Review of Zombie

Zombie (1979)
5/10
Entertaining trash
27 October 2006
Lucio Fulci is sometimes an extremely interesting and talented director. His contribution to the Italian thriller franchise Giallo's range from good (The Psychic) to great (Don't torture a duckling). His Gothic gore drenched later works such as The Beyond, City of the Living Dead and House by the Cemetery vary considerably in quality.

Zombie 2 proved to be a stepping stone for the Italian godfather of gore. Prior to this film Fulci's work was not as gory but the rest of his work proved to be. Gore overflowed in conventional thrillers such as New York Ripper and Contraband. Simply put; Fulci had new admirers who demanded his work to be gory.

I hate films like New York Ripper and House by the Cemetery but The Beyond does have a strange Gothic charm about it and City of the Living Dead is an ample horror film with some astonishing gore sequences. Zombie 2 falls somewhere in between City and The Beyond. There are some eye popping gore sequences to behold and the film is energetically made. There are some solid actors and production values are quite good. But this is trash, complete and utter trash. Enjoyable as such, if you're into this kind of thing, you can appreciate the level of talent behind the film. The look is good, make up is great and it's fast paced. Fulci's heart was definitely in this project.

Fulci is a flawed but interesting director in my books, he should have lessened the emphasis on gore in his later films and made more conventional thrillers but his body of work is varied and original.
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