I Was a Zombie for the F.B.I. (1982) User Reviews

Mediocre at best

[nhlgumby · 5/10 · 19 April 2003]

I rented this movie with intentions of seeing a very cheesy piece of film, but ended up seeing a well-intended, but ultimately average independent movie. My disappointment of not seeing full-out zombies being hired to take care of guerrilla terrorists in South America was only slightly put aside by a few decent special effects, and a stop-motion monster. My knowledge that this was a film portraying the 1950's wasn't very assured until I read the previous review of this movie on this website half way through, and realized that something didn't quite seem right in the movie. The flying globe and some of the stop-motion effects were the only saving factor of this decent independent film, because the acting was minimal and story was tired and dragging.

Maybe if this movie was titled differently, and not leading to imply it is a schlock-fest, I might have treated it differently, but I really wanted to see a crappy movie. Instead I got a black and white attempt at atmosphere and story. How embarrassing.

Final Judgement: Mistitled and slightly enjoyable, but shows promise

But...he wasn't...?? ***SLIGHT SPOILER***

[EllenRipley112 · 6/10 · 27 February 2007]

I checked this hidden gem out in my quest to watch every zombie movie ever made. Not only was I slightly disappointed to learn these were NOT Romero zombies, but come to learn the title is misleading--NO ONE was a Zombie for the FBI. A campy romp down memory lane to the "g-men" and "sci-fi" movies of the 40's and 50's, 2 straight-laced FBI agents are on the trail a pair of gangster brothers supposedly lost on their way to prison. When the prisoners' plane crashes into a UFO, they become the pawns of evil aliens that are "zombifing" the local residents of Pleasantville by tainting their cola drinks. With the help of a lovely reporter (who is also the fiancé of one of the g-men) and a brilliant scientist, the g-men race against time to stop both the gangsters and the aliens from escaping justice. The "zombies" are the local townspeople--the aliens "zombify" them with the "Z-ball", and those who cross their paths meet up with the dreaded "Zmonster". If it weren't for the CONSTANT music in the background, I might have enjoyed this a bit more, but it was a valiant effort nonetheless. One of those movies that "could have been SO much better."

Not horrible

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 5 May 2023]

Directed by Marius Penczner and filmed by students from Memphis State University, now known as the University of Memphis, this has a very familiar looking stop motion creature in it. If you were watching music videos in 1983, you saw ZZ Top's "TV Dinners." Well, that same monster appears in both, as that video was also directed by Penczner.

After landing in Pleasantville, United States, aliens convince two criminals to help them rule the world by using Uni-Cola, the most popular soft drink around. In addition to that monster, the aliens can put people into a zombie-like form, which gives this movie its title.

Made for just $27,000, most people of a certain age saw this paired with Attack of the Killer Tomatoes on USA's Night Flight. Once it came out on DVD, it got ed-edited - 33 minutes less! - and what remains is a really fun film that feels as if it really was made in the 50s.

Buyers of the DVD beware

[jeffreywj · 11 February 2006]

I am probably like most everyone else who will buy the DVD version of this movie. We all saw it broadcast several times on USA Network's Night Flight program back in the mid-eighties. It was a wonderful low-budget homage to 50's style monster movies with a bunch of no name actors who I haven't seen since. The only person of note was Larry Raspberry who played the second lead. He was from what I can gather something of a sensation in the music industry for a short time in the mid-sixties. I have a taped copy of the movie that I have had for more than twenty years now and still pull it out periodically.

I started out by watching the extra features that spoke about the making of the film, the stop action procedures used in the film and so forth. I was pretty excited about watching a crisp new DVD copy of this wonderful memory of mine.

Unfortunately, whom ever decided to get this released on DVD decided it needed a complete makeover. The most obvious and most annoying part of the makeover is the inclusion of a complete new soundtrack that not only adds more sound effects but also a brain pounding musical score that will drive you nuts. In the audio setup you have the choice between a version 2.0 or 5.1 soundtrack. I thought the 2.0 might be the original but no such luck. In the small documentary a sound engineer was commenting that he knows he did a good job on sound and music when the audience doesn't know he's there. He failed miserably this time.

I was seeing a whole lot of extra stock footage that I didn't remember from the eighties version. At first I thought maybe this may have just been trimmed out to reduce the film to a better time format for TV. That is until we got to the airplane crash scene. When the two agents pulled up a piece of the damaged aircraft, what should have been the dismembered hand was a new shot of a full corpse either burnt or eaten to the bone. It was obvious this is a recently shot piece and added in. There were also added cloud and fog effects that were not in the original. And I thought the view of the UFO was more of a ball of light effect instead of an obvious flying saucer. Then there were added scene cards detailing each chapter of the film.

I was very dis-satisfied with how this DVD turned out. So much so that I have decided to keep my twenty year old recorded copy of this film. I think this company should re-release the original film on DVD and send me a free copy for having wasted my money on this one. I still love this film, but not the DVD version.

"Something's terribly wrong in Pleasantville."

[jenkinscrowe · 7/10 · 19 July 2006]

The world wasn't quite campy enough for that tagline when this film premiered. Too bad for the world, says I. I Was A Zombie For the FBI is an ahead-of-its-time, Southern-fried, zomboid romp through retro-B-movie territory, Memphis style.

My vote is intended to split the difference between interested and disinterested fans and original versus DVD versions. I lived in Memphis for 30 years. I am, as they say in those parts, partial to this movie for many reasons. All biases aside, the longer, older, grainier, slower version of Zombie is just plain funnier and more interesting than the recent anniversary DVD release. Most importantly, it's far more faithful to the sort of movie Zombie originally set out to parody; some of the new supers/effects on the new DVD seem intrusive and counter to the style of the original work.

I don't know why this film hasn't garnered a wider cult audience, given its long run on USA's Night Flight in the 80s alongside the likes of Forbidden Zone. Watch it now--especially if you love zombie movies and remember the "cola wars" of the 80s.

Good words for a good movie.

[creeper-13 · 10/10 · 9 June 2000]

What else could you ask for in a early eighties low budget masterpiece? You've got overacting that would make William Shatner jealous, and some amazing shots that most ode to classic sci/fi film makers seem to be lacking.10 tentacles up for this wonderfully atmospheric trip back to the films of the fifties!

disappointing

[mahatmarandy · 28 September 2005]

This movie used to show up a lot on Night Flight in the mid-to-late 80s, and I gave it a go since a lot of their stuff was avant garde or at least interesting. This was just space filler, however, not cheezy enough to be fun, not bad enough to be funny, not funny enough to be memorable, not anything enough to be anything. It gets some honorable mention points from me for a low-budget indie film attempting to be a period piece, but the story is utterly incoherent, the acting is entirely forgettable, and really, aside from them irritatingly running this on Night Flight 8 or 9 times a season when they couldn't find anything better to put on, I doubt anyone would remember it at all.

classic si fi...ryko u roc.

[kdzuray · 8/10 · 3 September 2006]

Out with the old n with the new...

I like this movie because of its rare style similar to the lost skeleton of cadavra.

Great no name cast.

an speaking of names

I thought the raspberry brothers should have used their real names.

though I have read a few reviews that hated this DVD because of the

changes what not in the film or score, but I think the f.b.i had something to do with this, so its the politics of DVD they should be upset with.

a classic si fi treat.

Unapologetically appealing

[Polaris_DiB · 8/10 · 27 September 2008]

You know what? This movie is pretty different. I'm well acquainted with both cult movies and the b-movies made out of love for them, but this one truly gets into the spirit of the movies it's homaging while maintaining its own unique approach to the form. I'm not ashamed to say I like this movie very much, no matter its faults.

Two parts "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and one part Anthony Mann, "I was a Zombie for the FBI" plays basically as you would expect: with its tongue firmly in cheek and with every frame a love poem to a filmic conceit. Two brothers play cat and mouse with FBI agents as they try to steal the formula to a popular Cola that has industry spreading across the country. An alien (or more?) appears and starts taking over people in the Cola factory, further complicating things with their classic, pre-Romero zombie-like dazes. The main FBI agent has a reporter girlfriend thrown into the melieu... zaniness and awesomeness ensue.

The DVD edition of this movie is a weird mix of original footage and additional special effects. Because of the sped-up nature of the editing for the DVD release, the movie is given slightly less room to really breathe, making a lot of its beats fall flat. Nonetheless, I actually disagree with a lot of the other reviewers and say that I rather like the added visual effects. It adds a level of Boris Karloff into the already delicious mix, and I don't think it's overdone at all.

Anyway, as cult-homage films go, it could be worse. It's best quality is the closeness of sensibilities to its original source.

--PolarisDiB