Zombi 2 (1979) Tisa Farrow- (1 ½)

Director: Lucio Fulci

Stars: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch & Richard Johnson

Genre: Horror

Running Time: 91 Mins

MPAA Rating: X (Horror Violence/Gore & Nudity)

Tagline: We Are Going To Eat You

Synopsis:

{According to IMDB}
"Strangers looking for a woman's father arrive at a tropical island where a doctor desperately searches for the cause and cure of a recent epidemic of the undead."

I remember there were a lot of good reviews for this movie. Many claimed it to be the best Italian Zombie movie. So as a Zombie aficionado, I had to check this one out and see for myself. But before we get into the actual movie, let’s talk about the title itself “Zombie 2”. My first thoughts were “Where is Zombie 1?”  Well, there is no Zombie 1, this isn’t really a sequel. Actually it was only given the title of “Zombie 2” to cash in the success of George A. Romero’s Dawn of The Dead (78). Yet there is little to no connection between this and Dawn of the Dead. Due to this confusion, I ended up buying an older DVD version titled simply "Zombie" thinking there was a first movie.

The movie begins in New York, which it seems to me it’s perhaps the only scene shot in the U.S. Anyways, two officers are searching an abandoned boat. One of the officers gets brutally killed by one of our beloved Zombies (a pretty big one actually) after this incident, we are introduced to Mia Farrow’s character: Anne, who I feel did this movie only for the paycheck, she seems bored to death as I was. Anyways, she gets questioned by the police after the cops’ demise. She gets questioned due to her father; he was in fact the owner of this boat. Not knowing anything, the cops leave her alone. Yet, she snoops around the boat to see what her father was up to, while snooping she stumbles onto a reporter (Ian McCulloch) they find a note from her father explaining he has a strange disease and that he is an Island, trying to find a cure. So both Anne and the reporter decide to get in their boat, and search for Anne's Daddy. Little do they know this Island is filled with Zombies! Yay!

 

I got to say that the film itself is pretty overrated for a Zombie flick. There are "some" gruesome scenes. But don’t expect anything over the top here. To me it just didn’t deliver what I would be expecting from a Zombie flick (Gore, Guts, etc). Aside from the Zombie Shark fight (yes, there is a Zombie Fighting a Shark) and a gut retching eye ball scene, the rest just drags…especially the Zombies, boy are these one’s slow. I know a Zombie isn’t supposed to run, but damn I think a snail can beat these guys any day, big time! There’s a scene where the zombies come up from the grave, the sequence alone is just sooo freaking slow!! I had to slap myself a couple times to stay awake in this turkey. Hard to believe this was in UK’s “Video Nasty” Like I said, it was gruesome in some scenes. But nothing overly nasty, just one of those flicks that have gained cult status only for the scenes mentioned earlier

DVD:

Like I said before, I ended up getting the DVD titled “Zombie” thinking it was the first film. The edition I’m reviewing here is the Anchor Bay 2002 release. This DVD contains no Special Features not even a trailer. In fact the movie just starts right away after putting the DVD in. If you are a fan of the film or are curious about it, get the Media Blasters 2004 release, or better yet the Anchor Bay 25^th Anniversary 2 Disc Special Edition. That’s if you are crazy about the movie; personally, I wouldn’t bother.

Video:

The movie is presented in a non-Anamorphic Widescreen 2:35:1. Which to be honest looks really shitty. There is grain all over the place; colors are inconsistent, most of the time. Not to mention that the DVD for some reason felt compressed. There was pixilation all over the screen. Then again I was watching this on a 42” Plasma Screen in Zoom mode. So it makes sense for the pixilation; overall the picture quality was horrible. I’ve seen better quality from dollar store DVD’s.

Audio:

Not much better than the video, the audio is a 2 channel mono. So if you are expecting a good surround mix…it’s not here. Again, if you want the picture and sound quality in better optimum, get the other editions mentioned

Bottom Line: 

I say just rent it, or borrow it from someone who has it. I wouldn’t pay the 25 bucks for it.  Plus I don’t think this movie will be airing on TV anytime soon. If it does, then there’s your chance to see it. But frankly, either skip it, or just see it so you can get what all the fuss is about…which isn’t much for that manner

Eye Ball SCene:

Zombi 2 (UnCUT) Full Movie (Part 1 out of 8)