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Zombie Flesh Eaters 2
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - 88 Films Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (20th January 2016). |
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The Film
 "Zombie Flesh Eaters 2" Dr. Holder (played by Robert Marius) and his assistant Norma (uncredited) are experimenting on reanimation of a human corpse using a serum which they call Death One. After injecting it into a body, it starts to twitch and move about, but its skin starts to deform, bubble and ooze, and move about dangerously and uncontrollably. While the serum is being transported out of the building, a group of men with machine guns ambush the transport and steal the metal case with the serum inside. During the chase, they are able to injure the man escaping with the serum, in which he accidentally gets some of the serum on his hand which starts to burn and ooze. He somehow escapes to a hotel in which his sick condition gets worse and worse. To try to stop the infection, he takes his machete and removes his green deformed hand but it’s too late. The infection has already spread to the other parts of his body. Uncontrollable urges make him kill on a rampage in the hotel, spreading the infection. The Military led by General Morton (played by Mike Monty) steps in to help Dr. Holder stop the Death One spread and quarantine the hotel as well as burning the bodies of the dead, which then makes things worse. The cremation makes Death One airborne, affecting even the birds in the sky. On the road, a couple in a convertible, Glenn (uncredited) and Patricia (played by Beatrice Ring) find a flock of birds seemingly dead scattered on the road. The Death One infected birds come back to life and start pecking Glenn, infecting him. Patricia manages to stay unscathed, and drives away with the injured Glenn. Elsewhere a group 3 GIs, Bo (played by Massimo Vanni), Kenny (played by Deran Sarafian), and Roger (played by Ottavio Dell'Acqua) are driving in their jeep looking for some chicks to score with. They encounter a bus on the road with a group of beauties riding and taunting the jeep, but disaster strikes as the rabid birds smash into the bus and attack the drivers and the girls inside. The GIs help out but it is clear the infection of the rabid Death One serum is spreading everywhere quickly... “Zombie Flesh Eaters 2”, also known as “Zombi 3” is a sequel in only name, but has no particular plot or character continuation from the film “Zombie Flesh Eaters”, also known as “Zombi 2” made 10 years prior. For people not familiar with the convoluted naming of the films: George Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” was named “Zombi” in Italy. With the massive hit of “Zombi”, the Italian distributor of director Lucio Fulci’s 1979 zombie film was renamed “Zombi 2” to capitalize on the success. “Zombi 2” in America was renamed “Zombie”, and in the UK was renamed “Zombie Flesh Eaters”. 10 years later, when Lucio Fulci was to direct a new zombie film, it was titled “Zombi 3” for Italy. “Zombi 3” for America you would guess it would be named “Zombie 2”, but no. It was retitled “Zombie 3”. There never was officially a “Zombie 2” in America, adding to further confusion. For the UK market it was renamed “Zombie Flesh Eaters 2”. For review’s sake I will from here adhere to the UK names of the films. “Zombie Flesh Eaters 2” comes late into the Italian Zombie craze, which really started in the late 1970s after the success of “Dawn of the Dead”, leading to “Zombie Flesh Eaters” (1979), “City of the Living Dead” (1980), “Nightmare City” (1980), “Zombie Holocaust” (1980) and countless others pushing the boundaries of gore with limited special effects budgets. Italy was churning out horror films, from the zombie movies, slasher films, cannibal films, and other exploitation films, all causing a stir worldwide, but especially hard in the United Kingdom where many were labeled as “Video Nasties” and banned from screening and sales. Fulci had directed no less than 4 zombie films between 1979 and 1981, but with “Zombie Flesh Eaters 2”, it was his first zombie film since 1981’s “The House by the Cemetery”. For production, locations were set in The Philippines. A cast of Italian and English speaking actors were chosen for International appeal and later dubbed into the appropriate language for the market, as was done with most Italian productions since the 1960s onward. Fulci was not in good health during the production of the film, from diabetes and liver problems which continued until his death in 1996. Although the principal photography of 5 weeks in The Philippines with the main actors was done with Fulci on set, he was too ill to finish the production and post-production. Besides the problems with his health, constant script changed also affected the film and its production, with Fulci and the actors getting rewritten scripts throughout production. Second unit photography and additional pickups were directed by Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso, with the two of them piecing together the final product. There are reports that Fulci only directed 2 weeks or so of production and quit, but this is untrue. “Zombie Flesh Eaters 2” does seem more of a patchwork than a complete film. The scenes of the scientists and the military are completely different in tone from the scenes of the GIs and the civilians on the run (apparently the science/military scenes were shot by Mattei and Fragasso and not part of the original version that was being shot by Fulci). One would think the scientists would finally meet with the survivors or have some sort of interaction, but this never happens so it really does feel like two separate movies were patched together to make a whole. Another problem with the film is that it does not bring in much originality to the zombie genre. The scientists arguing with the military was used in “Day of the Dead” (1985). The military in white jump suits eradicating a town full of rabid people was in “The Crazies” (1973). Even the special effects could nowhere match the horrifying eyeball scene in , leading to “Zombie Flesh Eaters” or the creative kills and shocks in “Dawn of the Dead”. Though there are some positives such as the homage of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” (1963) with the bird-pecking paranoia scenes used in a zombie film, and the effects of the oozing and inflaming skin, the peeling of faces are pretty well done. But not all is up to scary standards: the flying refrigerated zombie head? It’s intentionally one of the funniest scenes in the film but completely out of tone with the rest. The unborn baby bursting through the infected mother? Could have been much better but I assume they didn’t have it in the budget to create a zombie baby and ends up in disappointment for the horror effect. The zombies are quite inconsistent in the film. Some are slow like the ones in “Zombie Flesh Eaters”, some are faster like “28 Days Later”. Some of them speak like “Return of the Living Dead”. There doesn’t seem to be any consistency except they all want to eat people, but isn’t that the important part? The acting is secondary with nothing especially great. Beatrice Ring who played Patricia is not the usual damsel in distress as she is the one trying to rescue her boyfriend and the one to kill the zombies coming after them. Deran Sarafian who played GI Kenny and Ottavio Dell'Acqua who played Roger have a fun camaraderie going with their badly written dialogue, but interesting to think that Sarafian was speaking English the entire time and Dell'Acqua was speaking his lines in Italian. Throughout the movie the characters hear the radio DJ Blue Heart (played by an uncredited actor, does anyone know who it is?) playing music and also giving instructions and updates about the zombie crisis. The black DJ giving messages is very similar to the character of “Super Soul” from the 1971 film “Vanishing Point” played by Cleavon Little, though the character is nowhere near importance of the existential messenger in “Vanshing Point”, which was directed by “Zombie Flesh Eaters 2” actor Deran Sarafian’s father, Richard C. Sarafian. Note: This is a region B locked Blu-ray disc will only play on a Region-B or Region Free Blu-ray player.
Video
88 Films presents the film in 1080p in the theatrical 1.66:1 aspect ratio in the AVC MPEG-4 codec. This is the first Blu-ray of “Zombie Flesh Eaters 2” available worldwide, and the presentation is a positive one. The colors look quite good for the most part, as bland as it is. The green trees of the Philippine jungles look great, but everything looks overly bright. Dark colors don’t seem dark enough and blacks rarely look completely black. The film has been remastered with scratches and dust completely removed, though fortunately film grain is still visible. The opening and closing credits of the film are in English and use the “Zombi 3” title card. Unfortunately, the credit sequences look slightly worse than the rest of the film, with colors looking a bit dull, coming from a lesser source.
Audio
English LPCM 2.0 dual mono As with most Italian productions of the time, synchronized sound was not used so everything was ADRed later in studio. With the audio track, the mouths rarely match up to the sound, which is not the fault of the Blu-ray but just the bad dubbing job from the original elements. Granted the Italian actors were speaking their lines in Italian, so obviously they don’t match the lip movement. But the English actors who spoke their lines in English are problematic, as they are slightly off with the synchronization. The synthesizer opening credits music sounds pretty bad but music for the rest of the film with the cheesy rock songs sound pretty good. There are no hisses, pops, or dropouts to speak of. A good job by 88 Films with the available audio. There are no subtitles for the film.
Extras
Original Italian Opening (2:53) Original Italian End Titles (1:35) The Italian titles look better in color and definition than the English ones used for the film. in 1080p, in 1.66:1, in Dolby Digital 2.0 Interview with star Ottaviano Dell'Acqua (8:10) Ottaviano Dell’Acqua talks about his experience in the film industry including the trivia that he was the infamous “eye-worm zombie” in the original “Zombie Flesh Eaters” film, and that all his brothers have been in some Italian zombie here and there in their lives. He talks fondly about the production, Lucio Fulci, and the reception throughout the years. in 1080p, in 1.78:1, in Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 with English subtitles Live Q&A with Catriona MacColl (29:30) An odd inclusion, as Catriona MacColl did not star in “Zombie Flesh Eaters 2”. Calum Waddell hosts the Q&A session in which she talks about the Fulci films she starred in, her subsequent career, and the reason she used the stage name “Katherine MacColl” in the Italian movies. Though a message for Calum Waddell and High Rising Productions: next time, please turn on your microphone! No one can hear you! Also would have helped if the audio came directly from the microphones rather than the auditorium speakers audio. in 1080p, in 1.78:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 "Zombi Reflections" an interview with Beatrice Ring (16:26) Beatrice Ring gives an audio interview, in which she talks about how she got into acting at the age of 14, her love for fashion, and her non-profit work she currently does. She has interesting memories of the production, such as the extreme heat, getting sick from the food, the very mean and abusive direction of Fulci on set, and how Fulci was quite ill during production. Though she does have fond memories such as ones with Daren Sarafian, who was her fiancée during the production. The interview plays with stills and posters. in 1080p, in 1.78:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 Interview with Claudio Fragasso (17:21) The writer of the film and also co-director Claudio Fragasso talks about his work with the production, working with Fulci and Mattei, including getting the project filmed in The Philippines, and his later career, although no mention of “Troll 2”. As for the sound, why isn’t there a pin microphone on Fragasso? There is too much background noise going on and the entire interview sounds very echoey. in 1080i 50hz, in 1.78:1, in Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 with English subtitles 88 Films Trailer Reel (18:05) “Children of the Corn”, “Don’t Go in the Woods”, “Hollwood Chainsaw Hookers”, “Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man”, “Mother’s Day”, “Slaughterhouse”, “Trancers”, “Splatter University” in 1080p, in Dolby Digital 2.0 No commentary or documentary on the making of the film here which is disappointing. Also, no written essay or technical information are listed. High Rising Productions make informative extras for 88 Films and with earlier Arrow Video releases, but they really need to hire a sound engineer! It's not only this release, but there are quite a few other releases in which the audio sounds muffled or unlistenable in their featurettes and interviews. EDIT: Previously the review incorrectly credited the Claudio Fragasso interview as a piece by High Rising Productions. Also we've been informed that the Catriona MacCall Q&A from High Rising was not filmed for a specific release and was done for archival purposes and was supplied to 88 Films for free. Thank you Calum Waddell for the information!
Packaging
This is the 9th release of 88 Films' "The Italian Collection", with reversible cover art, with either the "Zombie Flesh Eaters 2" title or the "Zombi 3" title.
Overall
“Zombie Flesh Eaters 2” is notable being director Lucio Fulci’s return to the zombie genre and sadly his last zombie film, though it’s more of a patchwork than anything else. It does manage to have its fun moments with zombie gore and cheesy dialogue, but expectations should be set a little lower than other Fulci films. 88 Films’ Blu-ray’s technical merits for the film itself is quite good and it includes informative extras, making it recommended for fans.
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