Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

Well, what can I say about the classic scenes that weren't said already? Really, nothing. But here's my 2-cents worth: I first saw "Zombie" at the old Aztec 3 moviehouse in San Antonio when I was a kid. Having already seen the original Romero's "Dawn of the Dead", I expected a cheap copy so typical of Italian cinema, but as the saying goes, "better to be plesantly surprised than heavily dissappointed", as this movie became one of my all-time favorites like "Dawn of the Dead", the main difference between the two is that I enjoyed "Dawn of the Dead" as I enjoy a good war movie. "Zombie", on the other hand, even without the success of the original "Dawn of the Dead", is a great horror movie on its own. The only downside was that the characters were pretty much stereotypes such as the cute heroine searching for her missing father played by Tisa Farrow, the red hot traveling companion Susan (remember the diving scene) played by Auretta Gay; The obsessed scientist, his alcoholic wife, the supserstious native assistant, to name a few more, and finally the biggest stereotype of all, Peter West, played by Ian McCollough, the reporter who actually does his job and researches his facts, investigates his clues, and requires proof...in short an honest reporter, such a rare breed in today's mainstream drive-by media who brought us Jayson Blair, Mary Mapes, and Dan Rather that in this day and age he can only get a job on Fox News. But this is well balanced by good acting and believable dialouge of people thrown into their situation. Another pleasant surprise was that I expected dubbing snce this movie was foriegn made, but Fulci used an English speaking cast, which was really a good move.

In summary, Lucio Fulci took all the elements that makes a great classic horror movie, mainly a good storyline, great choice of scenery, good acting, believeable special effects, and a creepy soundtrack, and wove them very well. It has become a part of my Halloween whether at home or deployed just as "Team America" is a partof my 4th of July. I recommend it to fans of the horror genre very highly. No horror collection ca be complete without it.

I saw this in the theater with in a double feature with Dawn of the Dead and the difference in atmosphere and creepiness was so stark the film stuck with me years later. You can make an arguement that The Beyond is Fulci's best work but for me it's Zombie (Zombi 2) and this version by Media Blaster's is the best it's ever looked. I had the very rare Japanese laserdisc for awhile and this blows that away. While Italian horror is not for everyone, I highly recommend this to any zombie film fan. It slowly builds, the score if great and the FX are spectacular.