Island of the Living Dead

Island of the Living Dead is an awesome zombie film that reminds me of those 80s zombies flicks everyone knows and loves.

Plot: A group of scientists end up on an uncharted island but they are out alone. All of the people who once inhabited the island have now be come the living dead and a hungry for flesh. From there its a struggle for survival for the group.

Acting: The film was dubbed so its hard to tell if the acting is good or not but, all in all, the whole cast was pretty convincing. The two standouts are Yvette Yzonne and Ydalia Suaraz. They are true beauties.

Directing: Bruno Mattei does a wonderful job here. This was shot on high end digital video and looks very professional.

Overall: An awesome zombie flick. Feels like the 1980s again.

Getting stranded by a thunderstorm, a group of treasure hunters land on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean overrun by zombies from the colonial days along with other supernatural beings trapped there and must fight them off to escape.

This here is one of the most enjoyable and entertaining Italian zombie films. What really gives this such a great deal to like is the old-school atmosphere here that recalls the epic feel and tone of the whole affair as a great throwback feel here. This starts from the very beginning as the opening scene of the Conquistadors confronting the afflicted natives down in the dungeon while the rabid voodoo ceremony brings them back to life is an absolutely spectacular start here that's full of cheesy action along with the Gothic atmosphere, the later encounter in the cemetery is the epitome of cheesy action with the kung-fu attack following the initial stumbling encounter hidden from the others by the rolling fog and the big battle on the ship that blows up the whole thing which all form a solid opening that recall all the fun and enjoyment of the earlier Italian zombie films. Given that as well with the film's other big action scenes here as the massive shootout that erupts when the group wanders into the swarm in the catacombs, the resurrection in the burial chamber below group or the group trapped in the various rooms full of gold with rotting skeletons, dead bodies being feasted upon and ravenous zombies breaking in through all manner of barricades offers some great action-packed moments that are a lot of fun. Still, even with all this the film really hits it's stride with the wallowing in the cheesy realms Mattei usually works with, as there's plenty of that kind of material here. From the fact that the film's storyline allows it to feature numerous references and scenes throughout here that really stick out yet comes comes off as part of the charm with this one, as the graveyard attack is a carbon-copy of a legendary sequence, the entire plot is basically one long rip-off cobbled together from three other movies, a narration sequence for the backstory is taken directly from yet another film while there's even several scenes here that rip off his own work from before. Even on top of that the nonsensical elements like the flamenco dancers, ranting and raving characters that are always in complete hysterics, unexplained plot lines like the friendly, talking ghosts explaining everything and the cheap charm all on display here which adds to the fun and delirium of a Mattei effort. Along with the stomach-churning gore and fine, mess make-up work for the zombies, these here all manage to make this one of the best of the Italian zombie films. About the only flaw here is in how this one deals with these elements which may not be suited for everyone who don't appreciate or are distracted by such material in a film. Otherwise, there's nothing really wrong here.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

This film begins during the 17th Century on an island somewhere near the Bermuda Triangle where some Spanish soldiers are fighting for their lives against an incredible number of zombies. The scene then shifts to the present day where a small group of treasure hunters find their ship engulfed by a fog bank and because of a collision with another ship are forced to take refuge on a nearby uncharted island. Sure enough, this just happens to be the same island in the previous scene and the treasure hunters soon find themselves in the same situation as the Spanish soldiers 320 years earlier. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a typically bad low-budget film by Bruno Mattei which suffered from a bad script, bad character development and bad acting. Everything was bad. It also features some of the most incredibly stupid people to have ever walked on the planet as each of them stumble from one bad predicament to another based entirely on their limited decision-making processes. And things then go from bad to worse. That being said, those who may have enjoyed the movie "The Evil Dead" might find some similarities with this film-but even then there isn't really much of a comparison between the two. Personally, other than the presence of two fairly attractive actresses, Yvette Yzon (as "Sharon") and Ydalia Suarez ("Victoria") there really wasn't much of anything here that caught my eye and for that reason I have rated this movie accordingly. Definitely below average.

Supposedly a sequel to Zombies The Beginning (2007) but sharing no similarities at all other than the lead female (Even though she plays a different character) this Italian made poorly dubbed mess is pretty damn bad.

Attempting to pay homage to the classics with scenes mimicked from Night Of The Living Dead, Zombie Flesh Eaters & erm....House Of The Dead?! it fails miserably at each and is more an insult than a respectful nod.

The soundtrack is the standout performer but since I recognised that one was ripped straight from Aliens (1986) I'm left to think maybe they didn't make the rest either.

With a variety of different zombies, no explanation of basically anything at all and some of the worst acting around this is one to watch when drunk, high or while in a medically induced coma.

If I were to make a zombie movie the blue print I'd make is taking everything they've done here then do the literal opposite.

Island of the Living Dead (2006)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

The one and only Mattei got to end his career with a couple zombie movies, which will be good news for fans of the genre and horrid news for non-fans. In the film, a group of treasure hunters got lost in a fog bank and in the morning they notice what appears to be a deserted island. The group goes on shore and sure enough there are zombies running around. If you're looking for any type of actual story then you're obviously not too familiar with the work of Mattei. He's considered one of the biggest hacks in Italian history but at the same time he's made some rather entertaining bad films. This one here really doesn't work but there's enough gore and badness for fans of bad cinema to at least want to give it a single viewing. As is the normal case with the director, we get all sorts of stuff stolen from other movies including dialogue lifted from NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, the infamous eye/splinter sequence from Fulci's ZOMBIE and the Blind Dead movies are certainly playing a big key here. We also get stock footage which is another Mattei trademark. It's pretty hard to judge the acting in the film because the dubbing is so horrendous you really can't tell what's going on. I'm not sure who did this dubbing job but it's among one of the worst tracks I've ever heard but this does lead to some rather campy moments. I think zombie fans will enjoy some of the gore here as we get some (bad) CGI as well as real effects. We have heads being blown off, arms ripped off and plenty of flesh being eaten with all types of blood flowing at ease. We also get some rather bizarre zombie stuff including some having fangs, a few ghost zombies and one that can grow his dead parts back after they're shot off. On a technical level pretty much everything here is bad but those checking this title out are going to know that going in. The film's biggest flaw is its 90-minute running time, which is just way too long for a movie like this especially when you've only got enough plot for a half-hour movie and not enough attacks to justify the long time.