a.k.a. ZOMBIE / ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS
Variety Film Production [1979] 91′
director: LUCIO FULCI
cast: TISA FARROW, IAN MCCULLOCH,
cast: RICHARD JOHNSON, AL CLIVER
ZOMBIE is one of those films that, regardless of your age, sex, or walk of life, manages to evoke a powerful reaction in viewers by virtue of its title alone. Equally praised as a classic of visceral horror and derided as a tried and tired exercise in excess, the project that put director Lucio Fulci back on the map has no shortage of opinions surrounding it. Still largely dismissed as a feeble attempt at knocking off the 1978 George Romero opus DAWN OF THE DEAD, ZOMBIE has received more than its fair share of criticism over the years. In reality, Fulci and Romero couldn’t have been more different in either their purpose or style of execution – as such, their two films are very different monsters.
Romero’s undead were literally the all-consuming alter egos of ourselves and his film an indictment of man’s inability to deal with itself – the shambling corpses there prove to be considerably less trouble than the variety of entirely human obstacles that crop up along the way. DAWN is a satirical and character-driven fantasy essay on American consumerism glued together with traditional horror trappings. Fulci delves into baser human instincts with his offering, with ZOMBIE being a slow and aesthetically charged tangent on the near-universal fear of the unseen and creeping unknown.
The film’s opening is unexpected and attention grabbing – a shadow enshrouded figure fires a bullet into the head of a sheet-wrapped corpse as it slowly rises back to life. Afterwards he utters the words, “The boat can leave now. Tell the crew.” The scene cuts and Fabio Frizzi’s marvelous theme pulses as the opening credits play over a black screen.
An indeterminable amount of time later, a crewless yacht appears in the waters just outside of New York City. Directionless and proving trouble for local boat-goers, two men of the harbor patrol head out to investigate. What happens next is as unexpected as it is unnerving – an enormous man crashes out of a storage closet and mauls one of the officers while he searches the cabin. The other officer opens fire on the unknown assailant, causing him to topple over the railing and into the bay.
Newspaper man Peter West (McCulloch) is put on the story – it turns out the boat belonged to a miss Anne Bowles’ (Farrow) father, who hasn’t been seen since setting sail for the Antilles some months before. Meanwhile, at the office of the chief medical examiner, an autopsy is being performed on the patrol officer who was mauled in the boat incident. As the examiner and his assistant banter about hypotheses and whether or not the latter’s scalpels are sharpened properly the corpse on the table begins to move . . .
At night, Anne sneakily returns to the boat – Peter is already there, snooping around for a story. West has discovered a letter left to Anne by her father and, after cleverly avoiding arrest by the guard on duty at the boat, the two decide to follow Anne’s father’s story back to the Antilles – to the little uncharted island of Matool. On the island of Saint Thomas they ask a ride of vacationers Brian (Cliver) and Susan (Auretta Gay) – in spite of local islanders’ superstitions and against his better judgment, Brian agrees to help.
Things aren’t going well on the island of Matool. Dr. Menard (Johnson) and his wife are having marital troubles thanks to the former’s obsession with understanding a bizarre epidemic that’s slowly taking over the entire island. The disease kills indiscriminately but isn’t nearly as disturbing as one of its apparent side effects – in its wake the dead are rising from their graves and the native islanders, with their voodoo superstitions and persistently beating drums, are starting to blame Menard for their troubles.
After an unfortunate encounter between the diving Susan and a zombie and shark, the four boaters reach the island. Dr. Menard greets them, takes them to the hospital he’s converted the local church into and tells them of the fate of Anne’s father and of the outbreak of walking dead. Back at the hospital he discovers that one of his close friends – whom he describes as the only white-man left on the island – has taken ill. He asks Peter, Anne, Brian and Susan to take his jeep to check up on his wife, who has been left alone all night while Menard was working at the hospital. The group agrees and sets off for the doctor’s house in short order.
In the meantime (and unbeknownst to our four protagonists) the situation on the island is getting worse – the walking dead have been seen as close as the village in which Menard’s hospital is located and more are being spotted all the time. Corpses are piling up in the hospital and, while the doctor makes a concerted effort, he can’t possibly take care of them all . . .
Our protagonists reach the doctor’s house and discover that his wife was attacked in the night – surrounding her dismembered body are a group of zombies who are, true to the film’s tag line, feasting on her remains. After narrowly escaping the house and wrecking their jeep, the four understandably frightened civilians make a desperate attempt to reach the hospital – from there it’s every man for himself in a last-ditch effort to route the growing zombie hordes.
ZOMBIE is set at a languid pace that will, no doubt, bore less patient viewers – but those more mindful of such things will find themselves lulled entirely into a false sense of security, only to have it cruelly ripped away by an unexpected onslaught of hyper-violence in the film’s final act. Viewed with the proper mindset and without any unnecessary allusions to Romero’s franchise OF THE DEAD, Fulci’s film is an effective piece of horror cinema that still packs a number of punches some 28 years after its original release.
The film explores the same basic theme that would permeate Fulci’s horror career throughout – simple but effective, the director’s focus on the age old fear of what might be lurking just outside our understanding of reality is well placed and makes for compelling viewing. A number of references are made to voodoo throughout, which Dr. Menard and company outright refuse to believe responsible. It’s also no small coincidence that the climactic battle for survival takes place in a former church – a house of God turned house of medicine invaded by a phenomena the latter can’t stop or even comprehend and which only the former has the power to potentially explain.
Though punctuated with moments of extreme violence, the focus is clearly on the buildup of fear throughout Fulci’s effort – the titular beasties are kept well at bay after the opening attack on the harbor patrol officer and don’t make another full-on appearance until the 60 minute mark. The infamous eyeball gag (in which Menard’s wife has her right eye slowly drawn toward and impaled on a splinter of wood) is accomplished without the audience seeing anything more than a couple of hands – the effect is immediate and unnerving:
Whatever it is that’s out there, it’s definitely out to get us.
There is no ulterior motive for Fulci’s dead – no satirical motivations to explain away their existence and acts. Fulci’s zombies are the primordial man-eaters that dwell in all of our subconscious minds brought to horrifying life and they have no other purpose but to eat us. Slow and shambling, often with eyes closed, these zombies manage to be more fright-inducing than any others ever committed to film – their form is instantly recognizable and undeniably human, but their drive, purpose, and hunger are derived from something that couldn’t be farther from humanity . . .
Fulci’s emphasis on the buildup of fear leads ZOMBIE to have some of the same shortcomings evident in all of his films, however. Most noticeable is the complete lack of character development. Peter, Anne, Brian, Susan, Dr. Menard and his help all come exactly as they are – there are no villains, there is no conflict. Combined with the stilted nature of completely overdubbed dialogue, the character-driven scenes of the film can fall more than a little flat. While not as big an issue here as it is in his later effort HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY [1981], it can still detract from the proceedings.
All other technical aspects of the production are flawless. Gianetto De Rossi’s makeup work holds up remarkably well to this day – having worked previously with Sergio Leone (ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST [1968]) and Jorge Grau (LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE [1974]), Rossi became the go-to guy for makeup effects in Europe for years to come. He would go on to work with Fulci on two of the three follow-ups to ZOMBIE and would even lend his talents to such high-budget productions as David Lynch’s DUNE [1984]. Long time contributor Fabio Frizzi was present for this project as well and provided one of his best and most recognizable scores.
More important than all the rest, potentially, was cinematographer Sergio Salvati. Salvati obviously has an eye and he drenches ZOMBIE’s 2.35:1 frame with unsettling style. Initial shots of the zombies wandering through town – first just one far in the distance turning, over time, into a horde making its way towards the hospital – are as visually impressive as anything WTFFILM has ever seen. Previously working with Fulci on FOUR OF THE APOCALYPSE [1975], Salvati would go on to work with him time and time again on such films as CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD [1980] and THE BEYOND [1981].
Not without its faults and certainly not for every taste, ZOMBIE is, never the less, a landmark film in the world of horror and one of which my personal opinion has changed considerably over the years. There’s a certain crazed genius to Fulci’s workings, though it can take a number of viewings to see – even if you’ve seen the film a hundred times, give it another try. You might be surprised by what you find. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll feel that tell-tale shiver up your spine . . .
Recommended.
