Zombie stories are everywhere. The undead walk in our tv shows, books, and of course, movies. Now for a horror fan, I don’t actually like zombies that much. They are just kinda one note to me. I’ve never seen an entire episode of The Walking Dead, and I’m not planning to in the future. But, as ever, there are exceptions to my zombie consumption habits. Enter Lucio Fulci’s Italian horror masterpiece, Zombi 2 (1979).
The history of Zombi 2 is wacky. There might be a 2 attached to the end of the title, but it’s not exactly a sequel. When George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead came out in 1978, it was reedited by none other than Dario Argento, and given a new soundtrack by the band Goblin under the title Zombi. This version was a huge hit in Italy, and due to the favourable Italian copyright laws, a sequel was green-lit. Thus Zombi 2 was born.
Luckily for you the audience, it’s easy to step right into the story, as it’s not a fan fic of Dawn of the Dead. Zombi 2 starts when an abandoned yacht floats up the Hudson River in New York City. Once the coast guard gets on board, an officer realizes, too late, that the boat is occupied by a zombie. The missing boat owner’s daughter Anne Bowes (Tisa Farrow, yes Mia’s sister) decides to go looking for her father at the last place he was seen, the island Matul in the Caribbean. She brings with her intrepid journalist Peter West (Ian McCulloch), and the pair team up with vacationers (Al Cliver and Loretta Gay) who transport them to Matul.
Unfortunately, the island is having trouble with the dead coming back to life. A visiting doctor named Menard is there studying the phenomenon. He is trying to find a scientific reason for the zombies, but local tradition says that voodoo is responsible. The film never really explains the origin of the zombies, but does it really matter? We came for the gore, and Zombi 2 delivers.
The majority of the film takes place on the fictional Caribbean island. As I said before in my article about The Shining (1980), isolated locations are always a good spot for horror stories. Islands are great for trapping characters, and if they can’t get away, we already have built in conflict. Our protagonists are out of gas for their boat, so they have to explore the island. On the production end of things, having one primary area does serve to make filming easier.
Zombi 2’s plot is goofy, the acting a little weird, and our male hero has the dumbest Trumpian comb-over I’ve ever seen in a movie. However, Zombi 2 does best what counts the most in a zombie movie: the creatures are real freakin’ cool. The undead here are stumbling around, gross, and falling apart. When the story needs to feature a particular zombie, the make-up effects are given extra attention. The zombie “worm eye,” from the poster, usually appears on lists of famous movie undead.
Besides the connection to Romero zombies, Zombi 2 has two other parts going for it. Did I mention the zombie vs shark fight? Please ignore visions of Sharknado (2013) popping into your head. The sequence is tense and fun to watch beyond the initial concept. Susan goes swimming to take underwater photos and gets stalked by a shark. Now this isn’t a puppet shark for most of the shots, it’s the real deal. And just when her situation can’t get any worse, a zombie shows up. Both the shark and zombie are hungry, and they start a fight over who gets to eat. I won’t spoil the winner, but it’s worth watching the whole film for this.
A later scene from Zombi 2 is found on the Bravo Channel’s 100 Scariest Movie Moments¸ rocking a low, but still respectable number 98. To think that a low budget film is on this list with the likes of Alien and Jaws is a testament to the talents of Fulci and his team. Paola is pulled by a zombie towards a splinter in a broken door. Just when you think the camera will turn away, it doesn’t. And believe me, you’ll be blinking for minutes afterwards.
As a side note, much of the gory horror scenes in Zombi 2 are during the day. The iconic moment of the undead conquistador rising out of the dirt happens in broad daylight. Night time is always good for a scare, but it takes a special film to have terrifying scenes in bright visibility.
Even for not-fans like me, Zombi 2 is a fun watch. Nearly 40 years later the effects still stand up. I would not want to run into any of the nasty creatures seen here. There are sequels, but I’ve heard that none of them are a cool as the first. Zombi 2 is another example that if you can’t be unpredictable, you can make up for it with style.
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