Zombi 2 (1979) is a zombie horror film directed by
Lucio Fulci, which made Fulci a horror icon. Despite the fact that it purports to be a sequel to
Dawn of the Dead (whose Italian title was
Zombi),
the two films are unrelated. It's called
Zombie Flesh Eaters in the UK.
Officials investigating a derelict yacht drifting into New York Harbor are attacked by a rotting man, who kills one of them by biting out his throat. The owner of the yacht is nowhere to be found, so police question the man's daughter Ann. She knows only that he had gone to a tropical island to conduct research. She meets Peter West, a reporter who has been assigned the story, and together — with another seafaring couple, Brian and Susan — they go to find the island Matool.
Problem: Matool is a cursed place, where the dead rise to attack the living. Dr. Menard is on the island to investigate why. His high-strung wife Paola wants to leave for fear of being attacked. But hey, they're only dead dudes...
what could they possibly do?
Then our intrepid investigators arrive...This was followed in 1988 by
Zombi 3D.
This movie contains examples of:
- All There in the Manual: The Zombie Graphic Novel CD contains several spoken-word tracks by a Hunter Thompson soundalike, giving people clues about what was going on in New York when the zombies hit.
- Bolivian Army Ending: The only survivors from the island are en route to New York only to learn via radio that the entire city has been taken by an uncontrollable horde of zombies.
Reporter:
I've just been informed that zombies have entered the building. They're at the door... they're coming in! YI-YAGH! ROOOWWAARRRRGGHHHHHH! - Brick Joke: The ending is a particularly grisly one. This would've applied more had the scene where the boat zombie emerges onto the New York shore been left in.
- BST: Ann and Peter fake it to avoid being arrested for trespassing on Dr. Bolt's boat. The officer that finds them having sex on the boat buys their act and simply shoos them off the boat.
- Coincidental Broadcast: When they turn on the radio.
- Completely Different Title: Way too many to list, but common ones include: Zombie (used in the US), Zombie Flesh Eaters (used in the UK, Australia and some parts of mainland Europe) and Woodoo (used in Germany and some other parts of mainland Europe, usually with a Foreign Subtitle).
- Covers Always Lie: That picture you see on a lot of advertising for the film, including many video covers and the page image? That's actually Ottaviano Dell'acqua, in full worm-eyed zombie regalia, doing his best impersonation of Olga Karlatos as Post-Eye-Gouge!Paola and is nowhere to be seen in the film proper.
- Due to the Dead: Anyone doomed to become a zombie gets a summary funeral consisting of a headshot followed by burial in a mass grave, including Dr. Bolt. This is done to prevent the corpse from running rampant on the island.
- Dolled-Up Installment: This film was developed as stand-alone film titled "Gli ultimi zombi" ("The Final Zombie") before it's title was changed to Zombie 2 to tie it to Romero's Zombi.
- Everything's Deader With Zombies
- Everything's Even Worse With Sharks: The well-known "zombie vs. shark" scene.
- Exploitation Film
- Eye Scream: OH GOD THAT SLOW PULL ONTO THE WOOD SPLINTER...
- Follow the Leader: Started the wave of zombie movies while cashing in on George A. Romero's films. Production started before Dawn of the Dead was released, though.
- Foreshadowing: See those eyes the camera is zooming toward? They're about to go SPLAT! later on courtesy of a wood splinter.
- Gorn
- Keep Circulating the Tapes: As part of a deal with Fulci's estate, Blackest Heart Media produced a comic book adaptation of "Zombie" that would have included the actual invasion of New York by the zombies. But they went out of business and only rare handful of copies of the graphic novel was released and selling for $300-400 a piece.
- The CD that would have come with the graphic novel was put out onto the various filesharing websites though
- Killed Off for Real: Paola and Dr. Menard are both killed in ways that would make it impossible for them to come back as zombies; Dr. Menard was bitten in the face twice, but Paola flat-out becomes an item on the zombies' menu.
- Men Are the Expendable Gender: Averted. Not only are men and women killed by the zombies in equal numbers, but the most gruesome death in the entire film goes to Paola, who gets her eye gouged out and then the rest of her ripped to shreds.
- Neutral Female: Played straight for the most part. The women in this movie have an annoying tendency to stand still and scream as zombies bear down on them.
- Numbered Sequels: Spiritually, Zombi 2 is meant to follow Dawn of the Dead, which Dario Argento re-edited into what amounted to a different movie, called Zombi, to which various people made five sequels, called Zombi 2, Zombi 3, and so forth. To make this even more confusing, Zombi 2 was retitled Zombie for its North American release (see the page image), but later sequels followed the numbering pattern on both sides of the pond. Therefore, you can rent Zombie, Zombie 3, and Zombie 4, but not Zombie 2 (except via the 1992 Edde Entertainment VHS or the 2004 Media Blasters DVD). Confused yet?
- Only Sane Man: Dr. Menard's wife Paola was fighting with her husband for refusing to drop his Mad Scientist tendencies and flee the island while they still had a chance.
- Sequel First: We're not diagramming that again...
- Token Good Teammate: Invoked with the shark-fighting zombie by supplementary materials; at least one home video release actually mentions that said zombie saved Susan from the approaching shark.
- Too Dumb to Live: The survivors actually had a pretty decent chance of holding out against the horde in the hospital near the end of the film...if only Dr. Menard had remembered to shoot the corpses already inside the building. You know, like he'd been doing the entire movie already.
- Then finally Brian comes across a zombiefied Susan as the survivors are fleeing the hospital. Considering he saw her get killed by a zombie only a short while ago, and he's spent most of the day killing zombies, you would think he'd realize what's happened and shoot her or at least get the hell away from her. But instead he just stares at her, lets her get close, and then actually seems surprised when she bites him.
- And how did Susan die? By just standing there for a good minute or so as a zombie slowly crawled out of the ground in front of her. The fight or flight reflex apparently just passed her over.
- Too Soon: Dardano Sacchetti's father died before the film was released, and he didn't feel like associating him with a movie where the dead come back to life only to be killed again was the right thing to do at the time.
- Video Nasties
- Zombie Apocalypse: Why it would suck if zombies got anywhere near New York City...
- Zombie Gait: And how. The ones in "Zombi 2" are even slower at trudging along than George Romero's zombies.
0 reviews