a.k.a. Zombie Flesh Eaters 2
company: Flora Film
year: 1988
runtime: 95′
country: Italy / Philippines
directors: Lucio Fulci, with
Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso
cast: Deran Saradian, Beatrice Ring,
Ottaviano Dell’Acqua, Massimo Vanni,
Ulli Reinthaler, Marina Loi
writers: Claudio Fragasso
and Rossella Drudi
order this film from Amazon.com
single disc | boxed set
Plot: A rag-tag bunch of soldiers and college kids try to survive a zombie apocalypse in the Philippines and the hazmat-suited death squads sent out by the Army to contend with it.
There was at least some potential for decency, if not greatness, to be had with ZOMBI 3. Producer Franco Gaudenzi, looking to tap into the post-RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD popularity of the genre by creating a name sequel in the unofficial ZOMBI franchise, at least had the courtesy to bring in horror maestro Lucio Fulci to oversee things. It’s unfortunate that the project went downhill as quickly as they apparently did, leaving whatever potential the film had woefully untapped. “I don’t repudiate any of my movies except ZOMBI 3,” Fulci said in a 1995 interview. “It has been done by a group of idiots.”
What idiots, you ask? Fulci mentions three by name – directors Claudio Fragasso and Bruno Mattei, who took over the completion of the project after Fulci abandoned it (due to health concerns some say), and production manager Mimmo Scavia, whom the director says was more interested in chasing Filipino girls than in his job on the film. It is reported that only fifty or so minutes of the footage Fulci directed remains in the film. The rest is the work of Fragasso and Mattei, the pair previously responsible for the mind-numbing HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD.
While Fulci seems content with his usual gore gags, including a marvellous flying zombie head that pops out of a refrigerator and mauls a young man to death, and a few self-referential moments, Fragasso and Mattei seem confused as to what earlier films they should mine for ideas. RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD was an obvious inspiration – talking zombies appear from time to time (many in scenes derived directly from the Dan O’Bannon film) and the contagion is spread in the same manner (through the cremation of an infected body). Romero’s DAY OF THE DEAD seems to have been as well, inspiring a long running scientists-versus-Army-men subplot. Even the hard-rocking Lamberto Bava flick DEMONS is pillaged, leading to a number of ZOMBI 3′s titular monsters sporting claws!
The end result is a tremendously weird undead opus with absolutely no internal logic and an uncanny ability to entertain for all the wrong reasons. The script by Fragasso and co-writer Rosella Drudi, apparently still being revised when Fulci flew the coup, is an awful mess that undoubtedly sounds even worse dubbed as ZOMBI 3 was dubbed. The lengthy dialogues between the head scientist of the “Death 1″ project and the General in charge of cleaning up the zombie mess are particularly poor in conception, a problem made ludicrously worse through the performances of Robert Morius (forever accenting with his hands) and Mike Monty in those respective roles.
The focus throughout tends to be more on action than horror, in spite of a bevy of Franco Di Girolamo [NIGHTMARE CITY, THE NEW YORK RIPPER] gore effects, and ZOMBI 3 sports both an exploding gas station and plenty of macho-men with machine guns. Even the zombie scenes are more kinetic than the usual, with the contaminated / undead bursting out of corners with machetes or hopping off of rooftops and the like. Occasionally the action-oriented approach works well, as when a soldier is attacked by zombies (including his newly legless female companion!) by a bubbling pool.
The rest tends towards pure hokum. Zombies leap off pillars and lie in wait behind cabinet doors, in the rafters, or even ‘neath abandoned pregnant women (!). There are a couple of attempts at seriousness, as in a few stylized slow-motion shots of the ongoing death squad massacre (coupled with a “trust the government” speech from blind DJ Blue Heart), but they are few and far between. Fulci takes to filling the screen with fog and shooting with considerable diffusion, perhaps to save his audience from the idiocy he knew was playing out before the camera. It’s a pity he never thought to direct it with the same comic sensibility he brought to so many of his pre-horror films (THE EROTICIST, et al.).
ZOMBI 3 is undeniably awful, but its terribleness may just be its saving grace. It certainly adds to the overall recommendability. If you’re interested in seeing doofuses in hazmat suits fist-fighting two army men when they all have perfectly good machine guns available (at least one of which is wielded as a club!) or watching pesky clawed zombies push unsuspecting girls out of windows (or even leaping out of them themselves!) then ZOMBI 3 is clearly a film for you. It has all of that and more, and that aforementioned flying zombie head to boot.
This one suffered handily at the hands of censors but was restored to its full 95 minute running time for the 2002 Media Blasters / Shriek Show DVD release. The composite job looks pretty dreadful all around, with numerous switches between film-sourced and tape-sourced elements, but it’s the best I’ve seen the film look to date. It’s recommended to fans and the curious alike and can be had quite cheaply as part of The Zombie Pack, a three disc combo package that also includes two proto-sequels (Claudio Fragasso’s entertaining AFTER DEATH and Joe D’Amato’s KILLING BIRDS, the latter of which was produced a year before this film), or much more expensively as an individual release.
Inarguably idiotic and a complete failure in the fields of both horror and action, ZOMBI 3 nevertheless has the potential to be one of the most entertaining of Italy’s many many flesh eating fiascoes. It’s all about expectations. Personally, I loved it. Recommended.
