Zombie (1980)
Studio: Blue Underground
Theatrical Release: July 18, 1980
Blu Ray Release: October 24, 2011
Not Rated
Review by James Klein
This is the disc that us gore fans have been waiting for. We have been drooling over the anticipation that one of our favorite zombie films was headed to blu ray. We also have counted our blessings that it was Blue Underground whose been given the honor of putting out this video nasty in HD. Like death and taxes, Blue Underground's blu ray of Lucio Fulci's masterpiece is certain to please its fans and maybe some new viewers as well. If you can get past the bad dubbing, Zombie is a perfect horror film right around the Halloween season.
As a vacant sail boat drifts onto the NYC seashore, patrol officers climb on board only to be attacked by one of the undead. The police get wind that the boat belongs to a Dr. Bowles whose been missing for some time while conducting research in the Caribbean with Dr. Menard. Dr. Bowles daughter Anne (played by Mia Farrow's younger sister Tisa) teams up with Peter West, a newspaper reporter out for a scoop and the two travel to the island where Dr. Menard has taken up research. Little do they know, the good doctor is a modern day Dr. Moreau as he tries to find a cure for the recently dead to not rise from the grave in zombified form. Meanwhile, the island is slowly being overrun by zombies and the only way to stop them is by damaging the brain, as we all know. Is this zombie outbreak caused by Menard? Is it caused by voodoo?
While Zombie is a fun movie with enough gore and nudity to satisfy our sick urges, the film works thanks to some very suspenseful and creepy moments. I still get tense when I see Dr. Menard's wife try to close her bedroom door as a zombie slowly pushes it in. Fulci only shows us a shadow of the door slowly opening as we hear her struggles. Then when we think she's safe, BAM! A hand smashes through the door, grabbing her hair and bringing her closer to everlasting death. This scene has always stuck with me and remains one of the nastiest highlights of the film. Her screams alone still send shivers up my spine.
While Zombie has terrifying moments like the one I mentioned, it also has some over the top and silly sequences such as the infamous "zombie vs. shark" scene. Still a fan favorite, we get a zombie stuck underwater fighting a (real) shark. Apparently the shark's trainer had to done the zombie make up and perform these dangerous scenes. I love the fact that this scene serves no purpose at all to move the story along and is just there for the hell of it.
I also really enjoy the muddy, gory look of the zombies. These zombies look down right disgusting with hunks of flesh hanging from their faces or eyeballs missing or worms crawling all over them. It helps that Fulci doesn't show much of the zombies at first but as the film goes along we get a better look at these horrifying creatures.
The blu ray is absolutely gorgeous to look at and it's as if I saw it Zombie for the first time. The NYC skyline has never looked so blue! The zombie attacks have never looked so gory. The ample amounts of female nudity has never looked so...well, you get the idea. Zombie looks awesome! The audio is also perfect with all of the dubbed dialog coming through all channels crystal clear and its dark and brooding music by Giorgio Cascio and Fabio Frizzi now explodes from the speakers. The special features also are chock full of interviews with the cast and crew, telling it all and dishing out as much dirt on the film (Fulci's behavior on set and dislike for women and the screenwriter's original idea was to maybe have a western/zombie crossover are the highlights).
Tell all of your friends and crew, Zombie is a must purchase and a must see for horror fans who love their gore red and plentiful. These zombies can hold their own against Romero's zombies any day of the week.
Theatrical Release: July 18, 1980
Blu Ray Release: October 24, 2011
Not Rated
Review by James Klein
This is the disc that us gore fans have been waiting for. We have been drooling over the anticipation that one of our favorite zombie films was headed to blu ray. We also have counted our blessings that it was Blue Underground whose been given the honor of putting out this video nasty in HD. Like death and taxes, Blue Underground's blu ray of Lucio Fulci's masterpiece is certain to please its fans and maybe some new viewers as well. If you can get past the bad dubbing, Zombie is a perfect horror film right around the Halloween season.
As a vacant sail boat drifts onto the NYC seashore, patrol officers climb on board only to be attacked by one of the undead. The police get wind that the boat belongs to a Dr. Bowles whose been missing for some time while conducting research in the Caribbean with Dr. Menard. Dr. Bowles daughter Anne (played by Mia Farrow's younger sister Tisa) teams up with Peter West, a newspaper reporter out for a scoop and the two travel to the island where Dr. Menard has taken up research. Little do they know, the good doctor is a modern day Dr. Moreau as he tries to find a cure for the recently dead to not rise from the grave in zombified form. Meanwhile, the island is slowly being overrun by zombies and the only way to stop them is by damaging the brain, as we all know. Is this zombie outbreak caused by Menard? Is it caused by voodoo?
While Zombie is a fun movie with enough gore and nudity to satisfy our sick urges, the film works thanks to some very suspenseful and creepy moments. I still get tense when I see Dr. Menard's wife try to close her bedroom door as a zombie slowly pushes it in. Fulci only shows us a shadow of the door slowly opening as we hear her struggles. Then when we think she's safe, BAM! A hand smashes through the door, grabbing her hair and bringing her closer to everlasting death. This scene has always stuck with me and remains one of the nastiest highlights of the film. Her screams alone still send shivers up my spine.
While Zombie has terrifying moments like the one I mentioned, it also has some over the top and silly sequences such as the infamous "zombie vs. shark" scene. Still a fan favorite, we get a zombie stuck underwater fighting a (real) shark. Apparently the shark's trainer had to done the zombie make up and perform these dangerous scenes. I love the fact that this scene serves no purpose at all to move the story along and is just there for the hell of it.
I also really enjoy the muddy, gory look of the zombies. These zombies look down right disgusting with hunks of flesh hanging from their faces or eyeballs missing or worms crawling all over them. It helps that Fulci doesn't show much of the zombies at first but as the film goes along we get a better look at these horrifying creatures.
The blu ray is absolutely gorgeous to look at and it's as if I saw it Zombie for the first time. The NYC skyline has never looked so blue! The zombie attacks have never looked so gory. The ample amounts of female nudity has never looked so...well, you get the idea. Zombie looks awesome! The audio is also perfect with all of the dubbed dialog coming through all channels crystal clear and its dark and brooding music by Giorgio Cascio and Fabio Frizzi now explodes from the speakers. The special features also are chock full of interviews with the cast and crew, telling it all and dishing out as much dirt on the film (Fulci's behavior on set and dislike for women and the screenwriter's original idea was to maybe have a western/zombie crossover are the highlights).
Tell all of your friends and crew, Zombie is a must purchase and a must see for horror fans who love their gore red and plentiful. These zombies can hold their own against Romero's zombies any day of the week.
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