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.
