ZOMBIE @ 45

Call it Zombie Zombi, Woodoo, Zombie Flesh Eaters, or Zombi 2, Lucio Fulci's parallel response to George Romero's all conquering Dawn of the Dead began the same kind of groundswell in Italian cinema that Romero's did in the U.S. The Italians went nuts for zombies, making the movies and seeing them. Fulci, who had done the lot as far as genre went, including giallo thrillers, took to zombies so much that he peppered the screen with them for the next few years.

A sweaty doctor on the Island of Matool shoots a hooded corpse that has begun to rise back to life and tells someone that the boat can leave. In New York harbour that boat, a sailing yacht, drifts without crew and is intercepted by harbour police who quickly get dispatched by the monstrous figure that has emerged from the ship's bowels. Meanwhile, a journalist is sent off to the boat to investigate the mystery which has just deepened as one of the cops comes to life in the morgue and kills a doctor. Meanwhile, the daughter of a scientist who was performing research on Matool is also investigating the mystery. Soon, the pair touch down on the closest charted island and hitch a ride with a pair of American adventure tourists who think they can take them to Matool. They get there. Zombies.

Ok, so it looks like I'm having a cheap laugh here but the significant thing about Fulci zombie movies is that that's all they need to be. Romero removed the magic and added subtext. Night of the Living Dead was about racism with Vietnam War harmonics. Dawn of the Dead was about mindless and corrosive consumerism. And so on. Fulci put the religion back in because it was easier to understand and left he subtext to plain survival. But this allowed him to work with a ton of style.

The widescreen imagery of Zombie is far more beautiful and vibrant than you would ever expect a film with that title to have. Even the opening shots of New York Harbour have a dreamlike glide to them. The zombies themselves are all teeth and maggots, made as emaciated and ugly as they can be, and their attacks are effectively yucky gorefests. You also get weird what-ifs, the kind of scenes that come about after a night of boozey talk. A young female character goes scuba diving topless (with plenty of camera fixation on her crotch area while the reporter gazes on with a look that goes way beyond objectivity) AND she gets stalked by a shark AND gets chased UNDERWATER by a zombie who then wrestles the shark AND WINS. The most infamous scene is of a woman gripped by a zombie hand that has bashed through shutters and draws her, eyeball first, into a sharp and thick splinter. We watch in profile as the spike goes right through her eye. That's what this movie is. Who's got time for subtext?

Is it silly? Of course, but it's also genuinely stomach turning and, if you meet it on its own terms, it delivers its payload with consistent power. Fulci's next few films took supernatural themes and points to ever more fantastic and bloody extents but Zombie at least plays fair by keeping to a single threat and survival, all happening in scenes of firmly established atmosphere. As goofy as the dialogue gets, and as absurd as some of the situations are, Zombie offers you a world. Take a walk. You might just like it.

Viewing notes: I watched Blue Underground's 4K of this with its magnificent transfer that boasts rich colour and great depth to some of Fulci's near visionary compositions. Dolby Vision and Atmos seal the deal. This is probably available to rent online but I don't know if even Shudder offer it for streaming by subscription.