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Zombi Holocaust (1980) More at IMDbPro »

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14 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Doctor Butcher, Monkey Dung, 5 January 2005
Author: Jonny_Numb from Hellfudge, Pennsylvania

Being an obsessive-compulsive fan of old-fashioned Euro-gore for several years now, I've come to expect the absurd (and usually nonsensical) plots, the constant 'borrowing' from other films, and the over-the-top gore, all mixed together to form what is usually an enjoyably trashy cocktail. I picked up "Zombie Holocaust" with some optimism and a little knowledge of its reputation, and after watching it, could only help but wonder what had just happened. No, it wasn't the incoherently surreal thrill of watching "City of the Living Dead," but a general, head-scratching confusion that raised questions such as: "How was this awful waste of time ever released?" As Tom Servo would say: "Meanwhile, in YET ANOTHER MOVIE..." "Zombie Holocaust" doesn't have a brain in its head (even though the title Doctor is a deranged neurosurgeon)--it's a low-budget splatter flick without even the slightest hint of innovation. It borrows settings and characters from Fulci's "Zombie" (not to mention a few actual snippets from that film), jungle savages from "Make Them Die Slowly," and a couple bronze-faced zombies that look an awful lot like the wooden-toothed wonders in "Burial Ground." Sounds like a swinging good time, but the movie is downright distracting in its own indecisiveness, flipping back and forth between these awkwardly, incompetently blended genres without a hint of wit or style. Perhaps this is attributable to Fabrizio de Angelis, who is known less for his screen writing capabilities than as a producer on Lucio Fulci's most notable works. It is conceivable that the producers wanted to churn out a genre-bending smörgåsbord knowing they would get some return on it, but the utter ridiculousness of the finished product is an endurance test for the viewer's patience.

Ian McCulloch (his usual stuffy self) and Alexandra Delli Colli ("New York Ripper") venture off to some faraway island to investigate a doctor's odd practices. Along the way, they encounter hostile natives, zombies, and an climax that looks suspiciously like another, better zombie flick. Eyeballs are gouged out, entrails are eaten, and Delli Colli is painted in the nude for a "Laugh-In" audition.

There's ultimately nothing in "Zombie Holocaust" that hasn't been done before, and better. Pass.

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11 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
Death by propeller!, 22 January 2001
Author: Robert P. Beveridge (xterminalx@yahoo.com) from Parma, OH



Another film known by many names (eight, to be precise, that IMDB has been able to track down), Zombi Holocaust is probably best known by American cult-film devotees as Dr. Butcher, MD. I ended up picking this one up because there are a rather large number of crossovers with Lucio Fulci's brilliant splatterfest Zombie-- writer Fabrizio DeAngelis was one of the producers of Fulci's film, male lead Ian McCulloch was the lead in Zombie, character actor Dakkar plays a native guide in both, etc. (Most interesting, one of the film's actors, Walter Patriarca, was Zombie's costume designer. Go figger.)

Simple plot, which should sound familiar to anyone who's seen Fulci's film; a number of deaths occur in New York City, and Ian McCollouch, a beautiful sidekick, and two of their pals end up going to a remote Caribbean island where there's an English-speaking doctor who treats the natives. Sound familiar?

For about the first forty-five minutes of this film, I was too busy thinking that it was exactly like Zombie to be impressed. (No one, these days, is sure which film came out first, and most people also draw parallels to another classic of the genre that came out the same year, Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust.) Then Ian McCollouch disposes of a zombie with a motorboat motor, and suddenly things started getting a whole lot more fun. Rather like The Evil Dead, this is a film where there's a whole lot of setup (though Raimi pulled it off miles better), but when the gore starts, the director lays it on thick, fast, and ugly. And while death-by-propeller is probably the funniest and nastiest scene in the film, there's certainly more than enough blood flowing/spraying/dripping/being drunk/etc. to please most fans of hardcore horror. Pound for pound, though, in comparison to Zombie, the latter stands up as the better film. As one reviewer put it, "Fulci... might have had the sauce, but [he] passed on the cheese." Fulci's obsessive attention to detail, better scriptwriting, and stunning score give Fulci the edge over Girolami. But man, it's fun to be the judge. ***

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7 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
Too much monkey business, 14 November 2005
7/10
Author: Scott_from_Modesto (danofthedead80@yahoo.com) from Bear, Delaware

Zombie Holocaust is an entertaining diversion. If you regularly comb the drecks of Italian horror garbage, you've seen much worse. This is a spliced-together film, like Mattei's Hell of The Living Dead, only this one cobbles two dumb gory b-movies together. There's a heavy dip in the fondue pot in store for this stink-ridden pile of sleazy excrement, and by that I mean I like it. Not only does this s hit sizzle but its got recognizable faces in it: Ian McCulloch from Zombie; Alexandra Delli Colli from The New York Ripper; Donald O'Brien from Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals, and a black guy who was in Zombie. I'm not racist, I just don't remember his name.

Like I said, there's two movies here (at least!)-- one involving a psychotic doctor and the other being a cannibal/zombie film. So you'd think there would be a lot going on here. But there isn't. It's just an onslaught of cheap gore scenes. One scene has Ian McCulloch defending himself with an outboard motor to an attacking zombie's face. HIS FACE. And if that ain't enough, Delli Colli has the camera pointed at her bush for the last fifteen minutes of the movie. Based on that alone, you should be scrambling to get to the video store. But seriously, there's dozens more treats in this movie including disembowelings, throat gashings, and skull-sawing autopsies.

If you love films like Hell of The Living Dead, Virus, or City of The Walking Dead, you'll probably enjoy this one so give it a shot. It's brain taffy.

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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Hilarious and Messy Trash, 20 December 2008
3/10
Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In New York, body parts are missing in a hospital where Dr. Dreylock (Walter Patriarca) teaches anatomy. When one cannibal worker is killed after taking the heart of a corpse, Dr. Dreylock's assistant and anthropologist Lori Ridgeway (Alexandra Delli Colli) recognizes the signal of a tribe in the Moluccas Island that worships the god Kito on his body. Dr. Peter Chandler (Ian McCulloch) organizes an expedition to Moluccas with his assistant George Harper (Peter O'Neal) and invites Lori and the journalist Susan Kelly (Sherry Buchanan) to travel with him. They meet Doctor Obrero (Donald O'Brien) that asks his servant Molotto (Dakar) to guide the group to Moluccas. Once in the island, they are hunted by hunger cannibals and zombies, and they find a dark secret about the spot.

"Zombi Holocaust" is a hilarious and messy trash movie, with a lame story, awful screenplay and edition and terrible acting. The lead female character is a complete mess with her doctorate in medicine and also in anthropology, performed by the sexy Alexandra Delli Colli that is shot naked most of the time without any reason. The lead male character is performed by the ham actor Ian McCulloch that makes the story hilarious with his ridiculous acting. In spite of the countless flaws and the awful edition, this forgettable movie is cult for many viewers and entertaining. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Misleading title., 9 September 2002
4/10
Author: Aaron1375 from Alabama

The title of this flick leads me to picture thousands of zombies rampaging the countryside. That is not what you get. In fact I don't think anyone was even killed by a zombie, though one zombie got killed in a cool way. The main killers are cannibals in this one. Zombies play an extremely small part. It is kinda liked zombi, because two of the actors in that one are in here, and they appear to be on the exact same island, but it just isn't much of a zombie flick. If you like cannibal flicks it might be worth checking just be aware about the lack of zombies. Thought of note is that you get to see a very attractive blonde nude.

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9 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
A really brutal horror experience...but fans will LOVE it !, 11 December 2003
7/10
Author: Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls

Zombi Holocaust is one of the biggest pleasant surprises I purchased in a long time. And that's a really positive thing to say because you probably know this kind of horror films...Fully made and produced in Italy in the early 80's, these movies have like a dozen alternate titles and versions. Tons of similar movies like this were made during this decade but most of them only seem promising but disappoint in the end. Zombi Holocaust doesn't !! This movie is an extremely enjoyable mixture of all kind of interesting and nasty horror topics. Okay, the movie is called "Zombi" Holocaust and there ARE a few zombies to detect, but Zombie Holocaust is sooooo much more than that !!

Actually, the plot of Zombie Holocaust is about a mad scientist / doctor who uses a tribe of cannibals to perform medical experiments on. Due to those experiments, the aborigines become zombies. Now, in that simple plot summary, we've had ZOMBIES, CANNIBALS and freakin' MAD DOCTORS !!! I don't know about you, but to me that already sounds like every fan's dream. And I can assure you that - if you have the privilege to watch the fully uncut version like I did - you'll have a true gorefest !! The level of sickness and utterly nasty scenes is very extreme and it even surpasses the work of undeniable masters in the field like Lucio Fulci and Ruggero Deodato in certain sequences. Zombie Holocaust contains a gruesome autopsy, many throats are being slit, faces and guts are being ripped off/out etc etc...the gore highlights really are numberless. If I have to pick one, I'd say the scene where a zombi is hacked up for barbeque by a propeller !! Classic need-to-see stuff for horror fans !!!

Furthermore, the plot contains many, many holes and the acting is abominable. Even though O'Brien shows a lot of potential as the freaky doctor, he's given too less screentime to impress you enough. And even though Alexandra Delli Colli has a gorgeous body, ( and she proves that multiple times by showing it ) she isn't much of a talented actress. But seriously...who cares about all these things ? Besides, bad acting is necessary for this kind of early 80's horror...it adds a lot more charm to the production.

Zombi Holocaust is just a magnificent splatter movie that comes with my highest possible recommendation. I've only got to known this movie recently because of all the confusing aka's. It was listed as "Zombie3" in my local videostore and as "Zombie Holocaust" in another. But there are just way to many Italian movies called like that to let it bother you. Seek this one and enjoy it !!

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Beautiful Film, 15 November 2001
10/10
Author: Mitch (mmagonet@total.net) from Toronto, Ontario

A real tearjerker. I laughed so hard I almost cried to death. I watched this film when I was 14 and it really changed my life. It turned me into an extreme horror fan, only to be disappointed with tons of garbage films afterwards that never really compared to The Butcher knife's sharpness. If anyone knows some even better, more gory and obscure films, please let me know. PS Did anyone else get a headache from all of the piercing screaming and sound or was it just me

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Cannibles Vs Zombies, 24 April 2007
9/10
Author: TheSingingReviewer from United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Zombi Holocaust is a Cannible film, Zombie film and Mad scientist film thrown together to make one really gory movie. Some scenes are similar to Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 such as it starts in New York and then they go into the tropical island, the Zombies in the island's church. Even two of the actors from Zombi 2 are in Zombi Holocaust.

The scenes with the Cannibles killing and eating the people are nice and gory, the Zombie make up is good and kind of similar to Zombi 2's Zombie make up. One problem is that we don't see much of the Zombies at first but halfway through the film they do show up.

The Mad Scientist elements are something new since Zombi 2 didn't have a man trying to create Zombies for his research and uses the Cannibles for his experiments. Zombi Holocaust is a great Zombie flick with some good gore effects. Check this out.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Island Gorefest Extravaganza, 28 October 2006
6/10
Author: Benjamin Gauss from Salzburg, Austria

A splatter classic, Marino Girolami's "Zombi Holocaust" of 1980 doesn't scant with blood and gore. A true B-movie and pure exploitation, this movie is probably not high art, however, I don't suppose that anybody who is about to watch a movie entitled "Zombie Holocaust" is gonna expect Citizen Kane.

After several mutilations of corpses in the morgue of a New York hospital, and the appearance of a mysterious cannibal sign, a group of people, amongst them a beautiful female doctor and a bitchy journalist, decide to go on an expedition to a tropical island, where they expect to find out about the sign's origin. This is, of course, not a very good idea. Not only is the island inhabited by cannibals, but it is also haunted by the living dead.

One of the classic Italian splatter flicks, "Zombi Holocaust", is a fun and entertaining, although not very thrilling movie, that mainly concentrates on the enormous amounts of blood and gore and on constant very graphical violence. The acting in this movie differs. As a huge fan of Spaghetti Westerns, I found it cool to see Donal O'Brien, who delivers a great performance as a mad scientist in this, in a non-western role. The Italian and English title is maybe not the best to describe the movie, since its the Cannibals, and not the Zombies who kill the most people. The German title "Zombies Unter Kannibalen" ("Zombies Amongst Cannibals") is probably better to describe the film's content.

All things considered, "Zombie Holocaust" is a highly entertaining and very bloody Gorefest that fans of the Cannibal subgenre should not miss. Entertainment guaranteed!

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Surprisingly decent, gory zombie film, 16 September 2007
Author: slayrrr666 (slayrrr666@yahoo.com) from Los Angeles, Ca

"Zombi Holocaust" is a rather fun cheesy zombie film.

**SPOILERS**

During a routine autopsy, medical student Lori Ridgeway, (Alexandra Delli Colli) notices that the cadaver is incomplete, despite being in excellent condition the night before. As this trend continues, she finally goes to her boss, Dr. Dreylock, (Walter Patriarca) who refers her to Dr. Peter Chandler, (Ian McCulloch) a member of an investigating board for similar such incidents. As they continue, she notices a sign on one that resembles a sign from a small Southeast Asian island and convinces him to put together a team to investigate. Gathering his assistant George Harper, (Peter O'Neal) and girlfriend Susan Kelly, (Sherry Buchanan) to go along, and head to the island. There, they find the place is full of cannibals from a long-lost tribe, and a strange doctor performing strange operations on the locals. When they become the next targets for the experiment, they try to get off the island alive.

The Good News: This was a pretty pleasant surprise. It's big plus is that it feels like a great mixture of two big genres, namely the cannibal and zombie sub-genres. That it uses the tale-tell signs of the two, and convincingly, makes this one a really entertaining and clever entry. The cannibals, surprisingly, get the majority of the screen-time spent, as it's going to their home-place based on speculation of their existence, and that in turn reveals the truth about the zombies in a not-exactly-new twist revealed towards the end. There's also plenty of gore in the film, as this one has some pretty nice kills in it. There's a really impressive one where a victim is impaled from a trap that shoots up from behind to impale through the body rather than the other way around, with a severe series of dismemberments and skin devouring to follow, some really great impalements, surgical amputations and a rather shocking scene where one gets their face torn up by a rotating motorboat engine. That's not to include all the really wicked surgeries done in the film, which are also quite impressive and really bloody. That there's also some really juicy skin-devouring really helps to make this one bloody and gory. The fact that it remains watchable all the way through to the end is another big plus, as this one doesn't really get boring and features enough action spots to stay interesting, and only without a big taste for cheese will this one fail. These all make it quite entertaining.

The Bad News: There isn't a whole lot wrong with this one. One of the big ones is it's incredibly high cheese factor. There's a lot of that in the film, which can be evidenced by the general plot description. This also has marks for it in that category for it's gore and general atmosphere, which is a mark as it's not all that well received by most. That this one revels so heavily in it makes it something to be avoided by those who aren't that into that style. This one also has the problem in that it doesn't really do the big points from it's meshed styles. For a zombie film, these don't really feel like zombies most of the time, as they rarely do anything more than stand around and take orders, and aren't in the film very long to begin with. They're involved in the last twenty minutes of the film, and it doesn't really feature them a whole lot in that time-span. As well, there isn't a lot of time spent on the cannibal tribe getting to know them. All that's known about them is the name and island where they live, which is basically it. This here needed more information on them. Otherwise, the cheesiness is the main problem with this one.

The Final Verdict: While not the greatest entry in either the Italian cannibal or zombie genres, this one does have enough to like about it that fans of both will be happy. See this one if you're a fan of either of those two genres, or are just in the mood for a quick, cheesy time, while those not in the mood for such a film or aren't fans altogether should seek caution.

Rated UR/R: Graphic Violence, Full Nudity and Language

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