Zombie Holocaust (1980)
Studio: Media Blasters/Shriek Show
Theatrical Release: March 28, 1980
Blu Ray Release: June 28, 2011
Not Rated
Review by James Klein
God bless the Italians! Their love for cinema has been proven time and time again by ripping off and paying "homage" to various U.S. classics. In the 70's and 80's, whenever a genre film did well in the United States, they would quickly make a film that was close to the style or theme as their U.S. counterpart. Director Marino Girolami goes one step further: his film Zombie Holocaust is a rip off on two films: the Italian Zombi 2 which in effect was a rip off on Dawn of the Dead, and also Cannibal Holocaust. So not only do we get a zombie picture but also a cannibal feature. Did I mention that there is also a mad scientist in this as well? Well schlock fans and grindhouse lovers, Zombie Holocaust is your movie.
Released in the U.S. in 1982 as Doctor Butcher, M.D. this bizarre film starts off with Peter Chandler (Ian McCulloch who starred in Zombi 2) and Dr. Lori Ridgeway who have discovered a cult of flesh eating fanatics in New York City. Wanting to find out the origins of this cult, they travel to a tropical island that is believed to hold the origin of this cult. When they wind up trapped in the jungle and are kidnapped and chased by crazy cannibals, they meet up with Dr Oberro who seems like a nice guy at first until we find out that he is taking brains from the living and transplanting them into dead bodies which have turned these helpless victims into zombies. Meanwhile, Dr. Lori Ridgeway is kidnapped and strapped naked on a rock, about to be sacrificed in a cannibal ritual. Sounds nuts? It is. Check your brain at the door (pun intended).
The highlight of the film is the high amount of nudity, sex, and gore that fill this film. We see throat slicings, disembowelments, stabbings, brain surgeries, burnings, and in one of the bigger gore scenes we see a zombies head come into contact with a motor boat propeller. However, the awful zombie make up is frighteningly awful as if they had clay smeared on their face.
Media Blasters new blu ray looks very good and clean. They also added the DVD to this set as well so fans can now upgrade if they don't have a blu ray player yet. Media Blasters has ported over all of the old special features from their past DVD release. We get a short and un-planned interview with make up man Maurizio Trani who admits he has never seen the film and has little memory of any of the gruesome special effects. In fact, he downplays the make up and admits that the zombie make up doesn't look as well as it should have been. There is also a more informative interview with documentarian/historian Roy Frumkes who discusses a short film he worked on with various students in college called Tales That Will Rip Your Heart Out whose footage wound up in the opening of the Doctor Butcher, M.D. release.
While Zombie Holocaust doesn't make much sense and takes itself too seriously at times, the film is seldom boring and is best watched half in the bag late at night while eating junk food. I can never give a bad review to a cannibal/zombie/mad scientist movie filled with over the top gore and plenty of bare breasts. Once again, God bless the Italians!
Theatrical Release: March 28, 1980
Blu Ray Release: June 28, 2011
Not Rated
Review by James Klein
God bless the Italians! Their love for cinema has been proven time and time again by ripping off and paying "homage" to various U.S. classics. In the 70's and 80's, whenever a genre film did well in the United States, they would quickly make a film that was close to the style or theme as their U.S. counterpart. Director Marino Girolami goes one step further: his film Zombie Holocaust is a rip off on two films: the Italian Zombi 2 which in effect was a rip off on Dawn of the Dead, and also Cannibal Holocaust. So not only do we get a zombie picture but also a cannibal feature. Did I mention that there is also a mad scientist in this as well? Well schlock fans and grindhouse lovers, Zombie Holocaust is your movie.
Released in the U.S. in 1982 as Doctor Butcher, M.D. this bizarre film starts off with Peter Chandler (Ian McCulloch who starred in Zombi 2) and Dr. Lori Ridgeway who have discovered a cult of flesh eating fanatics in New York City. Wanting to find out the origins of this cult, they travel to a tropical island that is believed to hold the origin of this cult. When they wind up trapped in the jungle and are kidnapped and chased by crazy cannibals, they meet up with Dr Oberro who seems like a nice guy at first until we find out that he is taking brains from the living and transplanting them into dead bodies which have turned these helpless victims into zombies. Meanwhile, Dr. Lori Ridgeway is kidnapped and strapped naked on a rock, about to be sacrificed in a cannibal ritual. Sounds nuts? It is. Check your brain at the door (pun intended).
The highlight of the film is the high amount of nudity, sex, and gore that fill this film. We see throat slicings, disembowelments, stabbings, brain surgeries, burnings, and in one of the bigger gore scenes we see a zombies head come into contact with a motor boat propeller. However, the awful zombie make up is frighteningly awful as if they had clay smeared on their face.
Media Blasters new blu ray looks very good and clean. They also added the DVD to this set as well so fans can now upgrade if they don't have a blu ray player yet. Media Blasters has ported over all of the old special features from their past DVD release. We get a short and un-planned interview with make up man Maurizio Trani who admits he has never seen the film and has little memory of any of the gruesome special effects. In fact, he downplays the make up and admits that the zombie make up doesn't look as well as it should have been. There is also a more informative interview with documentarian/historian Roy Frumkes who discusses a short film he worked on with various students in college called Tales That Will Rip Your Heart Out whose footage wound up in the opening of the Doctor Butcher, M.D. release.
While Zombie Holocaust doesn't make much sense and takes itself too seriously at times, the film is seldom boring and is best watched half in the bag late at night while eating junk food. I can never give a bad review to a cannibal/zombie/mad scientist movie filled with over the top gore and plenty of bare breasts. Once again, God bless the Italians!
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