Director: Lucio Fulci, Bruno Mattei, Claudio Fragasso (uncredited)
Year: 1988
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: Zombie Flesh Eaters 2; Zombie: Hell on Earth
Genre: Zombie
Plot:
After being stolen from a military base in the Philippines, a man infected with a deadly virus is found in a nearby hotel and is cremated, but his contaminated ashes fall back to Earth reawakening the dead and forcing a group of soldiers and other survivors to stop it from spreading.
Review:
Overall, there’s a lot more than expected to like with this one. One of the major features to like here is the quite impressive setup that brings about quite a lot of intriguing aspects. The main starting point involving the experiments on the virus, its subsequent theft by the terrorist group requiring the military to retrieve it, a terrorist getting infected seeking shelter at the hotel, and the subsequent discovery when the military catches up forcing them to dispose of the entire faculty. With this providing the cause for the outbreak as the ashes of the cremated bodies initially turning animals savage before bringing the dead to life, the starting point here is quite effective with it allowing us to get to know the main group as well as bringing up the high amount of action in this movie which is really good at making the film an exhilarating experience.
The film never really bogs down anywhere as there really isn't any part of the film that will lose a viewer's attention, from shootouts to zombie attacks and chases meaning we get a lot of action in here. It's one of the most action-packed films in the genre so it will really be a pretty fast and fun film to watch. Many of them are quite entertaining, the best of which is a chase through a village that features many close calls, narrow escapes, and odd jumps that make it a nice suspenseful sequence. The odd jumps and suspense from the zombies make it a nice surprise when they show up, as it keeps the viewer on edge with the unusual amount of suspense that makes it a fun viewing experience. The bridge sequence alone is a marvelous example of the best part of the movie with the fog, the lighting, the score, all of it together with the action combined together to create a great scene. The film has a couple more great scenes like that as well, which are very interesting to watch.
As well, since this is an Italian zombie film, the main focus is on the gore and makeup which is up to their usual standards. Blood is let loose with real abandon, providing a couple of stomach-churning scenes. The disembodied flying head scene is quite infamous and the shock of it is pretty genuine, a face-ripping is also really gory, and another neck-rip is pretty brutal. With the usual zombie horde masses gathered over their victims and pulling them down, there's also more gore there so this will no doubt please gore-hounds. The makeup is also passable with hideous scars covering much of their face, and rotting skin, it adds more to the traditional Italian high standards on zombie makeup belts. Another quite impressive feat was that the zombies themselves appear just as any good zombie horde should be as a never-ending threat to the characters. When they come on-screen, they are always a massive force that needs to be taken care of, always leading the heroes to deal with a small group of varying numbers in all the attacks. This perfectly gives it a threatening air that zombies need to be scary for a lot to like.
There's a couple things to point out that hold it back. Firstly, there's more than one occasion where the zombies act un-zombie-like which is all plainly obvious due to the production history of this one. They use tools and weapons, engage in hand-to-hand fighting with a soldier, and get the upper hand a couple times actually while we also get a wrestling match between a zombie and soldier where they actually resort to wrestling where the zombie is pretty unconcerned with eating him, and misses several opportunities to bite the soldier. They are also incredibly acrobatic and can perform jumps, leaps, and other such moves with great ease which are decidedly not typical zombie behavior at all. Combined with its cheap look overall, these manage to bring this down overall.
Overview: ***.5/5
It's not necessarily the best one in the genre, but it's far from the worst as well. It has enough moments to be redeeming while not appearing as a waste of time. All Italian zombie fans or those who enjoy the creative crew should look into this one, while the general zombie fan or those turned off by the approach will want to exercise caution with it.
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