Zombi (1979)
Zombi (1979)
Any list of
the greatest films ever made will include a largish handful of Horror films.
Fear, dread, unease, these are emotions that the darkened theater encourages,
and the artists of the medium are aware of this and respond to it in their
creative process. Being a Horror film fan means having a large body of work to
refer to and be justly proud of.
But I can’t
lie, being a Horror film fan also means loving a lot of stuff that we really
actually should be ashamed of. Case in point...
I have, and
will again, say bad things about several films that I don’t believe are
deserving of their place on this list and that includes other films by this
same Director, Lucio Fulci, but I have only fond memories of this one. This is
one of Romero’s Children, meaning shaped by the invention of a wholly new idea,
the Zombie Apocalypse, introduced in Director George Romero’s seminal “Night of
the Living Dead” (1968). Romero’s Zombies are everywhere now, creating a “genre
of homages” but I must admit there’s another, more pejorative word, that often
applies even better – please substitute “rip-offs.” But the history behind this
rip-off is almost as epic as the film’s body count, and pretty instructive as
to how markets for puerile exploitation are managed.
Successful
films always generate imitators, and if the film is hyped enough the imitators
might try to get their quickie knock-offs in production, maybe even into the
movie houses, before the film they are trying to ride-the-coat-tails of is even
finished. Roger Corman did that often, and right now the Asylum film production
house seems to do this kind of work almost exclusively.
Without
doubt, George Romero’s best Zombie film was his second, “Dawn of the Dead”
(1979). Italian horror master Dario Argento had a role in the production, and oversaw
its recutting it for the Italian market, so the Italians had a heads-up to this
suddenly expanding sub-genre of Horror. Helping things along is that Variety
Film Production, which had the Italian distribution rights, also financed this,
the first rip-off film of the second Romeo Zombie film.
In Italy,
“Dawn of the Dead” was not presented as a sequel to “Night of the Living Dead”
(1968) but as a stand-alone film, and it was renamed “Zombi.” As Variety had
exclusive rights to the alternate title, it hired Director Lucio Fulci make a
sequel to “Dawn of the …” under the title “Zombi 2" (in the USA it is
known as merely, “Zombi” and there are several more alternative titles if you’re
in the mood to look them up). I doubt Fulci had yet seen “Dawn of the …” but
all Horror Directors were familiar with the already classic “Night of the …” so
he was familiar with the nature of the beasts Romero had created.
As Italian
low-budget genre films were always very conscious of the American market, and
are almost always derivative of successful American films, and frequently
packaged to create franchises, so “Zombi” started its own franchise in Italy,
disconnected to Romero’s own franchise in the USA. Unofficial sequels of “Dawn
of the …” crept up all the way up to “Zombi 5,” and this was achieved even
after there had been at least three competing films titled “Zombi 3.”
Compared to
the film that inspired it, “Zombi” is a disgrace. Forget Romero’s dark and
biting Social Commentary, strong and inventive Characterization, and his rare
gift with no-name Casts. This is pure and puerile exploitation, devoid of any
originality except for its devotion to novelty gore (the marketing promised
free "barf bags" at every theater). But it must be said, this is a
remarkably well-crafted and stylish piece of pure and puerile Exploitation.
I often say
bad things about Director Fulci, but he did make several very good Gaillos
earlier on, and was a skilled Director when he wanted to be. He was a veteran,
and often worked with crews of equal caliber as he, and whenever possible those
crews had previous experience with him. Cinematographer Sergio Salvati worked
ten Fulci films. Screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti almost as many. Between one’s
striking visuals and the others well-paced story, the constant flow of
brutality never grew tiresome. Another frequent Fulci collaborator was Fabio
Frizzi who, with Giorgio Tucci, provided a fine, minimalist, main score that
seemed inspired by John Carpenter’s work on “Halloween” (1978). It does not
change radically with the changing scenes, but simply gets louder or softer as
events demanded, accented with native drums a plenty and high-pitched
electronic whines.
Notably, there’s
a number of famous set pieces; each expertly timed to indicate a change in the
evolving, though smugly one-dimensional, narrative. A detailed plot outline can
be provided merely by putting the seven best set-pieces in their proper order:
Famous set
piece 1 -- A moody, attention-getting prologue in which a figure, shrouded and
bound, starts to rise from a prone position, only to be shot in the head by a
back-lit man. It’s the only scene that could’ve been directly inspired by the
action in “Dawn of the …” but as I noted, I don’t think Fulci had seen yet. The
setting is an extremely unsanitary hospital, which was beautiful built out,
seemingly inspired by the great German Expressionist films of the 1920s. This
set received special devotion by the Production and Costume Designer Walter
Patriarca, as much of the main action of the film will take place there.
Famous set
piece 2--A second prologue that also reminded many reviewers of German Expressionist
film, specifically the “death ship” sequence in “Nosferatu” (1922). A ghost
yacht enters New York harbor, passes the Statue of Liberty and under the
Brooklyn Bridge. It carries with it a horrific cargo.
Before the
next great set-piece, four of the eight central Characters are introduced. We
can skip them; they are only there to serve plot functions and guarantee a
healthy body count. They set off for the remote tropical paradise Matul
(actually Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) because one of them wants to find
out what happened to her father (who we later learn was the bound and shrouded
figure who got a head-shot in the opening scene, but that’s okay, he was
already dead when he was executed).
Cut to the
island where the only two cast members who had actual acting talent (though I
recommend you look elsewhere on their resumes to see that talent displayed)
Richard Johnson as Dr. David Menard and Olga Karlatos as his wife Paola, who are
coping with a slowly growing crisis. (In fairness to the whole cast, during
production half spoke only English and the other half only Italian, making on
set interaction a bit mechanical as they didn’t really understand each other,
and then were all were dubbed later, and quite badly.)
The other
side of the island is falling to a cannibalistic Zombie epidemic which is not explicitly
spelled out yet, but cases the Dead to rise and eat Human Flesh and the
audience already knows this by reading the movie title. Dr. David assumes is
some sort of exotic disease and hopes against hope to find a cure. Paola blames
the natives and voodoo (it’s a rare thing for post-Romero Zombie films to
reference voodoo at all); as she’s an unpleasant complainer and a racist to
boot, the script is telegraphing that she will die the single most horrible
death in the movie, but in fairness, she is also the only character smart
enough to realize that the only intelligent course of action is to get of the
damned island (no one listens until she’s already dead).
Famous set
piece 3 (actually, the most amazing scene in the movie) – As the first four
introduced non-characters approach the island, the absolutely stunning Auretta
Gay starring as the utterly vacuous Susan Barrett decides for no reason at all
to strip naked except her g-string and scuba gear and take a swim. She is first
accosted by a tiger shark, then by an underwater Zombie, played by Ramón Bravo
who was uncredited and whose film resume is mostly behind the camera. She
rushes back to the surface where she gets all hysterical and no one takes her
seriously. Cut back to underwater where the Zombie and shark (mind you, it’s a
real shark) battle it out. The shark rips off the Zombie’s arm, and then the
Zombie takes a bite out of the shark. It took a great deal of audacity of to
actually go and shoot it such a scene. Also, because of safety rules and laws
preventing cruelty to animals, it is unlikely it could’ve been legally filmed
in the USA. As for the risk to the Human Actor, the shark was fed horse meat and
sedatives before filming.
Famous set
piece 4 – Shortly after all the cast was gathered in one place, in classic
horror movie stupidity, they split up. Paola is
alone in her impossible to defend villa and strips naked and stands before a triple
angled mirror, just to make sure we don’t miss any of her considerable physical
appeal. She also takes a shower, lingering long beneath the rushing water. Then
a rotting hand presses against the glass the window. Quick-thinking Paola tries
to lock herself in an inner room but can’t shut the door, the hand is part
inside and keeping it open. After a struggle that includes tearing of rotten
Zombie flesh, Paola manages to get the door closed and locked. But then the
Zombies start breaking through the flimsy windows. Paola tries to build a
barricade, but gets within arm reach of the Monsters, and one grabs her by the
hair. With sadism that is in its own way exquisite, the struggling Paola is
slowly, slowly, drawn into a jagged piece of wood. It’s lined up perfectly with
her right eye. It gets closer, and closer, and the audience is given plenty of
time to ask themselves, how much of this are they really going to show and
then...
Sidebar: Back
in 1982 "Video Nasty" became a colloquialism in England for films
distributed on video cassette that flaunted British censorship laws. Activists
like Mary Whitehouse and various religious organizations demanded the Director
of Public Prosecutions to take action. In 1984, 72 separate films were placed
on a list and faced charges under the newly expanded Obscene Publications Act.
39 of those films were successfully prosecuted. The tightened censorship would
not relax for more than a decade and several of the banned films took longer
still to be released from confinement. “Zombie’s” single biggest impact on the
history of cinema was this scene, which became the cornerstone of the
Government’s campaign against Gory Horror.
Yeah, we see
Paola’s eye gouged out.
Famous set
piece 5 – Vacuous Susan is in trouble again. While the Characters lounge in a
graveyard (IN A GRAVEYARD?!?!?!), she notices the ground being disturbed — from
below. She becomes conveniently paralyzed in fear as a much-rotted corpse
struggles to push itself out of the ground. The rotted corpse is impressively
decayed, notable for the empty eye-socket wiggling with live earth-worms.
Affectionately dubbed by fans as “Ol’ Worm Eye,” he would adorn the movie
poster, become the single most iconic figure of that era’s Italian Horror
cinema, and, less importantly, bites Susan because she just stood there and
waited for it like an idiot (we call that a SPT, or Stupid People Trick, this
movie has loads of them).
Famous set
piece 6 – The remaining Cast members barricade themselves in the Hospital. Then
comes a memorable image that Romero himself borrowed for the opening scenes of his
third Zombie film, “Day of the Dead” (1985), a long shot of a desolate,
windswept street lined with dilapidated buildings. A crab scuttles across the
foreground; and in the background, there is a lone zombie. Even though it is a
solitary figure, it boldness to walk down the center of the street in the
daylight makes it clear that the balance of power has irreversibly shifted, the
menace will no longer be confined to “the other side of the island,” and the
Apocalypse is about to be unleashed.
The
apocalypse is kind of been-there, done-that. Hordes of the undead. Panic and
peril. Lots of gore. Desperate acts of heroism. Very substantial reduction in
the size of the Cast. Only three escape to the boat, and one of them has been
bitten so he’s locked in the cabin (Al Cliver) while the other two stay above
(Tisa Farrow and Ian McCulloch).
Famous set
piece 7 – The story comes full circle as the boat enters New York harbor just
as the bitten survivor succumbs and his Zombie starts pounding on the locked
cabin door, while the other two try a decide what to do next. They don’t have
clear options, because New York has changed during their absence. The closing
image is truly memorable; an army of Zombie’s shambling across the Brooklyn
Bridge, invading another borough full of victims.
Trailer:
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