Classic Movie Review: Zombi 2 (1979)

Zombi 2

Directed by: Lucio Fulci.

Written by: Elisa Briganti.

Starring: Tisa Farrow (Anne Bowles), Ian McCulloch (Peter West), Richard Johnson (Dr. Menard), Al Cliver (Brian Hull), Auretta Gay (Susan Barrett), Stefania D'Amario (Nurse Clara), Olga Karlatos (Mrs. Menard).

 

The idea of a zombie fighting a shark is one that is so good, you wonder why it took so long for someone to come up with it – and why we haven’t seen it copied a million times since. Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2 (aka Zombie) has built its entire reputation on one, about five minute sequence when a shark starts to stalk a potential victim (who is scuba diving topless, as beautiful young women are wont to do in horror movie), but instead ends up fighting a zombie, who zooms out of the depths, at first at the naked young diver, but then finds himself embroiled in a fight with a shark. The actual zombie vs. shark part of this sequence is less than two minutes, and its set to a strange score – softer core porn music than horror movie. This whole sequence – from when the girl goes into the water, to its completion, runs about 6 minutes, and I loved every second of it. Unfortunately, there are 85 other minutes of Zombi 2 that have nothing to do with topless scuba divers or zombies fighting sharks – and there’s nothing much there.

 

The reason the original title of the movie was Zombi 2, was because George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead was a hit in Italy, and when released there was entitled simply Zombi. The movie has nothing to do with Romero’s film – I don’t even think that had any sort of rights deal with him – they just want a quick, cheap knock-off to make some money. The fact that the film is remembered at all nearly 40 years later – let alone that it inexplicably shows up on lists of the greatest horror films of all time (ranked in the top 100 of the They Shoot Zombies, Don’t They? List) is likely a surprise to all involved.

 

The film opens in New York – with one of those scare scenes that horror films are obligated to open with. A seemingly abandoned boat, turns out not to be so abandoned. A policeman is killed, the owner of the boat’s niece wants answers, and ends up with a reporter heading to the Caribbean, where that boat had just come from. It’s there where this supposed zombie outbreak had begun. The pair end up with another couple on a boat, heading for a “deserted” island where everything started. The movie owes more to something like Island of Lost Souls or perhaps I Walked with a Zombie than Romero’s film.

 

All of it is fairly lame. There is some more gratuitous T&A – nothing as silly as the topless scuba diving, but none of it germane to the plot either. There is lots of fake blood spill, and zombie bites, etc. – if you’ve seen a zombie film, you know the drill. What’s lacking is any real reason for being – the best zombie movies use the genre to make some sort of comment on, well, something – Zombi 2 just wants to be a cheaper exploitation film. On that level, I’m still not sure the film really works all that well. Somehow director Fulci – a pretty big figure in Giallo horror films of Italy, but not as accomplished as Argento or Bava – somehow takes things a little too seriously. The film doesn’t have the goofy pleasure – other than that shark sequence – needed. It also isn’t grimy or blood enough to be one of those horror movies I don’t like much, but have a big following in that they leave wanting to take a shower.

 

In short, Zombi 2 is brilliant for about 7 minutes total – the six minutes of the scuba diving/shark vs. zombie sequence, and the final minute, which really is an effective ending to a horror movie like this (oh, and the eye scene is pretty cool too). Other than that, it’s a fairly dull slog of a horror movie, without much to recommend it.