Zombi 2 (1979) Review

Zombi 2 (1979) Review

                        

One of the best zombie films from the 1970’s is the Italian production Zombi 2, which you might think is a sequel to a movie called Zombi, and it is, but it’s also technically an Italian sequel to 1978’s Dawn of the Dead, which was re-edited and re-titled Zombi for its Italian release. The original Dawn of the Dead shares almost nothing in common with it, aside from featuring undead people ripping living people to shreds, so despite that number two, Zombi 2 is usually considered the first film in its own series, making it one of the most confusing titles ever.

The movie begins with a literal bang. A handgun is fired at a person wrapped in a white sheet and rope, point blank, and it’s a headshot, causing blood and chunks to blow out, which the camera zooms in on. Right away the movie lets you know it’s going to get gory, and that it won’t be for the faint of heart. Some cops encounter a zombie aboard an abandoned boat off Staten Island, and it turns out the boat belongs to a scientist who has been working on a Caribbean island called Matul. His daughter assists a journalist investigating the mystery and together they go in search of the island, where research is being conducted on reanimating the dead. This is more to do with traditional voodoo-related reanimation, though, like classic zombie films such as White Zombie (1932) or The Walking Dead (1936). The daughter and journalist hire a guy and his girlfriend to help them find the island, and by the end they are fighting to survive the onslaught of a zombie horde.

While Zombi 2 does eventually get to that onslaught ending, the 80 minutes or so that precede it are inconsistently entertaining. The characters are not super unique or interesting, many scenes move slowly, and it’ll come off as a pretty average zombie story for anyone who is even somewhat familiar with the sub-genre. But, it’s remembered by many as a horror classic, mainly for two scenes, which I will describe, but despite its shortcomings, I still think Zombi 2 is decent for more reasons than just a couple scenes or moments. The special effects, though obviously a bit dated, are still quite effective, and extremely gross. I can’t say I find Zombi 2 very scary, but it definitely is sickening, and has a real nasty quality to it. People don’t just die, they die brutally, sometimes almost tortuously. The music and sound effects also aid in making every scene with the zombies scarier. Not only do they look revolting, the sounds as they crawl out of the ground and chew on their victims add to the revulsion.

The first scene that really makes Zombi 2 stand out is when a woman is pulled toward a broken door by a zombie on the other side. She is agonizingly pulled toward a splinter of wood, and it impales her eye. There are other moments of heightened fixation on violence or gore like this, and on the one hand it kind of takes me out of the movie because it’s totally unrealistic for someone to just stand there and grimace at a zombie and not immediately try to shoot them or run from them, but on the other hand these moments are shot in such interesting ways that you don’t want the camera to cut away too soon, yet you also do want it to cut because it’s so sickening. The other standout scene is when a zombie fights a tiger shark underwater. It sounds like it might be so dumb it’s funny, but they used a real shark (which was well fed and tranquilized before shooting). The concept and execution are absurd, fascinating, and entertaining all at once.

The craziest part of Zombi 2 to me is its status as a sequel. Often, you’ll find it simply called Zombie, which makes more sense because it isn’t really a true sequel to Dawn of the Dead, Italian titles notwithstanding. But then, Zombie became its own series of films—there was Zombi 3 (1988), which was a sequel to Zombi 2, but then it becomes even more confusing, because in North America Zombi 2 was called Zombie, and Zombi 3 was still called Zombie 3! So, what happened to Zombie 2? Well, it doesn’t exist. The sequels continued beyond that, too, (but in name only, not actually having anything to do with Zombi 2) but then over in the UK they never renamed Dawn of the Dead to Zombie, so when Zombi 2 came out, they called it Zombie Flesh Eaters, and Zombie 3 became Zombie Flesh Eaters 2, and so on. Truly insane.

I wouldn’t call Zombi 2 an essential for every horror fan, but I think gore hounds who aren’t jaded by modern special effects will find it worth checking out, and anyone curious about some of the grimy, exploitative films from this era should be satisfied with this example.