User Reviews

A sail boat arrives in New York without a living soul but a zombie that attacks two guards from the Coast Guard. The daughter of the owner of the ship, Anne Bowles (Tisa Farrow), requests information about her missing father that was in the Antilles to the detectives that are investigating the crime without success. She meets the journalist Peter West (Ian McCulloch) and they decide to investigate what might have happened to her father. They travel to Matul Island with Brian Hull (Al Cliver) and Susan Barrett (Auretta Gay) in their boat. Once in the tropical island, they meet Dr. David Menard (Richard Johnson), who is trying to find a cure to a disease that brings dead back to life, turning them into zombies that eat human flesh.

"Zombie 2" is a horror classic of Lucio Fulci with a simple, but interesting screenplay. The unforgettable story begins like Nosferatu, with an empty boat arriving in a harbor with a zombie instead of a vampire; shows the naked body of two beautiful actresses, Auretta Gay and Olga Karlatos; is very gore, with a death that slightly recalls the famous scene of Buñuel in "Un Chien Andalou", when the zombie perforates the eye of Paola Menard; and has a very scary and impressive make-up, with zombies eating human flesh and biting and killing people. The sister of Mia Farrow, Tisa Farrow, has a good performance in this cult-movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Zombie - O Retorno dos Mortos" ("Zombie: The Return of the Dead")

Note: On 05 Jun 2018, I saw this film again.

'Zombie Flesh-Eaters' is the movie that put Lucio Fulci on the map, after a career of over twenty years. Initially presented as a sequel to Romero's (superior) 'Dawn Of The Dead' there is actually no connection between the two, and is best regarded as a stand alone horror movie. Unfortunately I watched the Australian cut from several years back which is missing a lot of the most explicit violence and gore, but even so I recommend this for lovers of Zombie movies.

The plot here is pretty simplistic, the acting variable but usually above average (including a few familiar horror veterans and Tisa Farrow of 'Fingers'), but after a fairly dull first half hour it picks up the pace. Fulci and his special effects crew must be congratulated for creating such realistic and repulsive looking zombies on such a low budget. They really are something to see, and arguably better than Romero's. And 'Zombie Flesh-Eaters' features an extraordinary sequence involving an underwater zombie/shark fight, which must be one of the highlights of any zombie movie, Romero or otherwise. Fulci went on to more spectacular and original movies ('The Beyond' is highly recommended), but this is still a very credible effort, and essential viewing for horror fans.

N newspaper reported named Peter goes on an trip with a woman named Anne to try to discover what happened to her father. What they discover is an island where the natives still practice voodoo and have started to bring the dead back to life.

This was the first zombie movie I had ever seen. I was pretty young, we had watched it on laser disc. What this did was awaken a love for this particular kind of monster. It is an Italian film, so if the words not matching people's mouths bothers you, this is not for you. There was no CGI and special effects of this kind were really in their infancy back then, so some of them do not hold up against more modern offerings.

This is a great movie though, including the zombie versus the shark. I have never seen anything like it since.

Now this is how a zombie film should be made! Whilst Lucio Fuci never had the creative genius of Dario Argento in Profondo Rosso, Tenebrae and Suspiria, he certainly knew how to make a good old fashioned zombie/gore movie. In Zombi 2 or Zombie Flesh Eaters (what a title!) as it was known in the UK, a ship drifts into New York with a very large, hungry zombie on board. This leads to two investigative journalists, including gore stalwart Ian McCulloch, with two holiday makers going to the Island of Matul. After meeting a shark wrestling zombie en route, they arrive at Matul where things are not going well. The hospital run by Dr. Menard has turned into a morgue where daily zombie killing has become the routine. Things go from bad to worse as the zombies grow in number and various dismemberment, eye gouging, jugular bites etc ensue. What makes this film so good are various factors. Apart from being one of the first gore films I ever saw, it has no social commentary or hidden meaning and does not try to be a comedy (although some may argue with this). It is a good, honest gore film. The special effects are nice and gruesome, with fantastic zombie make up, great zombie attacks and loads of maggots and worms. The crazy underwater battle between zombie and shark is totally original and not surprisingly has never been tried since. The infamous eye scene whilst a bit creaky still makes the viewer cringe. The acting and dubbing are dodgy but don't detract from the zombie mayhem, the music is great with calypso music to greet the heroes and throbbing effects to welcome the zombies. I cannot recommend this highly enough for good old fashioned zombie related thrills. Also look out for The Beyond and City of the Living Dead in a similar vein.

Being of a "certain" age and being British, I was firmly around at the time of the ridiculous "video nasty" mania that swept the UK in the early 1980s. Films that usually involved cannibals, either ferox, holocaust or zombified, and torture porn revengers et al, were banned, prosecuted or given a Viking burial at sea. One such film was Zombie Flesh Eaters (the best title the film has of the few it is known by), it became like the Holy Grail of video nasties, where to see it uncut would be like witnessing the last miracle performed by Christ. I never did get to see it back then, and as my horror leanings waned over the years I let it drift from my conscious. But now I'm here in my middle age and finding a new appetite for horror, I have finally managed to see the fabled shocker from Lucio Fulci.

In many ways it's a disappointment, I mean I understand that to view it now is never going to impact in the way that it did (could) in 1979, but casting aside for a moment the gore scenes, which I will get to, it's a bad film awash with badness, and not in a horror bad ass way. Much like the other Fulci film I viewed recently, The House By The Cemetery, ZFE is a series of blood and guts scenes strung together by amateurish filler. Be it bad acting, bad dubbing, hopeless dialogue and half hearted attempts at something cranial. However, if judging this particular Fulci film on its key horror scenes? Then it's got brains, imagination and style to burn. Marking it out as by definition a mixed bag genius disaster!

The zombies themselves are brilliant creations, all dripping with rotting flesh, caked in earth and having mother nature's insect creatures wriggling around their ravaged bodies. They shuffle along in classic Romero mode, and feast on flesh with carefree abandon. They are also perpetrators of some of zombie cinema's best moments, such as fighting a shark on the ocean bed, pulling a hapless female victim onto a wooden splinter – eye first! And one scene where they collectively rise slowly from the earth is atmospherically as creepy as it is stunning in its execution. It is these things that of course helped to make it a legendary part of the Italian Exploitation era, and it's these things that make it watchable still today, but let it not be said there is anything else worthwhile, because the rest is simply awful. 6.5/10

When it's good, it's really great. C'mon, this film has a shark fighting with a zombie...it doesn't get much better than that!

I liked the scenario - not the usual in the city - even if I would the vudu part to be much better explored. The acting is bad - especially when zombies are attacking - and Fulci brought a lot of the giallo bad tropes. That's the only reason why this isn't, for me, the masterpiece a lot claim to be.

Lucio Fulci is sometimes an extremely interesting and talented director. His contribution to the Italian thriller franchise Giallo's range from good (The Psychic) to great (Don't torture a duckling). His Gothic gore drenched later works such as The Beyond, City of the Living Dead and House by the Cemetery vary considerably in quality.

Zombie 2 proved to be a stepping stone for the Italian godfather of gore. Prior to this film Fulci's work was not as gory but the rest of his work proved to be. Gore overflowed in conventional thrillers such as New York Ripper and Contraband. Simply put; Fulci had new admirers who demanded his work to be gory.

I hate films like New York Ripper and House by the Cemetery but The Beyond does have a strange Gothic charm about it and City of the Living Dead is an ample horror film with some astonishing gore sequences. Zombie 2 falls somewhere in between City and The Beyond. There are some eye popping gore sequences to behold and the film is energetically made. There are some solid actors and production values are quite good. But this is trash, complete and utter trash. Enjoyable as such, if you're into this kind of thing, you can appreciate the level of talent behind the film. The look is good, make up is great and it's fast paced. Fulci's heart was definitely in this project.

Fulci is a flawed but interesting director in my books, he should have lessened the emphasis on gore in his later films and made more conventional thrillers but his body of work is varied and original.

Zombi 2 (Zombie, Zombie Flesh Eaters) is a classic gore filled zombie film, in Italy it's classed as a sequel to George A Romero's Dawn of The Dead since in Italy it's called Zombi. But in other parts of the world they classed it as a separate film and named it something else like Zombie and Zombie Flesh Eaters.

But sequel or not this film has some of the most realistic gore effects going for a zombie film, the infamous eye in the wood scene is one example. The zombie VS shark is another interesting scene.

The music is good and sets the tone, the dubbing is kind of bad but that isn't a problem.

A Classic Zombie film that zombie fans or gore fans would love to see but make sure it's the Un Rated version. 10/10

A film that starts almost quietly, with low quality sequences of zombies not very suggestive and not very engaging, but which gradually improve more and more until they are terrifying towards the end. In some scenes the emotional reactions of the characters to certain events seem almost non-existent while others are very trashy (e.g. The woman who stares terrified a zombie but stays where she is and doesn't even attempt to escape, or the four people who are in a wood full of zombies but decide to split into couples). In many scenes, however, there is a lot of scary atmosphere and in others a little bit less; some shot are amazing and have a very good photography, some others not; all in all the plot is very good and the gory style of Fulci is stunning and result of a very creative mind. I think you won't regret to watch it, it's totally worth.

This was my first ever video nasty, originally viewed in the mid 80's, and for that reason it shall always have a special place in my heart. The first thing that struck me was that the budget must have been relatively high. Fulci was never a great one for narrative coherence (this is probably his most conventional film) and typically for the Italian films of the time this must have been pitched as a sequence of set-pieces (the shark battle, the fiery finale, and of course, the infamous eyeball scene). Unfortunately for the most part these are fairly flatly directed and fall short of their potential for tension. The earlier expository scenes are especially protracted, and throughout Fulci has a tendency to leave shots hanging well past their sell-by date. That said, the film is not completely artless, and whereas it lacks suspense, it does have a degree of atmosphere about it. After the political correctness of the 80's and the 'post-Modernist' knowingness of the 90's, Zombie Flesheaters, with its excessive gore and its leering nudity, its risible dubbed dialog and its a complete lack of humour, with its simplistic plotting and comic-book characterisation, is probably most interesting if viewed from the perspective that firstly, that there was ever a market for this sort of thing and secondly, that people thought that films like this needed suppressing. Yes it's true, they don't make them like this anymore!

This movie was made by an Italian horror master named Lucio Fulci, a.k.a. Godfather of Gore. It was given different names in different countries. In the UK, it is named Zombie Flesh Eaters, whereas in Italy it is named Zombi 2 because Dawn of the Dead (1978) of George Romero had been released as Zombi. So this one remained an in-name-only sequel to that. It has an original script and cinematography. Scenes of blood and gore are vastly used. Although it has numerous plot holes and continuity errors, it has become a classic due to some crazy scenes like a zombie fighting a shark and a horrible eyeball scene.

The title cult classic alone is frightening enough at times these days but when cult classic is mentioned in the same breath with Lucio Fulci, it's down right terrifying for me. Face it, the term cult classic a majority of the time means "garbage that I like", and Fulci's films developed a reputation for a lot of people as being garbage that some people like. At least to me, Zombie directed by Lucio Fulci doesn't fall into the garbage category but it's cutting it somewhat close. This film actually gets worst every time I watch it.

There are two reasons why I somewhat enjoy Zombie. The first reason has to be the zombies appearance. I have never seen a real zombie before however I'm sure if I saw these; I would more than likely be frozen in my tracks in the first encounter. The make up artist out did themselves here. I would go so far to say that Zombie actually raised the bar on what a zombie should look like and up to this day even though a couple are very close, I haven't seen a zombie film yet that can really compare. I haven't seen them all but I've seen a lot. I mean these zombies truly look like the living dead. They are completely decayed with earth worms running out the eyes. The make up is excellent. Zombie definitely overachieved in its style.

Reason number two is the gore. You have the famous eyeball scene, a few zombie all you can eat buffets, and some good killing altogether. The zombies take some realistic and flesh eating bites. The film definitely gave me what I want in a zombie movie which is humans and zombies killing each other. This is another area where Zombie overachieved for me.

Unfortunately, like almost of Fulci's films that I've seen. He gets a few things right, but overall his films are very hard to sit through. I still cannot seem to understand what was the purpose behind a zombie fighting a shark. I find this scene worthless and nothing short of stupid. I do not find it anywhere near "cool" or "awesome". To include, the characters are just too unrealistic even for a horror film. While heading towards the end when the surviving main characters are fighting the undead. The doctor whom has been killing these creatures for god knows how long. Never shares the info that a bullet to the head is what takes them down for good. I'm not exactly sure about this. But is it possible that could have been valuable information? Nah... Not at all.

This is an Italian film, so don't expect much from the acting, in which I wasn't impressed at all anyway. There are some creepy moments with the most notable being the very first scene. I believe this scene which took place at the boat had the best build up in the movie. Since the viewer already knows the basic premise is a zombie attack. The very cramped quarters does an excellent job building suspense. You know something is going to happen. You just don't know when and how. Unfortunately, the film also has some boring moments due to its pacing. I found the pacing pretty bad but when things finally picked up the film no longer became a serious chore to watch.

Many fans advise possible viewers when it comes down to Italian films, Fulci's among many, one should forget the story and plot, and just watch the gore and laugh. Perhaps this is the secret to fool themselves into believing that Fulci was actually a genius and most Italian horror is actually art. Well, some of these folks have been telling themselves that for more than thirty years. I just wonder how many actually believe it.

I highly recommend Zombie to die hard zombie maniacs, Fulci, and Italian horror fans. Since I'm a zombie maniac I suppose this will forever be a part of my collection, but don't ever expect me to call it great or a classic heaven forbid. This is a guilty pleasure and nothing more.

Zombie is right up there with Romero's films in terms of quality. You don't have to be a zombie fan to like this film. Directed by Lucio Fulci, this movie is one of the best Italian horror films ever made. It's a shame it's not as famous as Romero's series.

The visuals are creepy and outstanding. The way the light and shadows reflect add so much to the movie. The gore is outstanding and will make any normal person want to turn away. Make sure you see this on DVD as I saw it on an old VHS and the dialog did not sync very will with the picture.

The style is absolutely amazing from the visuals to the synthesized soundtrack. I normally hate 70's sounding electronic music but this soundtrack really emphasizes the feeling of dread in this movie.

The final shots are hypnotizing and (as with all other zombie movies) even though the acting could have been better, the suspense of the finale makes this a movie I would recommend to any horror fan.

I first saw this in the early 90s on a vhs. Revisited it recently. The film starts with a man shooting a deceased person n then the scene cuts to the New York harbour where a pair of officers board an abandoned boat. One big fat zombie hidden in the boat bites an officer...... After being questioned by the cops, the daughter of the owner of the boat sails to an island to seek answers for her father's disappearance..... One of the highlight of this film is a zombie fighting a shark underwater. The shark bitten by the zombie turns into a zombie or not, u have to check this film. Throw in some eye candy n we get to c a topless sun tanned Auretta Gay wearing a tiny piece of thongs. Sprinkle a topless shower scene of the hottie Olga Karlatos before her character gets killed off in the style of Fulci's obsessed gore fetish. We have one very cliche scene wher fellas r driving in a car trying to run away n suddenly something pops up in front n rather than smashing the zombie/killer pedestrian, the vehicle is always driven aside to get banged on to a tree or wall n as usual our characters start walking. The film is slow at times, the zombies r as slow as snail n most of the times their eyes r closed but they still manage to bite off the stupid characters.

Not many people know about this gem by Lucio Fulci. It's known by many titles: Zombie, Zombi 2, Zombi Flesh Eaters, and so on. The story is simple, a boat arrives in New York harbor with no one on-board except for an extremely obese zombie. The boat is own by a scientist doing research on the faraway island of Matool but he is not on the boat. So his daughter and a reporter head out to Matool to find out what happened to him. Well, little do they know that the island is cursed and inhabited by a large number of zombies. After arriving on the island with another couple who gave them a boat ride the action really starts to heat up until the fiery finale.

The style of this movie is really what makes it and that is in turn enhanced by Fabio Frizzi's haunting score. Most of the zombies in this movie look as if they've been dead and rotting for a long time, the way they SHOULD look and not with some blue makeup BS that occurs in many other zombie flicks. There are scenes in this movie that have to be seen to be believed like the shark vs. zombie underwater battle and when Dr. Menard's wife gets turned into a smörgåsbord for the undead.

Check it out zombie lovers and you won't be disappointed!

This is a fondly remembered horror movie for people of a certain age . Produced and released in 1979 it became a massive hit due to home video because people my age weren't allowed in to X certificate movies and between 1976 and 1990 we didn't have a cinema on the isle of Bute anyway and it's unlikely this would be shown at a multiplex in large towns meaning that Italian exploitation horror found its niche in the home rental department

For what it is , gore laden zombie horror , it's relatively good and for an Italian horror it does have an eye on the international market where the production team have gone to the time and trouble of filming in America . Normally in these type of movies the crew would have just shot the film outside a dilapidated tenement trying to fool the audience and failing to convince them it's set in America but director Lucio Fulci uses a lot of wide shots in the opening sequence ensuring the audience get to see New York landmarks such as the World Trade Centre and Brooklyn Bridge . He also casts a couple of well known British actors in the shape of Ian McCulloch and Richard Johnson which does give the film a mainstream feel since " video nasties " usually suffered from a dreadful unknown cast who often deserved their obscurity . That said it's the gore and violence that was the selling point of these movies

One rather cynical aspect to the film is how much it rips off the Romero movies . DAWN OF THE DEAD was released at the same time and it's very obvious ZOMBI FLESH EATERS was produced to a prequel of sorts to that one . Some aspects such as the humans being converted by a bite , the zombies only being killed by an injury to the head and even snatches of dialogue of the dead walking the Earth due to their being no more room in hell does sail rather close to the plagiarist wind and this films ending does tie in with the Romero sequel . So much so that for several years many people thought DAWN was the direct sequel to FLESH EATERS which no doubt was Fulci's intention . Very naughty . That said there's few more horror movies from the video nasty era better remembered than this one and it says something that it is so easily confused with a widely released " mainstream " horror epic by Romero when it has no connection with that series of films

Zombie Flesh-eaters is a zombie-movie under average. I can't understand why anyone gives this movie 10 in the ratings. Ok, it's not the worst zombie-film made in history, but even the uncut version of this film is pretty dull. The actors are nothing more than average (and a bit wooden), the plot is a bit confusing, and some of the scenes is stupid (especially the underwater scene). The good thing about this movie is the story, and some of the gore effects which are pretty realistic and shocking. (I can agree that the last 10 min. of this movie is a bit exciting)

I agree with those who say that this one is not even close to Dawn of the dead.

Zombie Flesh Eaters was my 'gateway' Italian film. I remember taking my first inexperienced puffs of Zombie Flesh Eater before moving on to the stronger The Beyond. My mind was blown and I yearned for different genres. Before you know I was reaching highs by popping tabs of The Case Of The Bloody Iris and snorting Enzo Castellari's The Big Racket before hitting rot bottom by getting hooked on Alfonso Breschia sci-fi films and having to watch the odd Jess Franco film just to take the withdrawal symptoms away.

Fulci's film ushered in a new era of Italian zombie rip-offs films and a general notion to add more splatter to a film industry that wasn't exactly shy with gore to begin with. The 79-82 era of Italian film is still my favourite, even compared to the 72-73 giallo-fest, the 75-77 Cop film fever, or the 1967-69 avalanche grim spagehtti westerns. I never get sick of these films, ever, and despite their many flaws, dubbing, dodgy effects and sometimes dodgy editing, I'd rather watch Zombie Flesh Eaters a thousand times than sit through another full season of The Walking Dead. Which I'll end up doing as well because my wife won't let me stop no matter how much I weep.

A seemingly empty ship drifts on the Hudson river and the cops are brought in to investigate. They find that the ship is full of crap and needs a good clean but they also find a huge zombie that tears out a cop's throat, gets shot up and bunch of times, then falls in the river. Looks like we've got a zombie invasion on our hands. Well, there probably is but most of the action takes place on a tropical island.

The boat belonged to Tisa Farrow's father, and she's not heard from him in ages. Meanwhile, journalist Ian McCulloch is sent to investigate by his editor Lucio Fulci so Tisa and Ian both independently sneak onto the boat to the tune of Linda Lee's There's No Matter (the b-side of her single Love Was The Magic, which makes me think that English isn't Linda Lee's first language, nor is her name possibly Linda Lee (it's Rossana Barbieri)). Once on the boat, some jolly japes with a cop follow and shortly afterwards they are both heading for the island of Matoul, from where the boat came from, as well as a letter to Tisa from her dad saying he's contracted some sort of weird disease.

After finally getting to the Caribbean, they blag a lift in the form of American (Italian) tourists Al Cliver and Auretta Gay, who are just trying to relax and weren't really planning to get caught up in the zombie apocalypse. They lengthy journey to Matoul is intercut with action on Matoul, as burned-out Doctor Richard Johnson struggles with an epidemic of the dead rising while his nervous, anxious, sexy wife Olga Karlatos wants to get away from there as quickly as possible. None of this is boring in the slightest, as to keep things interesting, Fulci has a zombie fight a shark!

That's right - Auretta does a bit of topless scuba diving and the next thing you know a zombie turns up to cop a feel. After rubbing coral in his face, a real tiger shark shows up and this mental case dressed as a zombie goes toe to toe with it. No CGI either.

Eventually they do make it to the island but too late to save Olga Karlatos, who gets killed in such a gory way that the BBFC cut it right out of there, even in the first release since it was banned as a Video Nasty. The film builds momentum following this as the zombies decide to stop pussyfooting around and a huge bunch of them go and attack the hospital with most of the main characters inside, characters armed with petrol bombs and guns.

This isn't just a cheap splatter film and Fulci doesn't just rip-off the recent Dawn of the Dead - his zombies are filth covered, look like they stink, and recall the old voodoo zombies pre-Night of the Living Dead. He uses inventive camera work to gradually build the threat of the living dead. There's a shot of a deserted village with a figure staggering aimlessly in the background. Al Cliver fires a flare with the setting sun behind him. Richard Johnson looks like he hasn't slept in six months. The low budget shows through now and again but as a whole the film ticks every box. It's gory and creepy.

Mind you, Ian McCulloch, Tisa Farrow and Al Cliver aren't the most emotive of actors, but you can't win 'em all!

I was in this movie. As a matter of fact, I am the last close-up you see and always refer to myself as the zombie that ATE the disc jockey, If you know the picture, you should understand the reference.

Anyway, I am a fan of the old style Gothic monster movies starring the likes of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney (senior AND junior) before the emphasis was on gore and cutting off body parts. Now, in the early 50s, "new" horror movies were made of the classic monsters with more gore but tame in comparison to movies like this one.

I had just done a play in New York and as a favor, the director of that play got me an extra part in this movie although he didn't know it at the time. All he knew was that it paid 40 bucks and used heavy make-up. When I got to the hotel where the film crew was staying and I saw fake eyeballs, artificial blood and the like, I thought of backing out, but then talked myself into it by saying, "Well, Boris started this way" referring to my favorite horror star Boris Karloff the original Frankenstein, and later the voice of the Grinch in the animated television classic by Chuck Jones.

So anyway, I am only in that last scene on the Brooklyn Bridge with "heavy make-up" and since at the time, I was so under nourished, I was the perfect face for a zombie. It was drizzly rainy that day and joggers and bicyclists kept spoiling the shot so it ended up having numerous takes. (These people would usually ask, "Are you guys making a movie?" A stupid question I wanted to answer with, "No, we were just in a terrible accident and were filming it for insurance purposes." DUH! Anyway, I am quite squeamish about such movies and don't like them. I only gave it a 3 because I was IN it! I have nieces and nephews that think "Uncle Johnny" is cool because he played a zombie in the movies.

I own a copy but never did watch it all the way through (and perhaps never will.) I don't get why people like to watch movies of this kind. Each to his/her own, I guess.

Strangely enough, Signior Fulci gets a "GREATEST MOVIE" he ever made compliment from one of the revewers of this grisly film. And to think, the lead ALMOST played James Bond before Sean Connery got the role, but he DID play Bulldog Drummond in two films. His leading lady was Mia Farrow's sister.

Oh yeah. And the make-up man, Gianetto De Rossi seemed to be the only one of the crew who spoke English, and even though I grew up hearing Sicilian spoken around me, I was not fluent. The direction I got from the director Signior Fulci was, "Like-ah dis!" showing us how to walk like a zombie. And the fake blood tasted awful since it had ammonia in it so as not to change colors.

And whenever one of these silly guys would jog or ride (with bicycles) across the bridge, The director would cry, "Cut. Cut. Go back" in his best no-accent Italian he could muster.

Now, if ONLY IMDb would give me the one credit I SHOULD have had, that would be GREAT! :D