Zombi 2


The dead are among us.



Year of Release: 1979
Also Known As: Zombie, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Island of the Living Dead
Genre: Horror
Rated: Not Rated
Running Time: 91 minutes (1:31)
Director: Lucio Fulci


Cast:

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 - Menard's Assistant
Olga Karlatos ... Mrs. Menard
Dakar ... Lucas
Lucio Fulci ... Peter's News Editor (uncredited)


Summary:

Doctor Menard fires a shot into the head of a sheet wrapped body and says "The boat can leave now. Tell the crew."

We next see the boat adrift outside of New York Harbor. While searching below deck, a policeman is attacked and killed by a blood-covered man.

The yacht belongs to David Bowles, a famous scientist, so a newspaper sends reporter Peter West to the boat to investigate. There he meets Ann Bowles, the missing man's daughter. She has not heard from her father for more than a month. Peter finds a note from Ann's father on the boat, but will not show the note to Ann unless he can go with Ann to find her father. She agrees.

The note from David Bowles says that he has contracted a strange disease on the island of Mattool. Ann and Peter fly to the St. Thomas islands to rent a boat to Mattool.

On the island, the doctor's wife is arguing with him, saying that she is afraid and wants to leave the island. Doctor Menard assures her that they will leave as soon as he understand the phenomena which she calls "zombies."

The boat arrives at Mattool where they meet Dr. Menard and his nurse. Menard tells them about David Bowles' death, and how the island is plagued with zombies. The doctor fears for his wife's safety. He loans them his Jeep so they may drive to his house to protect her. When they get there, the group discovers zombies eating the body of Mrs. Menard.

The house is swarming with zombies. Their only hope is to get back to Menard's hospital, miles away. On the road back they run into a mob of zombies and wreck the Jeep. Night falls as they struggle through dense jungles, with hundreds of zombies between them and their goal.

Their journey back to the hospital, and what awaits them there, leads to the story's chilling conclusion.


Review:

Zombi 2, remindin' us that Jaws mighta ended a whole lot differently if ole Bruce'd hadda deal with a zombie Robert Shaw. Course, Bruce prolly woulda refused to even do the scene on the grounds that it "stretched the boundaries of credulity," or some crapola like that. Fortunately, we've got the *Italian* Steven Spielberg in the director's chair. Try that with Lucio an he'd just fire your butt an replace you with the shark from Mako: The Jaws of Death if you went an pulled that "creative differences" bunk on 'im. R.I.P. Lucio, we miss ya buddy.

An speakin' of aquatic asshattery, the Tankersley clan had a bit of a scare Monday night when Duke came staggerin' into town soakin' wet, carryin' a busted fishin' pole, an wearin' a set of waders that looked like a prophylactic that ran afoul of that girl from Teeth. I was sittin' in Walleye's Topless Dancin' & Bait Shop listenin' to Cleave Furguson argue grasshoppers vs. worms with Aesop Marlin for the 29th time, when Duke comes stumblin' in, bellies up to the bar without a word, orders a bottle of Kokanee beer, kills it in one pull, an just sits there starin' at the Back Forty calendar for the next ten minutes. That pretty well ended the great bait debate, an I don't mind tellin' ya that I was a little worried, cause I've seen Duke crawl into a cave with nothin' but a Bowie knife in his teeth an take out a bear, an that guy looked plum frightened. We're talkin' Percodan Stare of Eternity here. Wade Sawyer was decidedly less sympathetic. His first response after gettin' Chastity Dollarhide all cinched up into 'er 5 gallon bra was: "Cripes Almighty Duke, couldn't you've at least shaken off outside first? Yer gettin' skank moss all over the counter!" Duke didn't even blink. Matter of fact I don't think he *could* blink, cause by then his eyelids didn't have the necessary surface area to cover his saucer-sized eyeballs. This wasn't even remotely normal, an I knew we hadda act fast, so I tapped Duke on the shoulder an said: "buy ya a beer Duke?" to snap 'im out of it. He nodded, downed another bottle, this time in three separate gulps, an that's when we finally started to get out of 'im what'd happened.

Evidently Duke'd been out at Lake Gunkamucka tryin' out some new spinners an dozed off in his '61 Skeeter Hawk (which's no big deal, cause I saw Duke win the annual crappie tournament while sleepwalkin' back in '97). Anyway, after awhile he gets a pretty good bite, his arm instinctively sets the hook while he's dreamin' of Jeannie, an next thing he knows his boat actually starts turnin' sideways an is suddenly bein' pulled towards Goodyear Chasm. "Crudfin?!" was my horrified response, an Duke just kinda dipped his head real slow like he was practicin' balancin' quarters on his face an returned his gaze to the calendar. "So what happened?" I prodded, but by then he'd gone catatonic again, an so I hadda get 'im another cold one to get 'im talkin' again, but all I could pry out of 'im after that was "I'm gonna need another boat." The rest of the story I hadda piece together from eyewitness reports, but Amos Anderson claims the fish actually jumped into the boat an chewed the left boot clean offa Duke's waders. Duke beat the livin' piss out of it with his frog giggin' bat but the thing just kept comin', an by the time it was all over the boat was at the bottom of Gunkamucka an Duke was breakin' Michael Phelps' 400 Meter Freestyle record swimmin' for the bank, stoppin' periodically to try pokin' the beast's eyes out with the jagged end of his snapped rod. Course, by the time he made it to the shore the monster'd suffered permanent brain damage an proceeded to squirm its way up onto the bank where it sank its teeth into Duke's right front tire, leavin' 'im with no choice but to hoof it back to town. I guess his truck's still sittin' there, but Crudfin's body hasn't turned up yet, an ever since, Duke just sits up at The Gutter Bowl all day mumblin' to 'imself about what Captain Ahab would do in his situation. I went up there Thursday night to check on 'im, an he looked about like Saddam Hussein after he got pulled up outta that escape tunnel. Otis Turlinger said he hadn't moved in three days, an fortunately he'd sat himself down next to the rental shoes so nobody'd really noticed the smell yet. But I felt like somebody needed to let 'im know Crudfin's corpse still hadn't been found, so I slipped it into my conversation (he never said nothin' up to that point, so it really was *my* conversation) as casually as possible, an once I told 'im he just turned his head real slow, like his neck hadn't been oiled in about a quarter century, looked me right dead in the eye an said "then he's still there," an went back to pickin' the nacho cheese out of his beard.

We're still tryin' to break Duke out of his funk, but thus far he's not respondin' to our fish 'n chip basket treatments or gold fish bowl immersion therapy. Still, I'm sure that if Duke had all his faculties about 'im he'd want us to get on with the movie, cause as most of you already know, Zombi 2 is the greatest zombie epic in history to wash ashore in America with a "2" in its title an absolutely no evidence of there ever bein' a canonical predecessor. I imagine that by now everyone knows why that is (if not, "Zombi" was the name of the Italian cut of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead), but at the time it was prolly upsettin' thinkin' about all the critical backstory you were missin'. Fortunately, now you've got me around to make sure you won't miss a beat with regard to important plot points, an to prove it I've prepared a suitable cross section of the flick's most important cinematic irregularities to help ease you into the rationale of this little gem, so if everyone'll take their seats, I'll get on with the presentation. First, bein' born on a boat somehow gives you extensive knowledge of nautical procedures an instant credibility among all seafaring men. Incidentally, this is why I've been capable of drivin' a manual transmission since the age of three. Second, the term "rescue flare" becomes bitterly ironic when your benefactors bring you to an island infested with Rastafarian zombies. An third, zombies or no zombies, it's hard to tell somebody you found their wife bein' eaten out by four other guys.

All kiddin' aside, I feel like there's somethin' pretty serious that we oughta address about this flick, an that's genital mutilation. Genital mutilation is no laughing matter, an if you're anything like me, when you see the scene where Auretta Gay pops 'er top, straps that scuba tank to 'er back, an clips that leather harness between 'er bikini lines, you can't help but cringe a little. That shot actually makes me wince more'n the splinter in the eyeball scene, cause you know that poor lady's gonna wind up with permanent clitoral rash after an hour of that strap bumpin' an grindin' against 'er loins. We invented wetsuits for a reason, an when you factor in all that salt water sloshin' around in 'er jock, you just know she's gonna end up lookin' like a Pace Picante enchilada with a Flamin' Hot Cheeto in the center down there. An for what? A topless underwater shot? Seriously you guys, there're better, less horrifyin' plot devices available that don't result in gender identity issues or possible orgasm. Let's try to be a little more responsible about this culturally sensitive issue in the future alright? Cause if there's one thing this world DOESN'T need, it's a buncha people who literally cannot be satisfied runnin' loose.

The movie begins on Killigan's Island where this KKK zombie's gettin' shot in the head by a half-crazy doctor (Menard) who's set up a clinic for folks with incurable mouth gout, an once he's finished installin' a cranial drain in the thing's temporal lobe, he declares the hut clean like Zelda Rubinstein an gives the go-ahead for his nameless/faceless crew to sail home. Home turns out to be New York Harbor, but once the boat's discovered floatin' adrift tryin' to peek up Lady Liberty's skirt, the harbor patrol hops on board an the next thing you know one of the guys ends up gettin' sacked an snacked by a 300lb linebacker with disintegratin' face syndrome, an it's all the other cops can do to pump Chewy Lewis an the Ooze fulla bullets an knock it into the drink. Meanwhile, a local newspaper editor is skeptical of the police's account of what happened, so he tells Charlton Heston's British equivalent (Peter) that somewhere in this necrotical nonsense is somethin' they missed, so go hop on that deck an find out who got squished. Which he does, only while he's checkin' out the ship's log an tryin' to figure out how somebody could produce somethin' that big without dyin' from internal hemorrhage, he runs into the daughter of the boat's owner (Anne) an the two of 'em start interrogatin' eachother until dock security shows up an they hafta pretend they're just star-crossed perverts gettin' off on the thrill of crime scene sex so he won't think somethin' weird's goin' on an impound their hinders. The next mornin', Peter calls up his editor an reads a letter he found on the boat written by Anne's dad that details his exposure to some Caribbean ganjarrhea disease that kept 'im from ever leavin', an so the news manager decides to pay for him an Anne to go investigate further since depressing stories are so hard to come by in the NYC region. Elsewhere, Dr. Menard's tryin' to contact the mainland with his WWII army surplus ham radio he bought at the Hogan's Heroes garage sale, but the only signal he can get that don't sound like Elmo bein' stuffed down a garbage disposal is Wolfman Jack on the Armed Forces Radio broadcast, an to top it off his wife's all P.O.'d at 'im cause he never takes 'er to any restaurants where you don't hafta cut your own meat off a spit roasted pig.

She's also kinda freaked out about the recent upswing in reported neck nibblins by third world zombies, an when Menard tries explainin' to 'er that he took an oath to try helpin' folks no matter what, she basically laughs in his face an tells 'im that he's never gonna make any headway cause he's already got so many dead guys wrapped in white sheets wanderin' around that the place oughta be called Klantasy Island. But while that's goin' on, Anne an Peter've managed to bum a ride from a coupla oceanographers (Brian an Susan) who're searchin' the seven seas for pristine beaches an crystal clear waters where Susan can strip down to 'er immaculate mammaries an help speed the movie along a little bit. Unfortunately, when they stop the boat to let Susan dive, this size-shiftin' shark shows up an tries munchin' on 'er boobie snacks, which is damned inconvenient in its own right, but then she gets attacked from behind by a six-feet-undertowed aqua-zombie an hasta sand half his face off with a chunka coral to get away. Then the zombie tries wrestlin' the shark but ends up gettin' its arm chewed off when it goes for a belly-to-belly suplex an pretty quick the ocean looks like somebody spilled a coupla drums of industrial strength guacamole in there an the shark hasta retreat to the set of seaQuest to get its stomach pumped. Meanwhile, the doc's inspectin' a fresh batch of putrefyin' patients when Sid Haig's Peruvian cousin (Lucas) comes runnin' in from the beach to tell 'im that all the villagers've cast off the shackles of Christianity an itchy clothing to pound drums in the jungle in the hopes that the zombies prefer white meat. This at least seems promising, cause later that night an asthmatic Peeping Zom shows up at the doc's place an starts eyeballin' his wife through the bathroom window like a hobo watchin' a rotatin' hot dog carousel at the 7-Eleven. Cept when he busts in an tries grabbin' 'er giblets she mashes off his bangers in the door, an that makes 'im so mad that when she shoves a safe up against the wall to brace it he busts through an pulls 'er face into a big jagged wood sliver that penetrates 'er eyeball an turns it into Cadbury egg fillin'. But back out at sea, the crew of the Undeadliest Catch's been havin' a few problems ever since the shark decided to play Headbangers Ball against the side of the boat, so they fire off their emergency flares an attract the attention of Lucas, who's out on the beach with the doctor's nurse dumpin' another corpse into the doc's "unsuccessful" trench.

Lucas tells the doc about the flare an Menard motors out to give 'em a ride into town an explains to Anne how 'er dad contracted the zombitis an recounts havin' to shoot her Italian Donald Sutherland papa in his kisser when he turned zombie on 'im an started sittin' up like Michael Myers after six rounds of gunfire. Then Menard takes 'em back to the hospital an says that he's gotta get a buncha consent-to-treat forms signed so he can start pumpin' people fulla drugs that'll get his patients high enough to see Lucio in the sky with diamonds, an that he'd appreciate it if they could take the Land Rover out to his place to make sure his wife isn't gettin' 'er hedges pruned by the gardener. Unfortunately, it ain't just the solitude an the absence of a Bloomingdales eatin' away at 'er now, an when Peter an the gang show up at the doc's beach house they find about a half dozen blighted cabana boys snackin' on 'er rack an hafta beat cheeks outta there. Cept while en route back to the hospital they end up runnin' over this zombie jaywalker an swirvin' into a banana tree that cracks their block an mosta the bones in Peter's ankle, forcin' 'em to limp their way through the jungle while the natives play the drum solo from Wipe Out an belt out voodoo hexes by the truckload. This's where things really start goin' to pot, cause pretty quick a platoon of undead conquistadors start risin' from the grave with night crawlers pourin' outta their eyeballs lookin' for Aztec savages to convert to Catholicism, an they especially don't like how Peter an Anne are poundin' sand right on toppa Cortez' cortex. So now Brian hasta ditch Susan to help Peter an Anne fight off a zombrigade of decayin' missionaries, an while that's goin' on Susan ends up gettin' jugulated by an anorexic Spaniard. Eventually the three of 'em make it back to the village, only by now they've got an entire horde of pestilent Pentecostals cold on their trail, so it's pretty much last stand time as the surviving hospital staff an our haggard heroes start barrin' the doors, riggin' up Molotov cocktails, an screamin' "remember Monroeville!" as the knocking dead try poundin' their way in. Gonna cut it off here, but there's still a lot of action an a coupla surprises to come, an I ain't about to spoil 'em by blatherin' on any more'n I already have.

Alrighty, Zombi 2, or "Zombie" as most of us in North America knew it before the internet came along and we found out it was supposed to be a sequel to the Italian cut of Dawn of the Dead. It sounds more asinine than it actually is, cause when you get right down to it, Dawn of the Dead had nothing to do with Night of the Living Dead, and Day of the Dead had nothing to do with Dawn of the Dead. Besides, I think most of us are already well aware of the Italian tendency to latch onto a good thing and produce approximately 300 low budget clones, but sometimes they'd get even more brazen and slap a "2" on their flick to pass it off as a legitimate sequel and bolster the box office receipts. The same guy who made Troll 2, which is itself a good example of this phenomenon, also produced a flick called Terminator 2 (aka Shocking Dark), with cover art that bore an uncanny resemblance to the art from The Terminator, even though Shocking Dark was more like a clone of Aliens if you actually sat down and watched it. And speaking of Aliens, the Italians also made a movie called Alien 2: On Earth, which they produced one year after Alien came out. You really had to love the Italians back in the 1980s, cause you knew the moment we produced a really popular horror flick here in the U.S., that we were about to get an avalanche of less impressive, but still decent titles produced in the same vein. In truth, Zombi 2 was actually written before Dawn of the Dead was ever released in Italy, and had its title slapped on without Fulci's knowledge, but nearly all of the other Italian zombie flicks were clear attempts to cash in on the success of Dawn of the Dead. Gettin' back to the movie though, Zombi 2, in my estimation, is not only Lucio Fulci's best title (some people prefer The Beyond, but I'm stickin' with Zombi 2), but it's also the best zombie movie ever to come out of Italy. No minor accomplishment, given that, as I mentioned earlier, there was a flood of zombie flicks being produced in the years after Dawn of the Dead, with Fulci himself going on to direct the next sequel in the series, Zombi 3. The less said about that one the better. Zombi 2 is also rather unique in that it combines both traditional types of zombie movies. It's got the germ/virus causing the bodies of the recently deceased to return to life and chomp the living, as well as the older voodoo style zombies from titles like White Zombie that are created through rituals, so we've basically got a chicken and the egg thing going as far as which one seeded the other. Although, to be clear, all the zombies in the movie are in fact dead, and while they can be raised from the grave by said voodoo, it's never established that they're actually under anyone's control. So the plot is a pretty interesting hybrid of the two predominant zombie origin mythologies, and just in case you're still not convinced, the flick was also one of the original 72 banned titles on the BBFC's Video Nasty list.

In any event, it's time to find out whether this thing's got the guts to make your girlfriend throw up, or whether it's just the moment in cinematic history where the zombie movie finally humped the shark. The plot is fairly typical of the zombie formula, albeit with one lone scientist attempting to find a cure, much as Vincent Price does in The Last Man on Earth after his fellow scientists succumb to the disease. The movie tends to focus more on that aspect, as well as the search for Tisa Farrow's father, up until the last eight minutes or so when it inevitably becomes Night of the Living Dead. One could gripe about why Richard Johnson opts to wait so long before sending a crew back to the U.S. to seek help, or whether a boat of that size would be well suited to sailing the distance, but these are pretty minor points, and I think that the infusion of the classic voodoo mythology into the modern Romero style zombie movie succeeds in giving it its own distinct flavor. The acting is a bit better than we typically see in an Italian movie intended for American audiences, and includes a cast that's essentially split down the middle between English speaking actors and Italian speakers. There's still some pretty atrocious dubbing, particularly where it involves Al Cliver and Auretta Gay's characters, but it's a significant improvement over most Italian flicks where the entire cast, regardless of their language, get dubbed. On an individual level, I'd say the best two performances are given by Richard Johnson as the in-over-his-head Dr. Menard, and by Dakar, who plays the more than a little freaked out, yet very likable, Lucas.

Here's who matters and why: Tisa Farrow (Antropophagus, The Initiation of Sarah), Ian McCulloch (Zombie Holocaust, Contamination, The Ghoul 1975, I Monster, It! 1967), Richard Johnson (The Haunting 1963, What Waits Below, The Monster Club, The Great Alligator, Screamers, The Night Child, Beyond the Door), Al Cliver (The Beyond, Endgame - Bronx lotta finale, Demonia, Il fantasma di Sadoma, Touch of Death, Murder-Rock: Dancing Death, The New Gladiators, 2020 Texas Gladiators, The Black Cat 1981, Devil Hunter, White Cannibal Queen), Stefania D'Amario (Nightmare City, Deported Women of the SS), Olga Karlatos (Murder-Rock: Dancing Death, Damned in Venice), Nick Alexander (Phenomena, The Raiders of Atlantis, 1990: The Bronx Warriors, The Scorpion with Two Tails, Yor the Hunter from the Future, The Last Shark, Nightmare City, Cannibal Apocalypse, Contamination, Terror Express, Pieces, Screamers, Hitch Hike, Strip Nude for Your Killer, Deep Red), Ugo Bologna (Nightmare City, The Wild Beasts), Omero Capanna (Battle of the Stars, Fatal Frames - Fotogrammi mortali, Urban Animals, The Barbarians, Hands of Steel, She 1984, The New Gladiators, Women's Prison Massacre, 2019: After the Fall of New York, Ironmaster, Gunan King of the Barbarians, City of the Living Dead, The Pumaman, Starcrash, Holocaust 2000, Deep Red, Web of the Spider), Dakar (Ator the Fighting Eagle, Zombie Holocaust, Papaya: Love Goddess of the Cannibals, Spirits of the Dead), Alberto Dell'Acqua (Zombi 4, Endgame - Bronx lotta finale), Arnaldo Dell'Acqua (The Spider Labyrinth, Hercules vs. The Giant Warriors), Ottaviano Dell'Acqua (Snuff Killer - La Morte in diretta, Navigators of the Space, Zombi 3 & 4, Cut and Run, Rats: Night of Terror, Escape from the Bronx, 2019: After the Fall of New York, Ironmaster, Escape from Galaxy 3, Nightmare City), Roberto Dell'Acqua (Alien from the Deep, Zombi 3, The Beyond, Nightmare City, Star Odyssey)

Additionally: Franco Fantasia (Mountain of the Cannibal God, Eaten Alive 1980, Killer Crocodile 2, Hands of Steel, Maniac Mansion, Hercules Against the Sons of the Sun, Hercules Samson & Ulysses, Assignment: Outer Space), Captain Haggerty (Shadow: Dead Riot, Night of Dark Shadows), Edward Mannix (Extra Terrestrial Visitors, Endgame - Bronx lotta finale, Yor the Hunter from the Future, Escape from the Bronx, Exterminators of the Year 3000, 1990: The Bronx Warriors, Cannibal Holocaust, The New York Ripper, Absurd, The House by the Cemetery, Nightmare City, Hell of the Living Dead, Cannibal Apocalypse, Contamination, Alien 2: On Earth, Zombie Holocaust, Eaten Alive 1980, The Pumaman, Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror, Pieces, A Bay of Blood), James Sampson (StageFright 1987, Robot Jox, Shocking Dark, Zombi 4, Escape from the Bronx, 2019: After the Fall of New York, Absurd, City of the Living Dead), Susan Spafford (The Tomb, Cannibal World, The Mummy Theme Park, Touch of Death, Devil Fish, I guerriera dell'anno 2072, The Raiders of Atlantis, Yor the Hunter from the Future, Exterminators of the Year 3000, Warriors of the Wasteland, Pieces, Absurd, Cannibal Ferox, The Last Shark, Murder Syndrome, Antropophagus: The Grim Reaper, Hell of the Living Dead, House on the Edge of the Park, City of the Living Dead, Contamination, Zombie Holocaust, Eaten Alive!, The Great Alligator, Zombi 2, Torso, Don't Torture a Duckling, Blade of the Ripper, Cannibal Holocaust), Leslie Thomas (Catacombs), Monica Zanchi (Emmanuelle and the Last Cannibals, Very Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind).

The special effects are where the movie really shines, because although Dawn of the Dead probably had better blood and guts, Zombi 2 undoubtedly has the better zombies. Dawn of the Dead was essentially "attack of the blue-faced goobs", where Zombi 2 has legit, nasty facial appliances made by the great Giannetto De Rossi, who also did the effects on The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue, Cannibal Apocalypse, The Beyond, House by the Cemetery, and High Tension. And it bears repeating that the Italians have never had the kinda qualms that some American directors have about including grisly effects and *lingering* on them. In an American film from 1979 you might well get to see a ripped out throat, but not for more than about one and a half seconds. Fulci'd hold the camera on that gushing wound for four, five, maybe six seconds before cuttin' away. Specifically, we've got two chomped throats (good bites, but the blood is that really vibrant red stuff they used back in the day), a severed, rotting hand (good), some pretty nasty guts, the eyeball impalement scene (the head is a little fake, and the eyeball looks to be some soft, sugary substance, but the scene is interspersed with shots of the actresses' horrified screams, which helps mask it a little), several foamy mouths (good), and a coupla dozen zombies (all very good, except sometimes they forget to hide the hands and other parts of the body that aren't showing any signs of decay). Ultimately, the effects are another excellent credit on De Rossi's resume.

The shooting locations are another rousing success, with some very attractive cinematography filmed on location in Santa Domingo, Rome, Mexico (the shark vs. zombie scene), and of course, Brooklyn. All the scenes on the island look great, and when coupled with the gritty cityscape of 1979 Brooklyn and New York Harbor, it kinda brings the whole epidemic full circle. It's also kinda interesting to look at just how polluted the air was in New York back in 1979 during the film's opening sequence, which also features what is today a rather ominous shot of the once prominent Twin Towers. The soundtrack does not disappoint either, and although there isn't a great deal of variety, the opening track composed with keyboards and synthesizers is both extremely Italian, and extremely catchy. You've got a couple other tracks that also feature the same instruments, as well as some drumming used to indicate that the natives are restless, but I think the movie is primarily known for that one iconic track that plays during the opening and closing credits, as well as during the underwater shark battle. Definitely one of my favorite Italian scores, although not quite on the same level as Cannibal Holocaust, or the inexplicably competent Troll 2. Overall, Zombi 2 isn't just "good for an Italian movie," it's a legitimately good movie, period. Absolutely essential for fans of the zombie subgenre, and one you should not hesitate to buy blind, so be sure to check it out (again).


Rating: 77%