Mark Turner The movie most know as DAWN OF THE DEAD was released elsewhere as ZOMBIE. Because of that when director Lucio Fulci made his own zombie film it was called ZOMBIE 2 but released here as ZOMBIE. That film was original in its own right and had some nice effects and some gut churning moments. Fulci had already made a name for himself with several films before and after that one and when the chance came to make a new zombie film he hesitated. Knowing that writers Claudio Fragasso and Rossella Drudi were working on the screenplay and wanted his input into the production he welcomed the chance. The movie went into production shooting in the Philippines and almost immediately ran into problems. The biggest of those was the fact that items promised to Fulci by the directors were not provided which angered him. Next was the fact that the location itself was harsh and took its toll on all involved. Lastly was the fact that Fulci himself was ill at the time dealing with cancer among other things. The end result wasn't approved by the producers and they brought the writers back in to rewrite part of the film using the footage already shot by Fulci. In addition to that they brought in director Bruno Mattei to shoot some sequences as well as Fragasso. The end result is a conglomeration of items that combine for a decent Italian zombie film but kind of a mixed bag at the same time. Knowing all of this helps when watching the film.At a top secret government location tests are being conducted on a program called Death Note. The end results are unsatisfactory at best and deadly at worst. After the scientists behind the project cancel it and are about to transport their findings and a vial of their formula to be disposed of their attacked by spies. One of the spies escapes with the case it was all in and is shot, breaking the case and exposing him to its contents. Wounded and infected he runs through the jungle until he finds a hotel and checks in.The military sets out to find the spy who by now has infected a worker at the hotel. Deciding the best way to be safe is to take over the hotel the military does so, taking everyone captive and later killing them all. To dispose of the body they cremate it. The head scientists chastises them for this noting that it will release the virus into the air which the commander considers "science fiction". Apparently animating dead bodies isn't. Of course the virus makes its way into the atmosphere and a large number of people and animals are infected. One is a couple out for the weekend who come across infected chickens on the road, one of which bites the man and infects him. Another is three G.I.s on leave and the RV full of girls they come across, infected when a flock of birds breaks into the RV after going mad and pecking one of the girls. Eventually their stories come together and they unite.As the virus spreads everyone seems to be under attack by the infected, zombies whose only goal is to eat the flesh of the living. All of those flesh eating moments are seen on glorious color with some well used gels, goos, goops and plenty of torn flesh. The zombies are inconsistent in that some are the meandering, slow moving zombies while others have the ability to run and fight like they've mixed it up before. Whether or not anyone will survive is anyone's guess until the final reel rolls.Like many of the Italian horror films to come out of the 70s and 80s this one is filled with dialogue and segments that make little sense. I'm not sure if that's because something is lost in translation or that they just tend to shoot stories differently than anyone else. In any event it makes some things that happen seem incredibly stupid on the parts of the characters involved and will leave you scratching your head as to why anyone would behave this way. The military leader thinking one thing is science fiction while the other is accepted is a good example. People surrounded by zombies who take shelter and decide the smartest move is to separate and search an area is another. The end result is a movie that feels like exactly what it was, a movie that had a script that was well put together and then twisted into something completely different. Fragasso notes in an interview in the extras the problems that they had with the producer and the fact that most of the issues had with the film stemmed from problems he created. Fulci was so angered that he shot over 20 minutes of footage of the actors doing nothing more than rowing a canoe. Conditions were so bad that when asked to return for reshoots to fix the film all of the actors involved refused, one going so far as to say she'd never return to the Philippines. For myself I thought the movie was entertaining enough and one that horror fans can easily enjoy. Fans know exactly what to expect when it comes to Italian zombie films and this one delivers on all counts, the biggest of those being the gore content. One of those moments is also one of the funniest when a refrigerator door is opened and an unattached head flies through the air to begin gnawing on a victim's neck. It's sure to inspire groans and laughter for those watching who will then rewind it repeatedly to watch again and again. Another great scene involves one of the women falling into a hotel pond. Watch and see what happens, a great effect.Severin has done a fantastic job with their release of the film. I've noted before with their release of SHOCKING DARK and in the past about other companies who bring films like this to blu-ray format that movies no matter how good or bad they are need to be preserved for future generations before they are lost forever. Severin has done just that with this film offering the film in a new 2k scan. Considering the original condition of the film and negatives it looks great.Not only that they've packed it full of extras as well. They include THE LAST ZOMBIES an interview with co-director/co-writer Claudio Fragasso and co-writer Rossella Drudi, TOUGH GUYS an interview with actors/stuntmen Massimo Vanni and Ottaviano Dell'Acqua, THE PROBLEM SOLVER an interview with replacement director Bruno Mattei, SWIMMING WITH ZOMBIES an interview with actress Marina Loi, IN THE ZOMBIE FACTOR an interview with FX artists Franco Di Girolamo and an audio commentary track with stars Deran Sarafian and Beatrice Ring. The combined movie and these extras make the film a must have for fans of horror, those who particularly love Italian horror and movie fans looking for something different. The fans will want to forgo those old versions of the film and pick this one up from Severin. It's the best version now available.

antoniodimichele-43473 Zombi 3 is a bad movie. No doubt. And it was from its conceivement. The producer Gaudenzi called Fulci for shot the sequel of Zombi Flesh Eaters (in Italy Zombi 2), the movie that give to the director an international fame. But we are in the 1988 and the italian cinematogrophy industry is pretty much changed from the '70, especially the exploitation genre. The producers have less money and they are less willing to risk in the projects; furthermore the good technicians that helps many director, like Argento, Bava, Lenzi and Fulci, are disappearing. Also Fulci has several problem with his health and the movies made after 1980 aren't good like their predecessors. With these premises Fulci goes in the Philipine for shot the movie and after 4 weeks come back in Italy with 70 minutes shot; for the producer is not enough and ask to Claudio Fragasso, the screenwriter of the movie, to write other scenes, and to Bruno Mattei, another director that was shoting his film Robowar in the Philipines, to shot the new scenes. The result is Zombi 3: a horror movie that doesn't scare, without suspense, and with several funny moments that I don't know how much are involuntary. The plot is simple: a group of terrorists steal from a scientific centre the virus called Death One; one of them is wounded during the chase and is being infected. From here we follow two stories: one is about a team of scientists that together with the army try to restrain the virus, the other is about a group of marines in permit that try to survive against the zombies. The story is quite ordinary but the real problem is on a several plot holes from the part with the scientists. For example, when they discover that the terrorist is been infected, they state that the virus can be propagate just via blood and in contact with the air die. But when the army catch the terrorist and burn his body, the scientists warn them that in this way the virus can be spread in the nearby through the air. And after, when the scientists try to find a cure, they state that the virus is spreading thanks the contact with the air. So we have a dissociated virus that die if is in contact with the air, but in the same time, thanks to the air, can spread itself. Another thing: where this virus come from? I mean, while watching the movie I understand that the virus has been made by the army, but for some inscrutable reason they give it to an indipendent scientific center, where the virus itself has been studied. Now, with all this people that has studied it why there is no one that has think about an antidote? What have they studied? Surely not how it spread! After that, the acting, oh ghosh! There isn't a single actor that know how to act and the characters are so boring that nobody really care what could do happen to them. But Zombi 3 is also a movie about the zombies, so we have to talk about the zombies. Ok, what are they? Serious, why they act like that? Some of them walk slowly, like the classic Romero's zombies, others jump, run and talk! Exactly, talk! And this, instead to be scary, is only ridicoulous! Also the makeup is not right. I mean, some zombies are ok but others wears rags. Why? The ordinary people in the Philipenes were used to wear rags? I don't think so! So they look likes they were pretty old corpse come back to life, and this is ok but you have to show me, otherwise it doesn't have sense. The same is for the buildings. Some of them have the interior full of webs and dust, like they were abandoned for years, but they aren't! The film try to made an obscure and dark atmosphere that fit more better with some old castle or haunted house, rather than a movie that describe the outbreak of a contagion! One characteristic of the Fulci's movie was the care given to the gore and splatter effects; unfortunately this is not the case. Just watch the scene where a zombi smash the head of a nurse against a mirror: the nurse begin to puke blood but it's pretty clear that she had the fake blood in the mouth. Another example is the infamous fly zombi head. No! This is unacepptable! Ok it's funny but it is useless and it's not a parody! So, why use it? The only real fun for the viewever is try to find out all the scene that pay homage (aka steal) from others zombies movies. All the quarrel between the scientists and the army remember the Romero's Day of the Dead, the spreading of the contagion through the ashes from a zombi corpse is like O'Bannon's Return of the Living Dead. From the same movie come from also the talkies zombies. The scene where a marine run towards some soldiers and he is been shot beacuse mistaken for a zombie remember the final of the Night of the Living Dead. The final scene where the only two survivors escape with a helicopter (found totally by chance) is like the final scene of Dawn of the Living Dead. Finally the siege of the zombies against the marines remember a similar scene from Zombi 2. The only orignal ideas? The flying head the zombi deejay (I don't want to talk about him; if you have the guts watch the movie and find out yourself). Great screenwriter! Unfortunately this is Zombi 3, a horror/action movie that don't scare and where the action is feeble. The movie rapresent perfectly what had become the italian b-movies industry in the 80s: no money, no ideas.

Scott LeBrun A follow-up rather than a sequel to "Zombi 2", this film was begun by "Zombi 2" director Lucio Fulci, who had to leave the production due to a stroke. Second unit director Bruno Mattei and screenwriter Claudio Fragasso were then asked to step in and finish what he'd started. They cut his approximately 70 minutes of film down to about 50 or so and then added about 40 minutes of their own. Once again, apocalyptic events abound, due to the actions of a terrorist, who'd tried to abscond with a biological weapon. He gets infected, and when his body is later cremated, it allows the virus to spread and infect other innocent people, who die and return to life as crazed, ugly killers. A group of uninfected survivors struggle to make it to safety.As you can see, this is a rather routine plot, but the directors do what they can to at least make it entertaining. One good thing is that the gore is lots of fun; few people can do splatter and zombie makeup as well as the Italians. The movie begins its life as being agreeably cheesy and comical, to alter its tone somewhat in its second half and become more atmospheric. What's interesting to note is that at one point we actually hear a zombie talk, a zombie with whom one of the main characters is all too familiar. A hilarious and memorable highlight is seeing a severed zombie head fly out of a refrigerator and attack someone. Horror fans will roar with laughter when they see this. This would seem to indicate that the movie is never meant to be taken too seriously.One thing that really makes "Zombi 3" entertaining is the utter absurdity of the performances, especially Robert Marius as Dr. Holder. His delivery is just riotous. Adding some flavour is the presence of a DJ character somewhat like Super Soul in "Vanishing Point": Blueheart, a really cool cat. Deran Sarafian, who just so happens to be the son of director Richard Sarafian, who did "Vanishing Point", stars as good guy soldier Ken, and he'd go on to direct Hollywood action pictures such as "Death Warrant" and "Terminal Velocity". Lovely lady Beatrice Ring co-stars as the determined Patricia who keeps moving and doesn't let a limp stop her. It's also great to see Ottaviano Dell'Acqua, the worm eye guy from "Zombi 2" and the lead in "Rats: Night of Terror", as another of the soldiers.Ultimately, "Zombi 3" isn't destined to become iconic like its predecessor did, but it's perfectly acceptable entertainment while it lasts.Seven out of 10.

Greencow_87 Its hard to remember a title that I've enjoyed so much like "Zombi 3"!There is so much to choose between in this Fulci/Mattei production but my favorite (besides the flying head, oh my!) would without a doubt be the scenes where the general and Dr Holder interacts with each otherA nerdy guy that stutters all the time and a cynical "I don't give a rats ass!" general with no regard for the civilian population, lovely!Mostly aimed at the splatter-fans but if you somehow track a copy down my advice is to be open and get it (just make sure to turn your brain off just a little, this isn't the kind of movie with a deep serious plot as you probably know!)