John's Horror Banana-nanza Episode Fourty : Zombi 2

Lucio Fulci is best known for his sweeping camerawork, his confusing storylines, and his eye gouge gags. What he should be known for is this movie, a semi-sequel to Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead.” Under the title “Zombie Flesh Eaters”, the approach in this movie is far removed from the isolated farmhouse of that film.

The movie opens with a doctor shooting a body in the head wrapped in a sheet. Nice. White sheet and blood. Good start. He tells someone it’s time to leave, and we find a boat drifting towards New York. Some cops get on the boat and find a fat zombie on board. They shoot it and it falls into the water.

So Peter West, played by Italian Horror vet Ian McCulloch, tries to figure out what happened with this boat, and finds Anne, who was the daughter of the boat’s owner. They decide to head to the island where her father was, and along the way meet two vacationers. One of the vacationers goes for a naked scuba dive and gets attacked by a shark, which in turn gets attacked by a zombie. Yes. Zombie against shark. Can’t ask for anything better, really.

Meanwhile on the island, Doctor Menard is arguing about leaving with his wife, who gets attacked by zombies in her home and in the movie’s second most memorable scene, gets her eye gouged out by a splinter. Told you Fulci loved eye gags.

So the four arrive on the island and find Menard, and after some hiking around and some throat ripping by old Conquistador zombies, they end up in a final stand in a barn. In the end, Anne and Peter head back to New York, where we’re treated to a pure-cheese radio broadcast ending, and zombies walking across a bridge heading to New York City.

This movie is fun. It doesn’t waste time, and goes headfirst into gore and simple storyline. Where did the zombies come from? Well, we get ideas, but no real answers. And I think it’s always better that way.

If you’re a zombie fan and haven’t seen this movie, then, let me just say, you’re not a zombie fan.