



aka Zombi 3, Zombie Flesh Eaters 2

Dir. Lucio Fulci, Bruno Mattei





There will always be a place in my heart for Italian Zombie Movies. I guess you could say the genre was my first stop down the trash rabbit hole. I remember either middle school or early high school when I really started getting into horror. Taking trips to Suncoast and Borders, and begging my mom to order me stuff through Amazon before I had a debit card were pretty normal, diving head first into the Anchor Bay and Blue Underground catalogues. After exhausting the Romero oeuvre and Return of the Living Dead (1985), and having gotten a taste for Argento after seeing Suspiria (1977), Italy was next logical step to satisfy my hunger for the undead as the post millennium zombie boom started by 28 Days Later (2002) and the Dawn of the Dead remake (2004) hadn’t taken full effect yet. It was Netflix (pre-streaming era) or brick-and-mortar for me if I wanted to get my fix. So Italian Zombie flicks make me especially nostalgic for a time of wonder and discovery, a time of red envelopes and store shelves stocked with weirdo cult horror gems, a time when I paid an exorbitant amount for a Shriek Show DVD of Zombi 2 (1979) without a second thought. If I still had a heart, it’d be filled with warmth right now.





For those not in the know, Zombi 2 (aka Zombie, aka Zombie Flesh Eaters) directed by Lucio Fulci is an in-name-only sequel to Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978) released in Italy under the title Zombi. While Zombi 2 has no connection plot-wise to Romero’s film, the producers thought they could squeeze more money from hapless Italian gorehounds by slapping on the moniker of Romero’s opus, continuing a practice of rampant swindling characteristic of Italian genre cinema from the 70s and 80s. Though the producers shamelessly hang on the coattails of Romero’s success, Zombi 2 still has some elements of class, thanks mostly to it’s lush tropical setting, atmospheric cinematography, and an incredible score by Fabio Frizzi. Don’t get me wrong; it still delivers on the sleazy goods, including flesh chomping, eye gouging, and a zombie fighting a goddamn shark, but it has elements that elevate it about other films of its ilk.





Zombie 3 has none of that. Zombie 3 is pure gonzo lunacy junk food. It’s rough around the edges, and also at its core. It’s a grimy punk rock funhouse ride of arcade style undead mayhem. The little plot there is concerns a top secret military experiment called “Death-1” being let loose on the Filipino population, and the disparate groups of white kids and soldiers on leave who must contend with the legions of ghouls. And that’s pretty much it. They hole up at a rundown hotel and go on the run when that inevitably falls through. There are scenes in the military base with the lead scientist pointing angrily and vigorously at Head Military Guy who by definition has no regard for the locals’ safety and vastly underestimates the destructive potential of experimental chemical weapons. Not much to it all, but it’s fun.

Zombie 3 has no plot connection to its predecessors. The connecting thread here is Lucio Fulci directing, though depending on who you ask, Fulci only shot between 50 and 70 minutes of useable footage, leaving Bruno Mattei (Rats: Night of Terror, Hell of the Living Dead) and Claudio Fragasso (Troll 2) to complete it. And sure enough Zombie 3 does feel like a patchwork at times, not in style but in story. Aside from having shoehorned isolated groups of characters and subplots that don’t really affect each other, there’s also inconsistency with the zombies themselves. In some scenes they’re the classic slow shambling Romero type, but in others they’re agile, running, and even using weapons. This isn’t a complaint as much as it is merely an observation. It’s an oversight by the filmmakers, but you’ll be having too much fun to care. After all who needs consistency in a movie where a zombie head flies of its own accord out of a refrigerator and bites into a dude’s throat? It’s like they were making it all up as it went along. And it’s great. add in some zombie birds, a zombie baby, Like its predecessor,has no plot connection to its predecessors. The connecting thread here is Lucio Fulci directing, though depending on who you ask, Fulci only shot between 50 and 70 minutes of useable footage, leaving Bruno Mattei () and Claudio Fragasso () to complete it. And sure enoughdoes feel like a patchwork at times, not in style but in story. Aside from having shoehorned isolated groups of characters and subplots that don’t really affect each other, there’s also inconsistency with the zombies themselves. In some scenes they’re the classic slow shambling Romero type, but in others they’re agile, running, and even using weapons. This isn’t a complaint as much as it is merely an observation. It’s an oversight by the filmmakers, but you’ll be having too much fun to care. After all who needs consistency in a movie where a zombie head flies of its own accord out of a refrigerator and bites into a dude’s throat? It’s like they were making it all up as it went along. And it’s great. add in some zombie birds, a zombie baby, some fantastically bizarre dubbing , and a guttural 80s synth score and you’ve got yourself a winning piece of euro-gutter mayhem.





Zombie 3 is a meandering mess of a film. Never really able to decide who or what to focus on, it ends up feeling kind of kitchen sink. And everything in the kitchen is just nonsense. Thankfully for the most part it’s pretty glorious nonsense. The kind of nonsense that makes you wanna cheer instead of roll your eyes. Or who knows maybe it will. My opinion of this film may be quite skewed by my nostalgia blinders. It might just be worthless crap....nah fuck that. A zombie head flies out of a refrigerator and murders a guy. This movie is fucking awesome.







