. The "splinter eye" scene springs to mind immediately. Another great scene would be the "Zombie Versus the SHARK" scene, which I'm pretty sure is the most dangerous stunt ever put on camera-- a real actor in full zombie makeup fights a live shark underwater without the use of any breathing apparatuses for a very long scene that had to have taken several takes and somehow he came out okay. The movie is fantastically transferred to Shriek Show's two disc DVD set, which comes with your very own little poster for the movie!
Criticisms, the dubbing springs to mind, first. The movie was filmed with largely Italian talent, which is cool, so were some of the best Westerns (or in this case, 'Spaghetti' Westerns) ever, but what's weird is, if you watch this movie closely, you'll see that the actors are sometimes dubbed and their lips sync, or that they do not sync. It took me awhile to figure this out, but from what I can gather, the movie was filmed mostly in phonetic English, then in certain scenes, some actors couldn't do that, so they were simply dubbed. But those who were speaking phonetically were still dubbed due to their thick accents. So, to put it simply, "Zombie" is a movie that was filmed in English, dubbed into Italian and then completely re-dubbed back into English. This is one thing that is fairly noticeable, not the point that it becomes so distracting that it takes away fun from the movie, but that it does make certain parts feel less immersive or emotionally intense. One other major thing, the box says the movie's runtime is "223 minutes," this is incorrect. The movie is about 94 minutes, the total runtime with two discs of special features is 223 minutes, so it's a bit misleading, but that's okay, too.
There's a certain psychedelic nature to the film, not in the "Deep Red" sense, we never set foot in the irreal the way an Argento film might, but the movie feels like a weird trip after a little while. It's easy to lose track of what's going on depending on who is watching, and there are certain things that simply don't make sense for the sake of not making sense, like the zombie on the cover with all the worms in his eye comes out of a grave marked "Died 1500," it's a small wooden grave marker with chalk writing. I know Fulci wasn't exactly going for realism here (it's a movie about hungry walking dead people, after all) though every time I watch the film I have a hard time suspending belief with this scene, as the zombie comes out of a grave about three inches under ground, he's hardly decomposed for a five hundred year old corpse and on top of that my nit-picking nature has to ask if that grave marker is supposed to be the ORIGINAL grave marker that was put in the ground in the year 1500 or if it's supposed to be an updated marker put there by the caretaker of this, what I'm assuming is a Spanish War cemetery in the middle of a tropical jungle.
It's little things like that about "Zombie" that get to me, but it's also those things that make it so much fun. And without spoiling anything, I have to say that the film's final scene is one of the ballsiest moves ever made by a set of low-paid extras and a director. The fact that they got away with the final shot of this movie without six dozen people dressed in full zombie garb getting detained is not only a miracle in and of itself, but proof that this film was meant to be. I don't want to give it away, but it's a fantastic visual.
This film was followed by three sequels: "Zombi 3" (which is really "Zombie 2") then "Zombie 4: After Death" (which is actually "Zombie 3," in this case) and a prequel/sequel "Zombie 5: Killing Birds," ("Zombie 4, you see where I'm going with this) though the canonicity of that last one is heavily disputed, but I can say without a shadow of a doubt that "Zombie 4: After Death" is definitely canonical to the series, especially considering the continuity "Zombi 3" takes in conjunction to this film.
All in all, "Zombie" is one of the best zombie movies ever made, and it was followed by three 'sequels,' one of which was official, two which were not. I like to refer to these four films as the "Spaghetti Zombie Quadrilogy," as the next film in the series, "Zombi 3" is actually "Zombie 2." But we'll argue the semantics of the titles of these movies in another review. If you can find a copy of it (which isn't very hard, nowadays, circa 2014) "Zombie" is absolutely worth your time if you're a zombie movie fan, Spaghetti Western fan, or just a movie aficionado in general who happens to have a niche for Italian cinema.
| Additional Blu-ray options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
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Blu-ray
May 26, 2020 "Please retry" | 4K UHD Blu-ray - Special Edition | 2 | $34.68 | $37.62 |
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Blu-ray
October 2, 2017 "Please retry" | — | 1 |
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| $22.66 | $35.99 |
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Blu-ray
November 27, 2018 "Please retry" | 3-Disc Limited Edition (2 Blu-ray + CD) | 3 | $18.33 | — | $18.33 |
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Blue Underground Hits a Home Run!
This is an amazing 3 disc Blu Ray set. It even came with the lenticular slip cover that when tilted back and forth the Zombie opens and closes his eyes! Kudos to Blue Underground for making such a great set. The newly restored 4K transfer is very sharp and the colors pop. So far It’s the best the film has looked pending the native 4K release which I haven’t seen yet. There is a fair amount of grain but not so much where it’s distracting. You have to take into consideration that this movie is 45 years old therefore there’s going to be some grain. The set includes 3 discs. Disc 1 contains the movie and special features. Disc 2 contains more Special Features and Disc 3 is the Original Motion Picture soundtrack. This also has reversible cover art that you can switch to show the original Zombie artwork. Blue Underground killed it with this set. Also comes with a nice booklet! I’m a happy camper!
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FrancoisFrancoReviewed in Italy on October 5, 2023
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