If you know anything about zombie movies you know they’ve
changed over the decades. Go back and look at a movie like WHITE ZOMBIE or I
WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE and you’ll see natives under the spell of someone walking
about with stares on their faces. Fast forward to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and
we get meandering slow walking zombies that live off the flesh of others. Move
forward again and you’ll find fast running zombies that are frightening in
their speed, still flesh eaters. Between those last two came the zombie films
from Italy that were somewhere in between and almost always set on some
tropical island.
Such is the case with ZOMBI 4 aka AFTER DEATH. The movie
opens with a voodoo priests reading from the book of the dead while a woman
gyrates in a voodoo dance. This all culminates with the ground opening and
swallowing her while he looks on. While this was taking place a group of white
research scientists on the island have tracked the voodoo doctor to this cave.
He blames them for the death of his family, they say they’re doing nothing but
saving lives with research. When one of them kills him, the woman rises from
the ground with the fakest set of fangs you’ll ever see spewing green goo. She
begins killing them one by one as they shoot to no avail. While all of this is
going on, a couple and their young child are trying to escape the island,
chased by fast running zombies. The parents stay behind and send the girl off
to the river with nothing more than a charm around her neck as they sacrifice
themselves to save her.
Confused? It doesn’t stop there. Fast forward 20 years and
we find the grown girl returning to the location to find out what happened to
her parents and everyone else. She’s accompanied by her friend and a group of
mercenaries. The engine on their boat mysteriously conks out as they near the
location. They dock and disembark to take a look around for parts to fix the
boat.
At the same time a trio of friends are also nearby with no
explanation how they got there or why. They find the cave from the film’s
opening as well as the book. One of them isn’t superstitious so he opens and
reads the book, once again releasing the demon from below who proceeds to chase
them with murderous intent.
The risen zombies also begin attacking our first group. One
is bitten and slowly begins to change, later attacking his friends. One by one
they’re attacked as they hole up in a building hoping to keep the zombies at
bay. Eventually those left of both groups are united as they try to survive.
If the movie feels a bit jumbled that’s because it is.
Directed and co-written by Claudio Fragasso, who co-wrote/co-directed the
previous ZOMBI 3, the movie once more was a film that was too short once
completed that tagged on something extra, mainly the entire opening sequence.
That doesn’t stop it from being another fun filled romp for fans of Italian
zombie films whose gore quotient is higher than most. If you find yourself
among this group you know what I’m talking about.
Acting and storytelling is not the main focus of the film,
gore is. There is plenty of it on hand from the start when someone has their
face ripped off to the end when a victim is impaled by a zombies hand as he
reaches through to pull out various organs. All of this is done in living color
with copious amounts of goo, blood and guts on hand.
Severin has just released several of these films together at
the same time and all of them look great considering what they had to work
with. The film is offered in a 2k scan featuring the film in the first uncut
version released in the US. In addition to the film they’ve compiled an
impressive number of extras as well. These include RUN ZOMBIE RUN an interview
with director Fragasso and co-screenwriter Rosella Drudi, JEFF STRYKER IN
MANILA and interview with actor Chuck Peyton, BLONDE VS ZOMBIES and interview
with actress Candice Daly, behind the scenes footage and the original trailer
for the film.
During the interview with Fragasso he notes that he wanted
to combine genres with this film, offering more action than zombie films in the
past. He also notes that his was the first film to feature fast moving zombies
that could talk and think and he’s correct. These zombies communicate with
their victims, at least some do, and they don’t all stagger about but actually
run, jump and fight with their victims. This makes for a more frightening
zombie, one that would be difficult to escape. At the same time the limitations
of a low budget don’t make it a movie that American audiences are likely to
appreciate.
But those who love the genre will adore the film. The same
for horror fans clamoring for this film and others like it. They will want to
make a point of picking this one up. If you’ve picked it up in the past as a
DVD or bootleg toss those aside and make sure you pick this one up from
Severin. They’ve done a great job on this release.
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