Review: Zombie: Limited Edition 3 Blu-ray/CD disc set

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019
Images from the Internet

Zombie (aka Zombi 2; Zombie Flesh Eaters)

Directed by Lucio Fulchi
Blue Underground / Red Shirt Pictures / MVD Visual
91 minutes, 1979 / 2018
www.blue-underground.com
www.redshirtpictures.com
www.mvdvisual.com

When it comes to Italian horror films of the 1960-‘80s, during the Renaissance of gory gloriousness and the rise of giallo cinema, the names that come to mind are Mario Bava (d. 1980) and especially Dario Argento. However, my fave by far is definitely Lucio Fulchi (d. 1996). Until now, however, nearly everything I have seen of his has been on VHS or DVD knockoffs, so the quality of the images have been fuzzy (The Beyond was the exception that I saw in a theater).

Blue Underground and MVD Visual have solved that problem in this restored 4K Blu-ray, which was taken from the uncensored original camera negative that emphasizes just how amazing a filmmaker Fulchi was in reality. The zombies no longer look like that just have mud stuck to their faces, but rather you can see maestro/maven Giannetto De Rossi’s make-up work clearly, and it is startling.

Borrowing perhaps from the original Bram Stoker Dracula story or perhaps 1922’s Nosferatu, a seemingly deserted boat sails into New York’s harbor, where a zombie is lurking and starts off the Zombie Apocalypse.



Ian McCulloch, Tisa Farrow, Auretta Gay, Al Cliver

Most of the story, though, going back to its roots, which finds four people traveling to Matul Island in the Antilles: there’s journalist Peter West (Ian McCulloch), Anne (Tisa Farrow) who is searching for her scientist father that owns the wayward NYC boat, and the couple who own the cruiser that takes them to the mysterious island, Brian (Al Cliver) and Susan (Auretta Gay). This is where the old meets the new as the traditional Haitian-style zombie meets Romero’s flesh eating undead.


Richard Johnson

Is it tribal mysticism that brings the dead back to life, or is it the experiments of Anne’s father and his partner, Dr. Menard (Richard Johnson, who played the Doctor in my fave horror film of all time, 1963’s The Haunting; but I digress…). Whichever way they return to semi-life, Menard’s wife (Olga Karlatos, who easily has the most memorable scene in the film), is not impressed and wants out of both the island and the marriage.

 

There are lots of bodies, tons of deaths – all of them filled with gore – and a storyline that usually makes sense in a suspension of disbelief way (though there are those who believe a Zombie Apocalypse is a possible reality). If you haven’t seen the film, and you’re into horror, you really must. Just know it is fun from beginning to end, it looks beautiful as I said, and there are more extras than you can shake a bony finger at. This is a review of those extras, more than of the film itself, because man, it’s a classic and you should know it by now. Seriously.

The first thing I want to talk about is the captions. There are multiple languages available (English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Danish, Suomi, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and English for Italian audio), but as I only speak one (not counting Brooklynese), I went for the English. There are very few captions that actually match what is being said. For example, early on at one point someone mentions the boat in relation to Staten Island, and the caption says Coney Island. It’s pretty funny to watch them both going at the same time.



Olga Karlatos

Starting with Disc 1, which also contains the feature film, for the first audio commentary we hear from Troy Howarth, who wrote a book about the director titled Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulchi and His Films (2015). Despite his talking fast, Howarth gives a pretty detailed and easy to understand description of what is going on in any particular scene, anecdotes about the actors and director, and other juicy bits of information that come across as knowledgeable without being show-off-ish. He’s a man who has studied his topic and relates what he has found with a devil may care attitude (“I could be wrong about this particular thing, but I don’t care” [paraphrase]). It’s refreshing and worth the listen.

 

The second audio commentary is with the film’s Scottish lead that has done extensive BBC work, Ian McCulloch, and Jason J. Slater, Editor of Diabolik Magazine. This is almost the exact opposite of the Howarth one, as this commentary is slow and steady, with McCulloch giving stories about the shoot intermittently through his burr. While informative, these bits were less so, for which I blame two aspects. The first is that Slater doesn’t ask enough questions to keep McCulloch going, and he seems to struggle at times for what to say. The other is that the film’s soundtrack is kept a bit high, so it interferes with the soft-spoken McCulloch. I watched it all the way through and got stuff out of it, but it was definitely the lesser of the two.

The featurette for this disc is the 33:05 “When the Earth Spits Out the Dead: Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulchi” (2018). Thrower discusses Fulchi’s career in mostly comedies before becoming more horror related, and how even though this film is often compared as the “sequel” to Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, it does indeed take quite a different approach to the philosophy of the zombie proper (e.g., no memory to its earlier life) and body politic (looks different). It’s an interesting talk with clips of Fulchi’s earlier films taken mostly from trailers, and more of an in-depth perspective of this one.

After that is a host of theatrical trailers (International and US), two television spots, four radio ads, and a posters and stills gallery showing posters from around the world, lobby cards, behind the scenes photos, color and black & white stills, the US and German Press Books, and Video covers. There’s lots.



Ottaviano Dell-Acqua

Then we can start with Blu-ray disc No. 2. First up is the 22 minute “Zombie Wasteland,” that has interviews with Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson and Al Cliver, including actor/stuntman Ottaviano Dell'Acqua, who played the worm-eye zombie on most of the posters. Now, I’ve seen a few “convention” pieces before, and most of them are shot from the back of the room with very bad audio. This was a very pleasant surprise. It’s more of a documentary at the Cinema Wasteland Con in Cleveland in 2010, and its mainly interviews with the above cast, with only a few clips from the convention floor and presentation. It’s actually quite informative and fun. With tongue-in-cheek, it concludes with a nod to the ending of the actual film. Recommended.

 

“Flesh Eaters on Film,” a 9:38 minute interview with co-producer Fabrizio De Angelis, follows. In Italiano with English subtitles, as with most of the crew in various featurettes, he talks pretty generally about how the movie came into being, especially considering he is scared of horror films.

Next is “Deadtime Stories” presents interviews with co-writers Elisa Briganti and Dardano Sacchetti (who was uncredited), at 14:00. If the viewer wants to know more of the origin of the story, this is the place. “World of the Dead,” at 16 minutes, follows, presenting interviews with cinematographer Sergio Salvati and production and costume designer Walter Patriarca. These two played in order build the story from the beginning through the process of filming. Both are in Italian with easy to read yellow English subtitles.

One I was really interested in seeing was “Zombi Italiano,” which is a 17-minute Interview with special make-up effects artists Gianetto De Rossi and Maurizio Trani, and special effects artist Gino De Rossi. Back then, of course, everything was done “in camera,” with prosthetics and real fire, rather than digitally. In this film, there are a lot of effects going on, and it all looks beautiful, as I stated earlier, now that the image is cleared and restored in 4K. Of course the key elements discussed are the underwater shark scene and the infamous eyeball one. Not hyper-technical, their anecdotes are fascinating and was one of my fave pieces.

Zombie is also noted for its soundtrack, and while not as infamous as Argento’s use of the group Goblin, an interview with composer Fabio Frizzi is given reverence in “Notes on a Headstone” at a brief 7:25; again, not much in composing details, but more how the effects were enhanced by either adding in his compositions or sometimes more effective by not having music at all and letting the sound of the moment be present.

One theme that runs through the interviews is that Fulchi could be an asshole to his crew, and was a bit of a misogynist. Taking his side for 6:06, we are given “All in the Family,” an interview with Antonella Fulchi who obviously adored her dad and both addresses his reputation and shows us a side of him that is absent from most anecdotes.

When you start the film, you are given the option of a brief introduction by filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. If that’s not enough, there is also a featurette called “Zombie Lover,” where del Toro talks more extensively for 9:35 about Zombie, one of his favorite films. He looks at it as a youth and with a director’s eye. And it’s in English!

The third disc is the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD by Fabio Frizzi (with exclusive Bonus Track). Like with Goblin, Argento’s infamous go-to musical group, the music is harsh and electronic-based with sharp and repetitive rhythms, and swirling atmospheric sounds.

The last few special added features are more indirect having to do with the packaging, including a nicely thick, 12-page glossy booklet with an extensive essay by Stephen Thrower. Also there’s the 3D slip cover for the case.

Zombie, by whatever name you want to call it, deserves the love it gets from its fan, and should be as well-known as the Romero franchise, but for some reason is not. Make it so, because it’s worthy. If you haven’t seen it yet, shame, go rectify that. If you’re a genre fan, it’s a must.