Director: Lucio Fulci
Year: 1979
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: Zombi 2; Island of the Flesh-Eaters; Zombie Flesh Eaters; Nightmare Island; The Island of the Living Dead
Genre: Zombie
Plot:
Finally able to track her missing father, a woman joins up with a reporter to search for him on a small Caribbean island, where they find an accomplice under siege by voodoo-raised zombies unleashed by irate locals and must help the remaining survivors get away from the creatures.
Review:
This was not only the best Italian zombie film ever made but also one of the best horror films ever made. One of the film's better aspects here is the actual atmosphere of the island, which is accomplished through the cinematography in this one, which has to be some of the best in the genre. This is a thoroughly underrated feature and really helps to sell this one here as countless scenes get their power that way, coming from singular shots like the scene where it shows them traveling through the countryside flanked in between a rolling forest and a small lake on either side or the shot of the crab scuttling down the village street while a zombie slowly shuffling towards the front seem like simple throwaway shots yet there's a real attempt to do a meaningful shot with almost nothing.
When the terror starts, it's right there amongst the action, letting us get to see the upcoming dread along with the characters. This lets the film get on with plenty of striking, utterly beautiful scenes of carnage just as much as the throwaway scenes, from the masterful stalking of the wife in her house where the fingers scraping the windows during the shower lets us know there's someone out there and that leads into the stalking and barricading to keep it out followed up by the legendary gore-gag where she's lead right into a large wooden spike broken off from the door, it pierces her eye and goes all the way in, then is broken off inside.
The set- up to it is just as important, as there is an unbelievable amount of suspense that is included to get the viewer on edge before the big blow, while the further payoff of them coming upon a corpse-feasting sequence that has to be the single most brutal example of this type seen as the amount of carnage done to the corpse before we get to see it is simply astounding, then it continues on in ever more graphic close-ups from there. It's really helped along by the seeming comfort of the camera to be there, never flinching from each succulent-sounding rip or the casual devouring of the flesh, and it captures it as if this were a documentary.
The rest of the film is great as well: it moves so fast that you don't realize it is only a complete hour and a half. You are caught up in what was going on so much that you lose all comprehension of time, letting the action of the zombie resurrection in the cemetery as the Earth heaves and groans, dirt falls away and a body sits up in the grave, followed by several others in the surrounding graves, the nearly infamous zombie-vs-shark scene partway through which is such a remarkable and original idea and then comes the final conflagration in the church which is such a big action sequence there's plenty of high-energy work on display. Another wonderful surprise here is the simply grotesque zombies seen in the movie, where they look decayed and rotten. It really was like the zombies were dead for several hundred years, as the dark-brown coloring made them look dirty and earth-like, along with the blood-like coloring making it come together so well. There are almost no flaws with this one.
Overview: *****/5
The best Italian zombie film ever made, this is easily among the better entries in not just the scene but the genre as a whole, where it has so few issues that it remains near the top of the genre’s ranks. Those who are curious about it, appreciate this kind of Eurohorror feature, are hardcore zombie fans, or are fans of the creative crew will want to immediately check this out, as most others should heed caution.
This review is part of our ongoing series of reviews for Italian Horror Month, every November on the site:
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