My review of 'Zombie Holocaust'

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ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST(1980)
(Directed by Mirano Girolami)

"Um, so where are the zombies?"- Signed by MartialHorror.

Plot: A scientist leads an expedition to an island dominated by cannibals In order to investigate a case of organs being taken from cadavers. What they find on the island, however, is far worse than any mere case of cannibals.

Review:

You’d think that a 1980 Italian movie called “Zombie Holocaust” would pretty much be a combination between “Zombie” and “Cannibal Holocaust”, which sounds awesome. Unfortunately, the final result is more “Hell of the Living Dead” meets “Cannibal Ferox” in terms of quality. Or maybe it's "Cannibal Ferox" meets "Zombie 5: Killing Birds" because there are about as much zombies as were in both films........Very few. Yet the movie is so typically abstract that I can’t help but kind of like it. Oh yeah, the gore and boobs help as well.

When limbs and organs are being stolen from various hospitals in New York City, it’s up to Dr. Chander(Ian McCulloch) and a Doctor/Anthropologist named Lori(Alexandra Delli Colli) to head an expedition on a small island in the East Indies in order to solve this mystery. Once there, their group is assaulted by vicious cannibals and they realize that something more sinister is happening on the island. Because even the Cannibals are afraid of………….ZOMBIES!

As "Scream" explained the rules to survive a horror film, there are also rules to enjoy an Italian horror film. Rule 1, don't expect a script. Scripts in Italian horror films only exist so that disposable characters can get to the location, get naked and get eaten. So for this reason, you must also remember to throw out any sense of logic. Of course it's absurd to presume two scientists would go to a dangerous island full of cannibals to investigate mysterious happenings in the big city. But in Italian horror film, it's commonly known that all doctors are Indiana Jones-ish badasses.....Even the doctor in "Nightmare City", who had 2 seconds of screentime, had ninja scalpel abilities. You must also remember that there is no such thing as character development. Characters exist to get naked or get eaten, although sometimes there is a hero in the form of Ian McCulloch to save the day.....He's unlikely to get eaten and well....He better not get naked!

There is also something that I like to call "City of the Living Dead" syndrome. In that film, I'm 99% sure they were writing the movie as they were filming it. The end result was that crazy things happen, but are seemingly forgotten or never explained. "Zombie Holocaust" never really explains why people are stealing limbs and organs. As I said, that premise was only an excuse to get to the location.........The script is an after thought in Italian Horror films......Remember that, if you wish to survive.

The second rule is to expect uneven direction, ranging from arty(Ruggero Deodato's works) to the uninspired(Bruno Mattei's works). "Zombie Holocaust" is more along the lines of the latter. There are a few unsettling scenes(an operation), but even then, that's more the special effects guys achievement. The only thing I'd deem fully successful with the direction is at night during the jungle sequences, when the protagonists would search for the cannibals, the jungle seems chillingly dark. Or maybe it's just bad lighting. He does do a decent job at exploiting the very 'green' jungles beauty occasionally too. Or maybe that's luck(or the camera man). I wouldn't call the direction awful, although there are plenty of unintentionally hilariously lazy moments. In a sense, the director just wants to get people naked and eaten too.........So I'm happy that he decided to be competantly uninspired for the sake of people getting....you know by now.

Rule 3? Little money. A good Italian director can make a low budget feature seem lavish. This has been a strength of the Italians since at least the 60's(Sergio Leone's boring "Collosus of Rhodes" at least looked stunning), and they lost this skill sometime in the 90's. This movie looks notably cheap. The sets are dull(although you get to see the Church from "Zombie" again). While the cannibal gore is pretty good(albeit still in a fake kind of way) and the scalp removal scene is great, the zombie makeup sucks.....It makes the zombies from "Burial Ground: Nights of Terror" look top notch. Along with the cheap budget, you can expect some pretty bad acting too.......although McCulloch does okay.

If you are unfamiliar with or flat out dislike Italian horror films, I would say "Zombie Holocaust" is not for you. It's cheap, it's stupid, it's even a little dull...But fans of Italian splatter just want these movies for their exotic appeal, their strangeness and......most importantly, excessive gore and nudity. If you like that kind of stuff, then maybe you will find some enjoyment out of "Zombie Holocaust". Obviously you can tell by these references that I'm a fan, so did find some enjoyment. Honestly, the only things that left me bitter was that there weren't many zombies and I was letdown by the 'cannibal vs zombie' ending, a possibility I'm surprised wasn't explored more in the 80's(and yes, I know zombies are cannibals....smartasses).

Violence: Rated NC-17 worthy. Pretty nasty.

Nudity: There is a fair amount of it.

Overall: "Zombie Holocaust" is only for die-hard fans of Italian splatter.

2/4 Stars



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