Zombie

Zombie (1979)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Lucio Fulci

Starring: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCullough, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver, Auretta Gay

From: Variety Film Productions

This is one of those infamous pictures, and divorced of the infamy it is worth seeing, at least if you are a horror fan:

It was about time I viewed then reviewed this Italian horror classic, Fulci's most famous (or infamous) work. There are various scenes that are unforgettable and yet the entire movie is a gas to watch if you enjoy such things; it is straightforward, especially for a Fulci picture.

A sailboat floats into New York City and it appears to be abandoned, only there is a zombie on board. The daughter of the boat's owner teams up with a journalist and a duo they stumble across in the Caribbean to visit the secluded island her dad was on and find out what happened. Yes, zombie flesh eaters are involved; a doctor is there investigating the cause of this and it goes about as well as you can surmise.

Certain aspects can be nitpicked and sometimes characters have to act stupid in order to advance the plot. Even then, I find the movie to be a lot of fun for what it is. None of the characters are aggravating and there are memorable setpieces; one in the middle makes me queasy, although that is in part due to my phobias and you'll probably feel differently. It was filmed well so it was an easy hour and a half watch.

In a movie like this, how scary the zombies are and the gore effects are of paramount importance; both of those aspects were nailed. The slow shuffling zombies may seen passe to some. Here, the makeup effects still hold up and they are chilling, especially when you see them do graphically gory things; those bloody practical moments also hold up. The music is a mix of the expected Italian synth stuff and pulsating tropical rhythms. And the ending... talk about haunting.

The T&A quotient is met here; even more obvious than a gratuitous shower scene was a women who scuba-dived and did all other water-based activities while being topless and having a teeny thong bikini bottom, which of course is zoomed in on. That was almost a parody with how absurdly evident it was. Then again, this is something where the movie gives the middle finger to Jaws by having a zombie underwater fighting a tiger shark, which was as much of a mondo experience as you can imagine.