Here comes a film with a thousand names. Whether you want to call it 'Zombie' (1979), 'Zombi 2, 'Zombie Flesh Eaters', or 'Zombie 2: The Dead are Among Us', this is a film that has gone down as a classic within the genre. I had heard of it initially because of two scenes in particular (which we will get to) which I had been made aware of because of watching 'Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments'. Apart from this I knew very little about the film but was excited to sit down and digest what is often said to be a horror classic. after watching it I can't work out why it is held in this high regard. The film follows a journalist, Peter West (Ian McCulloch), and a young woman, Anne Bowles (Tisa Farrow), who travel to a tropical island to find out what happened to Anne's father. They soon find that not all is right on the island as the dead seem to be coming back to life while a Doctor performs experiments on them. The journey soon becomes a hellish one with death following the two wherever they go.
As with a lot of Italian-American productions of the 1970s, all the sound is added to the film in post including the dialogue. This is often because half of the cast are English speakers while half are Italian who either speak in Italian or speak English phonetically. The reason I bring this up is because the dubbing on the film often does not match up all that well. In the grand scheme of things, this does not harm the film too badly, but it was quite distracting for a good chunk of the film and is worth mentioning because of this. Apart from this, the film is technically pretty sound. It is shot well with decent sound design and lighting. The same could be said for the performances. No one is brilliant in the film, but everyone does their job to the level needed for the film. It can be melodramatic at times, especially during the more horrific moments but overall they are fine. What I was most looking forward to in the film was the gore, and I have to say I was a little disappointed. A lot of the effects look great. When the zombies are biting chunks of flesh out of people or feeding on peoples guts it looks grim in the best kind of way. But with a lot of the blood effects, it just looks cheap. It looks like they just got water and filled it with food colouring. The zombie effects are also a mixed bag, with some looking decent and some looking pretty terrible. Also, the gore throughout the film is quite tame, save for one scene, and for a film that is held up as one of extreme gore, I was a bit miffed.
As I mentioned in my intro there were two scenes I had heard about before going into this film and they also happen to be the best two moments in the film. The first is a scene in which a zombie grabs a character by the head and slowly pushes it towards a jagged bit of wood until it pierces her eye. It is a really tense moment and it doesn't hold back, showing you the impact of the wood going into the eye and holding on it. Nothing is left to the imagination and it is truly a horrific moment. The second scene that I knew of, and the best scene in the film, is where a zombie fights a shark. Yes, you heard that right. The first thing to mention is that the shark in this scene is real. I am not kidding, they have a guy dressed as a zombie tussling with a real-life shark. Not only is that just mad, but it is also shot and executed quite well. It is easily the most fun scene in the film. However, that isn't exactly saying much as the majority of this film is dull as dishwater. Almost nothing happens. People talk about zombies more than we see zombies and the film mostly is just our characters wandering around unsure as to what's going on. And this is why I don't understand why people love this film. Yes, there are some fun and creative zombie scenes, but they are surrounded by scenes that just bore the life out of you. Is this film popular just because of that shark scene, or am I missing something?
'Zombie' was mostly a disappointment. The two scenes that I knew from the film were good and after watching the rest of the film I totally understand why these scenes are the ones that have made it into the public consciousness. After these two scenes, the film is unbelievably boring. I was struggling to stay awake for most of it. I can't recommend it, but at the same time, I almost want to go back and watch it again. I need to rewatch it because I just don't understand its popularity and I feel like I must be missing something.