*** SPOILERS ***
So the last on our Nasties List. Taaaaaaaa Daaaaaaaaaaaaa.
Another Fulci offering. I've enjoyed his other offerings on the list and this is one of the hubbys favourite zombie movies, so I looked forward to watching this one. He even sat through one with me for a change!!
Our basic premis here is of a boat washing up in New York (Twin Towers footage is quite a sad sight). Onboard is a rather large, rather odd looking man who proceeds to attack and bite a coast guard who consequently dies.
The owner of this boat is a doctor who has gone to The Antilles to attempt to find a cure for what is being proclaimed as a 'Voodoo Curse' but he is convinced is an infection. His daughter Ann (played by Tia Farrow) wants to go to see if she can find him as his boat has returned without him and he has been gone some time. A reporter (Peter) she runs into while sneaking about on the boat (which is meant to be being guarded by police) teams up with her as he also feels there is a story to be had. He has also found a letter from Anns father proclaiming he is unlikely to return alive, this fuels her desire to go looking for him.
The couple team up with another couple (Brian & Susan) who are going on a holiday and agree to take them. Not much point to this couple, but for a bit of nudity from Susan who goes diving to take some underwater fishy photos wearing nothing more than a triangle of cloth with what looks like rather uncomfortable cheese wire up her butt. This leads us into one of the better parts of the movie where she encounters an underwater zombie (Darren found that reference rather funny... but thats what he was... I didn't know zombies didn't have to breathe.. ok, so they're dead, but I thought they needed to breathe oxygen. anyways I deviate) who gets between our lovely nudey lady and a shark!!!! Now I am not a big shark fan... mainly because they scare me shitless, but this guy WRESTLES with a live shark, ripping bits off!! It makes for some stunning footage, but you can tell all's not well with the shark. Having read that the shark was drugged just makes me feel really sorry for the animal. Ok, so it makes for some great footage, but not good guys!!! The make-up on the zombie is very good, so I was quite impressed by that.
So we eventually find the island and coincidentally the boat has been damaged by the shark so Brian and Susan can't sail off into the distance and are forced to come onto the island too. Here we find out, Anns dad is dead and his friend and colleague Dr Menard was forced to shoot him in the head to stop him turning into a zombie. After being initially doubtful of this story of course our intrepid 4 travellers meet the zombies for themselves. I forgot to say, we had been cutting back to the island and Dr Menard throughout the movie, so we know about the disease affecting the villagers and the mounting bodies wrapped and bound in sheets and shot in the head.
We also witness the infamous Fulci Eyeball moment at the expense of Dr Menards wife. That was a bit crap I have to admit, so I was disappointed by it, but I suppose you can't have 'em all. The effects when the 4 come across her body later being comsumed by a group of zombies was much more impressive.. I couldn't help but think it would have been much more creepy had she been semi conscious and alive rather than stone cold.
The last section of the movie is outstanding. The effects, the music, the zombies!! I hadn't seen zombie make-up like this before. Why on earth did other movies not follow the zombie look in this movie??? I mean the worms in the mouths of the rising corpses?? The little clay-head man... (anyone who know the movie will know who I mean).
In the midst of all the zombieness, Ann & Peter try to get it on and are attacked by a zombie. Brian hears screaming and runs to their aid, at the expense of Susan who gets her throat ripped out. They manage to kill the zombie and escape and barricade themselves in the hospital. All hell ensues.. much shooting, zombie attacks, re-animations, fire bombs...
The upshot is Dr Menard and the staff die, Bryan is bitten by Susan who is now a zombie. Peter, Ann and Bryan escape onto the boat and set sail, but it is clear Bryan is infected so they lock him in a room on the boat. They hear a report on the radio that there are zombies in New York. We don't see them again so are sort of left to wonder what happened.
The final scene is a hoarde of shuffling zombies heading towards New York over the Brooklyn Bridge. Very powerful stuff.
In short I really enjoyed this movie, but I would have liked to have seen more action throughout the movie, rather than the last 20 minutes are so being 'Oh my GAWD!' and the rest of the movie being quite slow. It definately is one of the better zombie movies though and one where I will deffo watch the ending again at least.
I am pleased to be sticking a 'Recommends' tag on my last review on the list!
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