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[tab title="Movie Review"]
Finally, the real truth about the walking dead can be told (and sold) to the masses. Boils and Ghouls, I bring you the blood-curdling classic known as Zombie! The eye violence! The zombie wrestling with the shark! The suspense! The WTF moments! The rotting zombies! And the buffet of human flesh!
Arriving fresh from its sabbatical at the Mount of All Things Gooey and Gross, Zombie should satisfy your need for babes and brains and shark-boxing zombies. It’s been a hell of a long wait, but – after several delays and other brain-numbing excuses - Italian horror master director Lucio Fulci’s unofficial sequel to George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead arrives with a brand new 4K restoration from those cult enthusiasts over at Blue Underground. Now, you can get sick over splinters entering eyeballs as if it was the first time all over again!
And, as it is celebrating its new 4K restoration, this release comes with your choice of its cover! Three-discs of bonus material AND the classic Zombie? Who gets my money?!?!?
Released as Zombi 2 (and a whole slew of other Zombie related titles) in 1979, Zombie starts with an abandoned yacht floating into New York Harbor. A couple of unsuspecting police officers climb aboard and are quickly attacked by a fat zombie presumably full from eating all those onboard during the yachts many travels.
Wanting to get to the bottom of the flesh-chomping being, the police question Anne Bowles (Tisa Farrow) whose father owned the boat. All she knows is that her father – an island researcher – left for the U.S. Virgin Islands. She doesn’t know his current location or anything about the flesh-chomping fat dead man onboard.
Reporter Peter West (Ian McCulloch) joins forces with Bowles and, after discovering some mysterious clues about the possible location of her father, make their way to the tropics and are joined by Brian Hull (Pier Luigi Conti) and Susan Barrett (Auretta Gay) to help navigate their way to the island of Matool and discover the truth about the zombies that are plaguing the island and (gulp) New York City. {googleads}
Forget the plot, though. This is a bloody bonanza of flesh, tiger shark attacks, and gruesome eye gouging pieces tied together by one zombie attack after another. It all leads up to a zombie attack en masse that leaves little hope for survival. It seems the zombies are even acclimated to surviving on the ocean’s floor as one, showcasing his boxing skills, punches and wrestles his way toward earning a tasty meal on a freshly dead tiger shark.
It’s a film that shouldn’t be as entertaining as it is given its narrative limitations, yet the glue – Fulci’s palpable behind-the-scenes enthusiasm for setting up the kill – keeps its creaky frame together. Simply put, Zombie is unrated horror at its finest; its cheesiest; its bloodiest and, ultimately, at its most fun. 
You might cringle a little at the Italian gusto toward blood and guts but, as one clever zombie pulls actress Olga Karlatos’s hair causing her to greet a piece of splintered wood with her open eye, you’ll be hard pressed to find any better use of the camera at building tension or the use of makeup and gore effects in the genre. These guys love to make an audience squirm and squeal in their seats.
Fulci, although underrated as a director, was a mad genius. Zombie is all the proof the world will ever need.
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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]
Blu-ray Details:
Home Video Distributor: Blue Underground
Available on Blu-ray - November 27, 2018
Screen Formats: 2.40:1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Russian, Swedish, Thai
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono; English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1; Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono; Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1; French: Dolby Digital Mono
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; Three-disc set
Region Encoding: Region-free
The 1080p transfer offered from Blue Underground is a pretty solid piece of work – especially for this 4K restoration. While it won’t reach the levels and clarity that a new release will, this restored and remastered image (originally from 1979 mind you) is the best this film has ever looked. Colors and contrast levels are strong throughout and shadows hold their own very nicely against the tropical settings and cool interiors. Fine detail adds to the suspense of the picture and the textures in the gore and zombie flesh that drops and dangles from skull and bone adds a bit of a horrifying level long since missing from the makeup effects. While not as clear and boisterous as one might expect, the DTS-HD MA 7.1 lossless soundtrack does a fine job and honing in on the sound and dialogue and keeps the film in line with some pretty decent soundscapes…even if it is a bit front loaded.
Supplements:
Commentary:
- See supplemental material.
Special Features:
Just in time for its 40th Anniversary, Blue Underground gives us a brand-new 4K Restoration from the original uncut and uncensored camera negative. And now we have a whole slew of new and archival supplemental material! Much of the supplemental material has been ported over from an earlier release which, considering the quality of the new HD transfer, is a good thing. Separated over three discs with the best stuff on the second disc, the special features range from a grand collection of still galleries and trailers to reminiscence from the (still living) actors and actresses about the behind the scenes antics and other making of tidbits. Interviews with everyone from Cinematographer Sergio Salvati to filmmaker Guillermo del Toro make the bulk of the special features.
Disc 1 (Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:
- NEW! Audio Commentary #1 with Troy Howarth, Author of Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulci and His Films
- Audio Commentary #2 with Star Ian McCulloch and Diabolik Magazine Editor Jason J. Slater
- NEW! When The Earth Spits Out The Dead - Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci
- Theatrical Trailers
- TV Spots
- Radio Spots
- Poster & Still Gallery
- Guillermo del Toro Intro
Disc 2 (Blu-ray) Extras:
- Zombie Wasteland - Interviews with Stars Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson & Al Cliver, and Actor/Stuntman Ottaviano Dell'Acqua
- Flesh Eaters on Film - Interview with Co-Producer Fabrizio De Angelis
- Deadtime Stories - Interviews with Co-Writers Elisa Briganti and (Uncredited) Dardano Sacchetti
- World of the Dead - Interviews with Cinematographer Sergio Salvati and Production & Costume Designer Walter Patriarca
- Zombi Italiano - Interviews with Special Make-Up Effects Artists Gianetto De Rossi & Maurizio Trani and Special Effects Artist Gino De Rossi
- Notes on a Headstone - Interview with Composer Fabio Frizzi
- All in the Family - Interview with Antonella Fulci
- Zombie Lover - Award-Winning Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro talks about one of his favorite films
- BONUS! ZOMBIE Original Motion Picture Soundtrack CD by Fabio Frizzi
- BONUS! Collectable Booklet with new essay by Stephen Thrower
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