Zombie Flesh Eaters (Arrow Video UHD)

Director: Lucio Fulci
Screenplay: Elisa Briganti, Dardano Sacchetti
Starring: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver, Auretta Gay, Stefania D’Amario, Olga Karlatos
Country: Italy
Running Time: 91min
Year: 1979

I’ve spoke at length in previous reviews on this site of my fascination with the 1980’s “Video Nasties” hysteria in the UK, but if any one film exemplifies that period in time for me and many others, it has to be Lucio Fulci’s Zombie Flesh Eaters. Released in its home country of Italy as an unofficial sequel to George Romero’s hugely popular Dawn of the Dead, Zombie Flesh Eaters (as it was christened in the UK), very quickly fell foul to the censors, receiving a ban and then a heavily cut release. In the late 90’s, when the film finally aired mostly uncut on Channel 4, teenage me leaped at the chance to finally see this mythical piece of filmmaking…

Narratively, Zombie Flesh Eaters is a fairly straightforward tale. When a boat sails, seemingly unmanned, into New York, a pair of cops intercepting it are attacked by a large rotting man who had been sealed in the hold. The boat is discovered to belong to a scientist, Dr Bowles, who’s daughter Annie (Farrow) traces him to the island of Matul in the Caribbean. Alongside a news reporter, Peter West (McCulloch) and two tourists (Cliver  and Gay) they travel to Matul and uncover an unspeakable undead horror that the local Doctor Menard (Johnson) is trying to prevent from getting into the world at large.

I’ve watched Zombie Flesh Eaters countless times across VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray and now this brand new 4K release from Arrow, and one thing always strikes me is just how unprepared UK viewers in the 80’s were for this particular brand of horror cinema, how alien the film must have seemed. Even today, it’s surprisingly visceral for a film of its time. The effects are superbly gruesome and unpleasant with a real rotten quality to the undead that many similar films of the era just don’t seem to capture. A year after Romero reframed the zombie film in a satirical vein with Dawn of the Dead, it feels like director Lucio Fulci reframes it further, turning the ghouls into something utterly demonic. It’s also got its fair share of iconic set pieces, from the mad underwater zombie attack that also manages to mix in a little sharksploitation, to the infamous, censor baiting scene of ocular penetration that is easily still the highlight of the film. But while we of course get a gut muncher in the opening sequence and the aforementioned shark scene around a third of the way into the film, Fulci shows remarkable restraint on fully unleashing his undead army until a good hour into the runtime, giving the story a pretty decent pace for what is ultimately a piece of high end exploitation cinema.

As well as some excellent cinematography from Sergio Salvati, the other standout in this production is Fabio Frizzi’s minimalist, and unsettling soundtrack. From the first notes of the theme tune played over the opening titles, to the relentless drums that accompany the dusty, dirty scenes on Matul, Frizzi’s music is utterly appropriate for Fulci’s bleak and nihilistic film.

Of course, we also have the acting, something that’s always hard to critique in these highly dubbed films. For the most part you get the usual slightly flat “performances” from the likes of Al Cliver and Auretta Gay, and Mia Farrow’s sister Tisa showing up as the lead, Annie, almost uncertain of what she’s got herself into. Meanwhile you have Italian horror regulars Ian McCulloch and Richard Johnson seemingly knowing exactly what kind of film they’re in and hamming it up at every opportunity. But it’s Olga Karlatos who’s the standout here as Menard’s wife who is going out of her mind at the happenings on Matul and only wanting to get off the island. It’s her presence that elevates one of the films more famous scenes and it’s a shame she didn’t get a larger role.

Ultimately Zombie Flesh Eaters (or Zombie, or Zombi 2 – Arrow let you pick your title here!) is a film which just proves how good of a filmmaker Lucio Fulci in his prime was. It’s among one of the directors best films; certainly more coherent and full a package than some of his later, objectively better films like City of the Living Dead and The Beyond. Yes, it’s gruesome and often excessive, but it’s also frequently beautiful, expertly shot and probably one of the best zombie films made outside of Romero’s classics.

Bonus Features

• 4K restoration from the original 2-perf Techniscope negative
• 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Original English and Italian front and end titles
• Restored original lossless English and Italian mono audio
• Optional remixed lossless English Dolby Atmos audio
• Optional remixed lossless Italian DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
• Brand new audio commentary by critics Eugenio Ercolani, Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
• Audio commentary by screenwriter Elisa Briganti, moderated by Calum Waddell
• Audio commentary by Fulci biographer Stephen Thrower and horror expert Alan Jones
• Sound and Fury: Listening to Zombie Flesh Eaters, a brand new visual essay by author and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
• Repellent: Memories of Zombie Flesh Eaters, a brand new visual essay by author and critic Chris Alexander
• Archival introduction by actor Ian McCulloch
• From Romero to Rome: The Rise and Fall of the Italian Zombie Film, a 2012 documentary featuring screenwriters Dardano Sacchetti and Antonio Tentori, critic Kim Newman and filmmakers Luigi Cozzi, Ruggero Deodato and Russ Streiner
• Aliens, Cannibals and Zombies: A Trilogy of Italian Terror, an archival interview with McCulloch
• The Meat-Munching Movies of Gino de Rossi, an archival interview with the celebrated special effects artist
• Zombie Flesh Eaters: From Script to Screen, an archival featurette featuring Dardano Sacchetti showing key pages from his original “Island of the Living Dead” screenplay
• Music for a Flesh-Feast, a 2012 Q&A with composer Fabio Frizzi at the Glasgow Film Theatre
• Original English language “Nightmare Island” screenplay
• Theatrical trailers and TV spots
• Easter eggs
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch
• Perfect bound collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Willow Maclay, Jack Sargeant, Heather Wixson and Matt Rogerson
• Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch
• Six double-sided collector’s postcards

This new 4K transfer from arrow is absolutely superb, perhaps the best I’ve ever seen this film. The blood is vivid, the zombie makeup and sweaty Caribbean locations pop. The image retains it’s grain, not being overly smoothed like some 4k transfers, but adds in a superb amount of detail to the picture.

On top of that, we not only have the same exhaustive array of features from Arrow’s previous Blu-Ray release of the film, we also have some superb new video essays exploring the sound design and the legacy of Fulci’s gut munching opus. It’s this latter feature, written and narrated by Chris Alexander, former editor in chief of Fangoria, which perfectly sums up the mystique of this film, amplified for myself through the lens of the UK Video Nasties scare.

This is easily one of Arrow Video’s most essential 4K releases and deserves a place in every horror collectors library.