Zombi (film series)

The Zombi series refers collectively to various European horror films that have been falsely marketed as sequels to either George A. Romero's American film Dawn of the Dead (1978) or Lucio Fulci's Italian film Zombi 2 (1979); the latter was itself falsely marketed as a sequel to the former. A confusing history has emerged from the practise of retitling films for release in different countries, in which a given film may have a different title in each country in which it is released. In Britain, these films were released as the Zombie Flesh Eaters series. In North America, these same films became known as the Zombie series.

For the European release of Romero's Dawn of the Dead, the film was re-edited by Dario Argento and re-scored by Goblin, and retitled Zombi. Following its success, a zombie film by Lucio Fulci that was already in production was retitled Zombi 2 to appear as an ersatz sequel. A series of increasingly tenuous efforts by various producers to capitalize on the Zombi name ensued.[1]

Series by region

Italian series

The Italian series starts with Dawn of the Dead and is followed by Zombi 2 and its officially released sequel.

British series

In the UK the series is known as Zombie Flesh Eaters. While it follows the Italian series in proper order, it ignores Dawn of the Dead as the first entry, and instead starts with Zombi 2, adding the unrelated film Oltre la morte as a third installment.

German series

The German series, like the Italian series, starts off with Dawn of the Dead, but ignores Fulci's Zombi 2 (which was released separately as Woodoo), and instead continues with Day of the Dead and the Italian Zombi 3.

Thai series

The Thai Zombi series follows the titling and numbering of the British series, but adds the unrelated film Killing Birds with the new title, Zombie Flesh Eaters 4.[2]

American series

Although the American series begins with Zombi 2 and continues in the established sequence, some of the films were retitled again and the titles do not follow in numerical order. Zombi 2 was renamed Zombie, but Zombi 3 was not retitled. Zombi 4 was released with the American title Zombie 4: After Death. Two additional films were released on home video with titles that would imply that they were sequels, but which had nothing to do with the Italian series.

In the 1990s several unrelated titles were released as Zombie sequels by T-Z Video (aka Edde Entertainment) These titles were as follows:

Other films

Danish Series

The Danish distribution company Another World Entertainment, formed in 2006, has issued a numbered "Zombie series" with Italian zombie movies on DVD, which so far includes:

  1. Lucio Fulci's The Beyond (L'aldilà) (1981)
  2. Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead (Paura nella città dei morti viventi) (1980)
  3. Lucio Fulci's Zombie Flesh Eaters (Zombi 2) (1979)
  4. Marino Girolami's Zombie Holocaust (Zombi holocaust) (1980)
  5. Lucio Fulci's Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 (Zombi 3) (1988)
  6. Umberto Lenzi's Nightmare City (Incubo sulla città contaminata) (1980)
  7. Bruno Mattei's Hell of the Living Dead (Virus) (1980)
  8. Andrea Bianchi's Burial Ground (aka Night of Terror) (Le notti del terrore) (1981)

References

  1. ↑ Russell, Jamie. Book of the Dead. FAB Press, 2005 ISBN 1-903254-33-7.
  2. ↑ http://www.ethaicd.com/show.php?pid=54149