Zombi II: Encyclopedia - Zombi II

Zombi II

The best-known of Lucio Fulci's films, Zombi II (also known as Zombie Flesh Eaters) sparked an obsession with zombie films across Europe and made Fulci a horror icon. Upon its release in 1979, Zombi II was ridiculed for having no connection to the original Zombi and was scorned for its extremely bloody content, yet the film was a tremendous success.

Zombi II - Background

Zombi II is a pseudo-sequel to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Dawn was re-edited and re-scored for European markets by Romero's collaborator, Italian horror master Dario Argento. Argento released his new version of Dawn of the Dead as Zombi and treated it as a standalone story, not a continuation of Romero's Night of the Living Dead.

When Zombi was a huge financial success, the sequel was rushed into production and released just a little over a year later.

Zombi II - Plot

An apparently abandoned yacht drifts into New York Harbor, and the Harbor Patrol investigates. On board, a huge rotting man kills one of the patrolmen by tearing out his neck with his teeth. The remaining patrolman manages to knock the hulking man into the sea.

A young woman named Ann (Tisa Farrow) is questioned by the police when it is discovered that the boat belonged to her father. She does not know anything except that her father left for a tropical island to do research. A reporter named Peter West (Ian McCulloch) is assigned by his news editor (director Lucio Fulci in a cameo) to get the story on the mysterious boat. Ann and Peter meet on the boat and decide to work together after finding a note from Ann's father. The note says that he is on the island of Matool and that has come down with a strange disease. Ann and Peter enlist the aid of a seafaring couple, Brian (Pier Luigi Conti) and Susan (Auretta Giannone), to help find Matool.

On Matool, Dr. David Manard (Richard Johnson) is hard at work studying the island's secrets. Matool is a cursed place where the dead rise to attack the living, and Manard is determined to find out why. When Ann, Peter, Brian, and Susan reach Matool, the island itself seems to come alive, vomiting forth all the dead buried on the island to kill them.

Zombi II - Zombi II in Europe

Zombi II 's incredible success in Europe re-ignited Fulci's sagging career and reinvented the director as a horror maven. Fulci would go on to direct several more horror films, and Zombi II introduced several of his trademarks: zombies, hyper-realistic gore and blood, and the infamous "eyeball gag" (a character is impaled or otherwise stabbed through the eyeball). Although Fulci's detractors labeled the film as a cheap attempt to cash in on the success of Dawn of the Dead, it is interesting to note that the Zombi II screenplay was actually completed before Dawn of the Dead premiered (hence the lack of connection between the two films).

Despite the massive popularity of the film, Zombi II was banned in several countries due to the massive gore content, including Great Britain. Lead actor Ian McCulloch, who is British, never actually had the opportunity to watch the film until he recorded a commentary for a DVD release of Zombi II some twenty-two years later. He was shocked at the gore level.

Zombi II's massive European box office take also paved the way for three more sequels, which, like their predecessor, have no relation to any of the other films in the series — they all have self-contained plots. While the Zombi series proved to be incredibly lucrative, Zombi II is by far the most recognizable of the European zombie films.

Zombi II - Zombi II in the United States

Zombi II was released merely as Zombie in America and was considered a stand-alone film with no connection to Romero's zombie canon. The theatrical trailers for Zombie provided the memorable tagline of "We Are Going to Eat You!" and showcased the some of the make-up effects, but did nothing to indicate the plot of the picture (although the audience was indeed warned about the graphic content of the film: a humorous crawl at the end of the preview promises "barf bags" to whoever requested them upon viewing the film). Although the film was released unrated, persons under the age of seventeen were not permitted to attend viewings of the picture, even with a parent.

Zombi II - VHS/DVD release history

The film developed a massive cult following after its release on home video, although a series of public domain releases featured a muddy full screen transfer of the film that angered hardcore fans. In the late 1990s, the film was released on DVD and laserdisc by Anchor Bay and The Roan Group respectively. Both versions used a widescreen print, to the delight of fans. But more complaints were made about the transfer, which was still dark and muddy ala the film's original VHS release. The DVD/Laserdisc version also omitted several minutes of nudity from the film while leaving the film's graphic violence intact.

Five years later, Blue Underground and Shriek Show Films struck a deal to release the film on DVD yet again, this time with a newly remastered, uncut version of the film. Now truly complete and no longer muddy looking, the two DVDs were released with Shriek Show using the film's original name "Zombi II" while Blue Underground released the film under the Americanized "Zombie" name. The Shriek Show release also contained a second disc filled with bonus material, which made their release slightly more desirable as opposed to the less expensive bare-boned Blue Underground release.

The other films in the Zombi series made it to America as video releases--none were released theatrically in the States.

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