Director: Claudio Lattanzi (as Claude Milliken), Joe D’Amato (uncredited)
Year: 1988
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: Zombie 5: Killing birds - uccelli assassini; Zombie Flesh Eaters 4; Killing Birds - Raptors; Dark Eyes of the Zombie
Genre: Zombie
Plot:
Heading out into the woods, a group of students arrive at the home of a respected ornithologist for their study on birds being conducted nearby, but as they start to slowly disappear they find the living dead have awakened and trapped them there forcing the group to try getting away alive.
Review:
For the most part, this was a massively underwhelming and disappointing entry. Among its few solid aspects is a decent enough setup that allows for a solid enough setup for the group to get going to the location. The script and its eventual scenario are about the best thing about it, as it's a clever concept for bringing the dead into a situation as the initial prospects of the group arriving at the house to study the different birds living there and meeting the eccentric owner who relates the story about the house’s history and how he got into the condition he is. This keeps the film going along quite nicely until it gets to the zombies arriving and returning to the house to seek revenge as the setup works to get them there and gives this a solid enough backstory to account for the rampage as having them come back against a group studying birds is really creative and shows that creativity and originality in the zombie genre.
The other great part here is that this was pretty suspenseful when it wanted to be. The escape from the house and trying to start up the car is very suspenseful with the oncoming shadow, the frantic effort to start the car, the music playing in the background, and the background fog all combine together into one thrilling scene. The jump at the end works wonderfully as it did such a great job of setting up the thrilling race for survival that no matter how easily the jump can be predicted it still gets you. The opening scene is another great suspense scene with the unknown figure stalking the characters around the house, and a later scene where the group of students are awakened in the night to strange noises and see one of them battling something off in the distance against an unseen enemy, and the only light comes from a swinging light in the room that lights up only select portions of the room. That was perhaps the best part of the movie, as it was very suspenseful and did a great way of keeping things interesting. The gore we get is pretty good and is quite realistic as well as the decayed and rotten zombie make-up, giving this some decent enough positives.
There isn’t a whole lot wrong with it, but major detrimental factors hold it back immensely. The problems here all stem from the fact that this thing is boring. It's got a clever concept, but does nothing with it as instead of action we spend the majority of the time with the group simply standing around the house talking about their project or exploring the house trying to find some alone time and space for their romantic couplings. The zombies don’t even show up until the last twenty minutes of the movie, making one wonder if this is a zombie movie due to the lack of traditional fare usually featured in the genre. The pace is sluggish as after the opening action the next exciting part is the end of the movie. That may be its biggest fault, as nothing happens for so long into the movie that many will turn it off before anything happens. Almost nothing happens, even with the zombie attacks. It's almost not a zombie movie, as the few we see, while looking great, play such a small part in the movie that it's nearly impossible to think of it as such which ends up being the biggest drawbacks to it.
Overview: **/5
There's a lot of stuff to swallow in this film, and it's hard to say if it's worth it or not. There is potential here to make a great movie, but this one stumbles. Take a chance if you’re a hardcore Eurohorror fanatic or a franchise completist, but don't be afraid if you're disappointed by it as most others out there should heed extreme caution for going with this one.
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