The ultimate tropical nightmare jam—91 minutes of Fulci travelogue mixed with iconic grotesque gutmunching synched to the metronomic soundwaves of pulsating tribal beats courtesy of the great Fabio Frizzi, as Fulci immediately drops us into a Voodoo Undead Nightmare filled with sinewy flesh ripping, shark fighting, headshot hospital deaths, Molotov cocktails, THE eye gouge of the century, throat shredding, and rising conquistadors. A slow boil before overflowing with a cataclysmic non stop chaotic armageddon final act as the world goes down like a sinking ship. 

There may be better undead cinema, but for me this is the ultimate Zombie movie and my favorite the sub genre has to offer—with Fulci’s zombies as my preferred look as far as stomach churning repulsive mud caked gut gobblers go... decayed worm-food ramshacklers... I can smell the rot. 

Legendary.

The new restoration looks damn beautiful, very excited to see Blue Underground’s new Maniac restoration as well!

Just experienced this the way Lucio Fulci intended it to be seen: low-rent smelly theater, faded-to-shit print, projectionist messing up, a screaming baby in attendance for some reason, and a preshow Looney Tunes short that seemed legitimately racist against Italians. No matter the setting, nothing can disrupt the man’s sheer power to mount unbearably slow dread directly into the nose-rubbing gross-out images. 

[35mm]

Full discussion on episode 142 of my podcast SLEAZOIDS.

Wish movies in 2023 looked like a Fulci movie from 1979.

It's a film where a bloke wearing zombie prosthetics goes underwater and fights a live shark

like what else could you possibly want

Other than the much talked about shark vs. zombie fight and the sun-stroked tribal island vibes Fulci isn't really reinventing the zombie genre here but his sensibility of slow-mounting dread, borderline surreal horror setpieces and too tangible gore FX works really well for it. He's patient with the reanimated movements as they rise from the dirt and heavily focuses on how repulsive they look, smell and feel. He rubs our faces in the gushing blood and torn limbs, and the wide-angle lens close-ups of their faces make sure there's no rotted texture, or wiggling worm we don't see. Also, has Fulci ever seen a beautiful actresses eye that he didn't then want to viciously gouge out with various objects lying around the set?

Full discussion on episode 142 of my podcast SLEAZOIDS.

It's nice to see Fulci working with a real budget. Beautiful picture. If you were making a list of the hundred most beautiful images in film, you would probably include a couple shots from movies other than this.

This is the anti-Jaws in that the zombie/shark fight makes it clear how non-confrontational sharks are in reality. A man dressed like a zombie hangs off one of them and pretends to fight it for several minutes and the poor thing's just like "Jesus dude. Can I help you?" before finally swimming away.

the zombie vs. shark sequence plays out like nothing else i've ever seen; a jousting-dance between two non-human figures, an unreal fantastical scenario that possesses the texture of a dreamy pulp comic book. the diffused light from above the surface shimmers onto both creatures, casting them in graceful glitters against the dark and encrusted coral reef. there is an elegance to the undead here; they do not shamble in a mad lust for flesh, but slowly advance, inevitable in their patient consumption of the globe, their subterranean immortality possessing an illogical, poetic vigor.

"Have you ever heard of Voodoo?"

The Voodoo, who do what you don't dare do, people

When Anne Bowles missing Father's boat arrives in New York minus her Father but with a plus one zombie stowaway instead she decides with the help of a local reporter (love interest alert) to sail to the probably made up Caribbean island of Matul (should have googled it, but didn't) where he had been working on some shady (zombie) stuff ... cue happy holiday music and we're off.

Classic video nasty with some great zombie effects and some not so great, the eyeball scene is still absolutely gnarly as hell and there is a questionable diving costume that leaves nothing to the imagination but it does at least answer the age old question - who would win in a fight a zombie or a shark?

"The boat can leave now, tell the crew"

I'd rather drown.

The zombie vs shark scene is one of the craziest stunts I have seen it's the definition of "they don't make movies like they used to".