Review: Zombie 2 (1979)

Director: Lucio Fulci | 87 minutes | horror | Actors: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver, Auretta Gay, Stefania D’Amario, Olga Karlatos, Ugo Bologna, Dakkar, Alberto Dell’Acqua, Ottaviano Dell’Acqua, Roberto Dell’Acqua, Franco Fantasia, Lucio Fulci , Leo Gavero

“Zombi 2” is by Lucio Fulci, and those in the know know what to expect when they see his zombie movies when they hear his name. Lucio does not, like fellow zombie director George A. Romero, in his films, among other things, provide social commentary, but for him it is mainly about hard-hitting and explicitly portrayed horror and to a lesser extent about the threat that poses. from the zombies.

Similarly in this film. Here, Fulci sticks to the roots of the zombies’ origins when they are brought to life by voodoo. The original purpose of bringing the dead to life is to make them do hard and monotonous work, but the zombies here have plans of their own and turn out to be predominantly obsessed with an insatiable appetite. As a result, various scenes are created that fans of explicitly depicted horror can indulge in: in close-up and in slow-motion, throats torn open with streams of blood flowing from the carotid arteries, shot to shreds and exploding zombie heads. , zombie skulls being cleaved, limbs being torn off, zombies snapping pieces of flesh from their living or dead victims, and, perhaps the most famous scene in the film, the splinter of wood slowly sinking into a victim’s eye. This last scene in particular evokes the necessary almost nauseating horror, although at the last moment it becomes very clear that the head used is not real. Apart from this, the other special effects have been successful and the fact that the viewer is pressed right on it makes things seem all the more gruesome. The scene of the fight between a zombie and a shark is also remarkable and successful. The zombies themselves look scary and disgusting, bloodstained and in various stages of decomposition, enriched with worms and maggots swarming their rotting flesh. The zombies in Lucio’s movies come across as more terrifying than the average zombie as we know them from most zombie movies, and that appropriately adds to the threat posed by them.

So hard and explicit horror, although the zombies themselves play a smaller role in most of the film than might be expected. Their appearances and performances remain ephemeral throughout most of the film, although this is enough to create several gruesome scenes. Only in the last part of the film do the zombies attack en masse, after which, according to good practice, their victims have to pull out all the stops to survive. This stage of the film also provides fans of the zombie genre with plenty of tasty scenes, although the literal hard-hitting horror that characterized various earlier scenes is largely omitted here. In this last part, the depicted scenes, however rancid at times in themselves, nevertheless tend more towards the mediocre and the realization of the horror involves the same degree of threat posed by the group or not. slow approaching zombies with their blatantly vicious gluttonous intentions.

The story itself has little to say about the body and the performance of the various actors is also something to criticize, but that will not be a problem for the true horror lover: horror and threat are paramount in these types of films. What can be experienced as a disadvantage of this film is the relatively small presence of the zombies in the first part of the film and the slowness that is sometimes present in the film. Nevertheless, an appropriate threatening atmosphere that can be felt constantly in the background is created by the unmistakable approach of an inescapable crisis by the zombies spreading across the island. The images of the numerous dying victims of the zombies in the local hospital and the atmospheric images of the zombies slowly rising from their graves also contribute to this, although more confrontations with various zombies at an earlier stage would not have been out of place in the film. The environment, like the periodically ominous music supported by voodoo drums, is also suitable for the creation of a gloomy and claustrophobic atmosphere, thanks to its classical premise: a remote area, outside help cannot be called in. and one must only manage against danger.

This film is also known as “Zombie 2” and as “Zombies 2”, because the naming of this film tried to follow the success of George Romero’s “Dawn of the D” at the time. ead “. However, especially on the basis of the final scenes in the film, the film can be considered a prequel rather than a sequel, provided that the events of Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” are disregarded. For films like this with atrocities explicitly portrayed, one must love it or at least be open to it. Even for the average zombie and horror fan, some scenes may still go too far. However, for the hardcore horror junkie, “Zombi2”, although it is not even Fulci’s most imaginative zombie film, delivers so much successful horror that it can definitely be considered a must.