Zombi 2
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| Zombi 2 | |
|---|---|
 USA theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Lucio Fulci |
| Produced by | Fabrizio De Angelis Ugo Tucci |
| Written by | Elisa Briganti Dardano Sacchetti (uncredited) |
| Starring | Tisa Farrow Ian McCulloch Richard Johnson Al Cliver Auretta Gay Stefania D'Amario Olga Karlatos Ugo Bologna Dakkar Franco Fantasia Leo Gavero Mónica Zanchi |
| Music by | Fabio Frizzi Giorgio Cascio Adrianno Giordanell Maurizio Guarini |
| Cinematography | Sergio Salvati |
| Editing by | Vincenzo Tomassi |
| Distributed by | Anchor Bay Entertainment (DVD) Shriek Show (DVD) |
| Release date(s) |  August 25, 1979 |
| Running time | 91 min |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian (English dub.) |
| Budget | ITL 410,000,000 |
| Preceded by | Zombi (aka Dawn of the Dead) |
| Followed by | Zombi 3 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The best-known of Lucio Fulci's films, Zombi 2 (also known as Zombie, Island of the Living Dead, Zombie Flesh Eaters, and Woodoo) sparked an obsession with zombie films across Europe and made Fulci a horror icon. Upon its release in 1979, the film was ridiculed for having no connection to the original Zombi and was scorned for its extremely bloody content, yet the film was a tremendous success.
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[edit] Background
Zombi 2 is a pseudo-sequel to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Dawn was re-edited and re-scored for European markets by Romero's collaborator, Italian horror master Dario Argento. Argento released his new version of Dawn of the Dead as Zombi and treated it as a standalone story, not a continuation of Romero's Night of the Living Dead.
Fulci's Zombi 2 was in actual fact already in production at the time of Romero's success. It was not a film created to "cash-in" on the original Zombi's popularity, however the name was taken in order to show a link between the films.
[edit] Plot
An apparently abandoned yacht drifts into New York Harbor, and the Harbor Patrol investigates. On board, a huge rotting man (Captain Haggerty) kills Marty, one of the patrolmen, by tearing out his neck with his teeth. The remaining patrolman Bill manages to knock the hulking man into the sea by blasting him with his revolver several times.
A young woman named Ann (Tisa Farrow) is questioned by the police when it is discovered that the boat belonged to her father. She does not know anything except that her father left for a tropical island to do research. A reporter named Peter West (Ian McCulloch) is assigned by his news editor (director Lucio Fulci in a cameo) to get the story on the mysterious boat. Ann and Peter meet on the boat and decide to work together after finding a note from Ann's father (Ugo Bologna). The note says that he is on the island of Matool and that he has come down with a strange disease. Ann and Peter enlist the aid of a seafaring couple, Brian (Pier Luigi Conti) and Susan (Auretta Giannone), to help find Matool.
On Matool, Dr. David Menard (Richard Johnson) is hard at work studying the island's secrets. Matool is a cursed place where the dead rise to attack the living, and Manard is determined to find out why. When Ann, Peter, Brian, and Susan reach Matool, the island itself seems to come alive, vomiting forth all the dead buried on the island to kill them.
In the end, all of the island's inhabitants and Susan fall victim to the walking dead; Brian is also infected and dies soon afterwards. Peter and Ann manage to escape by boat, taking the now undead Brian with them as evidence for their story. But on the high sea they turn on the radio - and learn to their horror that the living dead have invaded New York city! The policeman killed by the zombie - and his killer itself - have infected the New York population, explosively multiplying the zombie army beyond any hope of control....
[edit] Memorable Scenes
The film became infamous for two scenes in particular, aided by amazing special effects. One features a zombie (Ramon Bravo) fighting a shark underwater. In an interesting bit of trivia, the actor scheduled to fight the shark was unable to perform the day the sequence was to be shot, so the shark's trainer was used instead. The other infamous scene is where a character has her eye gouged out on a splintered piece of wood very slowly and painfully. This scene in particular was edited from many previous releases, but is intact on all three current DVD versions. The film is also remembered among fans for its creepy, synthesized opening theme.
[edit] Zombi 2 in Europe
Zombi 2's incredible success in Europe re-ignited Fulci's sagging career and reinvented the director as a horror maven. Fulci would go on to direct several more horror films, and Zombi 2 introduced several of his trademarks: zombies, hyper-realistic gore and blood, and the infamous "eyeball gag" (a character is impaled or otherwise stabbed through the eyeball). Although Fulci's detractors labeled the film as a cheap attempt to cash in on the success of Dawn of the Dead, it is interesting to note that the Zombi 2 screenplay was actually completed before Dawn of the Dead premiered (hence the lack of connection between the two films).
Despite the massive popularity of the film, Zombi 2 was banned in several countries due to the massive gore content, including Great Britain. It was released by Vipco but with a lot of violence edited out. It was finally released uncut in 2005. Lead actor Ian McCulloch, who is British, never actually had the opportunity to watch the film until he recorded a commentary for a DVD release of Zombi 2 some twenty-two years later, and was shocked at the gore level.
Zombi 2's massive European box office take also paved the way for three more sequels, which, like their predecessor, have no relation to any of the other films in the series — they all have self-contained plots. While the Zombi series proved to be incredibly lucrative, Zombi 2 is by far the most recognizable of the European zombie films.
[edit] Zombi 2 in the United States
Zombi 2 was released merely as Zombie in America and was considered a stand-alone film with no connection to Romero's zombie canon. The theatrical trailers for Zombie provided the memorable tagline of "We Are Going to Eat You!" and showcased some of the make-up effects, but did nothing to indicate the plot of the picture (although the audience was indeed warned about the graphic content of the film: a humorous crawl at the end of the preview promises "barf bags" to whoever requested them upon viewing the film). Although the film was released unrated, persons under the age of seventeen were not permitted to attend viewings of the picture, even with a parent.
[edit] VHS/DVD release history
The film developed a massive cult following after its release on home video, although a series of public domain releases featured a muddy full screen transfer of the film that angered hardcore fans. In the late 1990s, the film was released on DVD and laserdisc by Anchor Bay and The Roan Group respectively. Both versions used a widescreen print, to the delight of fans. But more complaints were made about the transfer, which was still dark and muddy à la the film's original VHS release. The DVD/Laserdisc version also omitted several minutes of nudity from the film while leaving the film's graphic violence intact.
Five years later, Blue Underground and Shriek Show Films struck a deal to release the film on DVD yet again, this time with a newly remastered, uncut version of the film. Now truly complete and no longer muddy looking, the two DVDs were released with Shriek Show using the film's original name Zombi 2 while Blue Underground released the film under the Americanized Zombie name. The Shriek Show release also contained a second disc filled with bonus material, which made their release slightly more desirable as opposed to the less expensive bare-boned Blue Underground release.
Also worth noting are the differences between the 2004 Shriek Show Media Blasters release and the 2006 Shriek Show Anchor Bay release, which often get confused. While Anchor Bay has a history of showing a great deal of respect for the preservation of purity in original director approved and uncut film releases, the 2006 Anchor Bay release of 'Zombi 2' inexplicably has a few minutes of footage omitted which can be found still intact in the 2004 Media Blasters release. Both feature comparable digitally remastered, anamorphic widescreen transfers, as well as the same bonus materials, but only the 2004 Media Blasters release can truly be considered "uncut".
The other films in the Zombi series made it to America as video releases--none were released theatrically in the States.
[edit] Trivia
- The Canadian band Fake Shark - Real Zombie! took their name as a reference from a scene in this movie.
- The band Send More Paramedics have a song called Zombie vs Shark in homage to this movie.
- Hip-hop producer Necro sampled the theme in the song "Carnivores" on the 2005 self-titled album from his group Circle of Tyrants
[edit] See also
| The Living Dead films |
|---|
| Official Romero directed films |
| Night of the Living Dead • Dawn of the Dead • Day of the Dead • Land of the Dead • Diary of the Dead |
| Unofficial sequel/spin-offs |
| Italian Zombi series: Zombi 2 • Zombi 3 • Zombi 4 (aka Oltre la Morte or After Death) |
| Other: Day of the Dead 2: Contagium • Children of the Living Dead |
| Remakes |
| Night of the Living Dead (1990) • Dawn of the Dead (2004) • Night of the Living Dead 3-D • Day of the Dead (2007) |
| Return of the Living Dead series |
| The Return of the Living Dead • Return of the Living Dead Part II • Return of the Living Dead 3 • Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis • Return of the Living Dead: Rave from the Grave |
| Spoofs/parodies |
| Night of the Living Bread • Shaun of the Dead |
