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ZOMBIE/ZOMBI 2 Starring Ian McCulloch, Tisa Farrow, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver, Olga Karlotos and Dakar * SCREENSHOT KEY:
The end of the 1970s was an era of great promise for horror films. The decade that brought forth such great films as Jaws, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Exorcist was coming to an end. 1979, in particular, was a very fertile year for the horror genre. Ridley Scott's Alien, Stephen King's Salem's Lot, Herzog's remake of Nosferatu, and the US release of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead were among the great films that helped the transition into the 1980s. It was Lucio Fulci's Zombie that pleased gorehounds, and paved the way for a great number of European zombie/cannibal-themed films. After being released by several companies under different titles in many formats, Lucio Fulci's Zombie (aka Zombi 2) has been released by Media Blasters (and Blue Underground) in a new remastered print (finally remastered from the original negative materials), with a mountain of extras and several audio options.
Two New York City policemen board a ghost ship that wanders into the East River. After finding nothing but garbage and rotting food on the ship, one of the policemen is killed by a ferocious, decaying man who was hiding in one of the storage compartments. The other policeman shoots the attacker, sending it overboard. A letter on the ship is found, addressed to the writer's daughter, Ann. The letter describes the account of her father's visit to a tropical island, Matool. Ann's father contracted a strange disease when visiting his friend, Dr. Maynard, and was allowing Maynard to study his condition. After encountering a reporter, Peter West, they decide to head for the Caribbean.
They enlist the assistance of Brian and Susan, vacationers who are headed in the same direction with their boat. Well on their way to Matool, a shark tries to attack Susan when she is scuba diving. She escapes, only after encountering a strange man who also attempts to attack her when she is underwater. With their boat's driveshaft damaged by the Shark attack, the group drift offshore, firing distress flares. They are assisted by Dr. Maynard, who brings them ashore, and explains the whole phenomena of the zombies. When they reach the doctor's hospital, he lends them his land rover and requests that they check on his wife who is home alone on the other end of the island.
When the group reaches the doctor's house, it is discovered that the doctor's wife has been killed and is being devoured by zombies. The group frantically drives back towards the doctor's hospital, but run over a zombie and crash into a tree. Traveling on foot, the group stops to rest in what appears to be a clearing in the woods. Discovering that there are old tombstones and old, Spanish war gear, it is assumed that they had stopped in the middle of a Conquistador burial ground. The undead rise and attack the group. Susan is killed, and the others escape into the woods, en route to the doctor's hospital. What awaits the group at the hospital leads the story to its gory and horrifying end...
Zombie is often mistaken as an unofficial sequel or carbon copy of Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Dawn of the Dead was released in Europe as Zombi. Just before release, Fulci's film had been retitled by its producers with the name Zombi 2 to cash in the on the success of Romero's film. However, aside from the presence of zombies, there are no other similarities. Most notably, many of Fulci's zombies even rise out of their graves to accompany the zombies that were the result of a lethal zombie bite. Zombie was a tremendous success worldwide and became even more popular through its great many home video releases. Among the several North American releases of Fulci's classic are Wizard's oversized box and regular sleeve VHS releases (with the onscreen title Zombies 2), a rare CED VideoDisc release, Magnum's video and laserdisc versions (with orange credits, bearing the distributor's name, Jerry Gross), Ace and T-Z Video's budget VHS releases, the Roan widescreen laser release, Anchor Bay's widescreen VHS and two non-anamorphic DVD releases (same release, different artwork), and now Media Blasters' and Blue Underground's remastered DVDs.
The quality of these transfers (up until Blue Underground and Media Blasters released Zombie) were generally fair. The first DVD release of Zombie by Anchor Bay (in 1998) was a partial disappointment to many fans. Although this was the first time that Zombie was available on DVD in widescreen, it was non-anamorphic and had several image problems. The film's image had a great deal of artifacting, digital "ghosting" or "smearing", and the print used was very dark, washed-out and full of blemishes. In many of the scenes, the black levels were very uneven, appearing to be a glowing green color. The audio quality of the Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo Surround tracks was fair; much of the film's soundtrack seemed to be artificially enhanced with extra sound effects. The extras included North American trailers, TV spots and radio spots. Anchor Bay re-released Zombie in 2002 with all-new artwork, but the transfer and the menus were exactly the same. Media Blasters' version of Zombie is a tremendous improvement over all other DVD releases before it. Using the original negative materials (as Blue Underground did), Media Blasters produced a DVD with the ultimate audio/video quality that Fulci's classic has ever had. The image is colorful, sharp and is as free from scratches and defects as the film could be. The image is very bright, and details that were never apparent before are now able to be seen. In addition, there is more information revealed on the top, bottom and sides of the image in this new anamorphic transfer.
There are many audio options. As with Blue Underground's version, the viewer can choose between Dolby Digital 5.1, 2.0 Surround and 2.0 mono tracks - and for the first time in North America, listen to the original Italian soundtrack with 5.1, 2.0 and mono sound. The soundtracks are of very good quality; however, the 2.0 surround track goes silent for several minutes, during the graveyard scene. One other audio mistake is present, but it seems to have been a problem with the master, since the problem is with both DVD releases. The sound is out of synch during the scene where Maynard hands his truck over to the group of central characters. Other than these sound glitches, the audio quality is very high. Media Blasters supplies extras on two discs for this release. On the first disc, there is a running audio commentary with Ian McCulloch. This commentary was taken from the Roan/Anchor Bay release. The commentary is a little dry at times due to McCulloch's lack of affection for the film. He gives very little insight to the film itself, but offers several anecdotes about his experiences on and off set.
The featurette Food for the Worms is a 12-minute interview with Captain Haggerty, the first zombie seen in the film. He talks about his current career (raising dogs), how and why he changed his name to "Captain," and his own account of working on the film. He has amusing stories about extra scenes that were filmed but not edited into the final film and his trip to a popular music venue in full makeup after shooting. Although he insists that he does not remember much, he provides a lot of interesting information and insight into the making of Zombie. There is a photo gallery consisting of production stills, posters and lobby cards. Set to music modeled after the film's theme song, the slideshow-style gallery lasts over ten minutes. The last extra on disc one is the International trailer for Zombie, titled Zombi 2. The interesting aspect of the inclusion of this trailer is that it is the cut version. Media Blasters had released another zombie movie to DVD with this trailer as an Easter Egg; the only difference is that all of the violence from the goriest scenes is included. For some strange reason, the trailer on this DVD release is missing all of the gore.
Starting out disc two is a short interview (titled Raising the Dead) with Walter Patriarca, the costume designer for Zombie. It is very hard to understand the interview because English is Patriarca's second language and the general audio quality is poor. This is an example where the interview should have been edited into the larger featurette, Building a Better Zombi. The 97 minute retrospective is full of interview material, stills, and clips. Depending on the circumstances, some of the interviews are presented in English while others are presented in Italian with English subtitles. So many people from the cast and crew are interviewed, even including the actor who portrayed the widely familiar poster zombie. Unfortunately, actors such as Tisa Farrow and Richard Johnson were not interviewed. However, so many aspects of the film are covered, such as the soundtrack, the notorious special effects sequences, shooting, a comparison between Fulci and George Romero, and the success of Zombie worldwide. An interesting extra, An Evening with Dakar, is a three-minute piece where the actor (who portrayed Lucas) plays guitar and sings. Dakar makes no comment on the film or his career. There is a trailer reel for other zombie films released by Media Blasters. Aside from being an advertising tool, this trailer reel is a treat for fans of Zombie. Included are trailers for Bio Zombie, D'Amato's Erotic Nights of the Living Dead, Zombi 3, Burial Ground, Bill Hinzman's Flesh Eater, Zombie 4: After Death, Media Blasters' very own Flesh for the Beast, Zombi Holocaust and Zombie 5: Killing Birds. This is a very fitting extra, ending the second disc.
There is one Easter Egg. It can be accessed from the extras menu of disc one, and consists of the original Italian title/credit sequence for Zombi 2. Hardcore fans of this film will be delighted to see the original title card in Italian. Fans have had to wait several years for a proper DVD release of Zombie on DVD, and now they have it. After 25 years, Zombie can be seen as it was meant to be seen in a sharp, colorful transfer with a wealth of extra material. If only Fulci could have seen it himself..... |
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