AKA: Zombie 2, Zombi 3, Zombie 3

Tag Line : The Hand Returns.

OK I suppose before I go into the review I'd better do a little explaining about this title. This film is actually the movie Zombi 3, which although has virtually nothing to do plot wise with Zombie Flesh-Eaters (which was released as Zombi 2 in Italy) this did in actual fact start out as being a supposed "official" sequel to that film.

Fulci was actually hired to direct, but quit shortly after filming had begun and so was replaced by Bruno Mattei who had also directed the laughable Zombie Creeping Flesh and was scripted by Claudio Fragasso (who also worked with Mattei on that film). The result was a laughable mish-mash of different ideas that totally confounds the viewer and really makes you wonder in which context your supposed to view the film.

In all fairness the movie actually starts out quite well, showing a group of terrorists pulling off a daring raid at a top secret US Army research facility in South America. Following a brief shootout with the guards, the surviving terrorist manages to steal some sample containers of a highly toxic bacteriological weapon called "Death-1", which can apparently bring the dead back to life.

Taking off cross country with the army hot in pursuit. Problems start when the containers are shot out of his hand, cracking the seals on the storage case and infecting him with the virus. He escapes his pursuers, and hides up at a countryside hotel, but manages to spread the zombie virus to the other people staying there. The army arrive soon after and manage to contain the infection at the hotel, but make the foolish mistake of burning the infected bodies.

This is where the film starts to go downhill rapidly as it quickly turns into a parody of Return of the Living Dead. The fumes from the burned corpses contaminate the countryside, turning the people in the infected area into zombies (it even includes a zombie attacking it's former girlfriend and saying "I'm thirsty for your brains"). A group of US soldiers on leave from their barracks get trapped in the contaminated area along with a group of young girls in their camper truck and find themselves fighting a series of running battles with the undead on one side and the army's anti-contamination squad on the other.

Whilst this doesn't sound like such a bad concept (even if it had been done before), the films logic just seems to deteriorate the more the film progresses. We have zombie birds attacking humans (no doubt ripped off a Hitchcock film), zombie heads that come flying out of refrigerators, kung-fu zombies, zombie radio DJ's, and to top it all off, zombie babies that come bursting out of their mothers. The film doesn't even subscribe to zombie lore, seems you don't have to shoot them in the head to kill them and whilst a lot of the zombies are your standard slow moving type, a lot of them can actually move quite fast (checkout the scene at the deserted petrol station which was sped up and looked like a fight scene from a Carry On film)

It seems that by the end of the film, director Mattei couldn't be bothered and was just playing it for laughs. A great pity considering the film started so well. I can really only recommend this to zombie film fans, mainstream horror fans would be best avoiding it.

Overall marks : 4/10.

Other Information.

• The films Italian title "Zombi 3" should not be confused with the film "Nights of Terror" (aka Buriel Ground) which was released as Zombie 3 in Holland.

• There is much debate as to why Lucio Fulci left the project so soon after filming had begun, apparently only filming the first 15 minutes of the picture. The official reason was due to ill health, however many have claimed it was because he realised the film was going to be plain awful. He died in 1996 of a diabetic related illness.

• Bruno Mattei who filmed the main bulk of the movie used to be a painter and decorator prior to working in the Italian movie industry. He is probably best known for his films "Zombie Creeping Flesh" and "Rats - Night of Terror". If you've seen those 2 films you'll know what to expect here.

• The film was scripted by Claudio Fragasso who worked with Mattei on "Zombie Creeping Flesh" and "Rats". He went on to direct a similar film entitled "After Death" (aka Zombie 4), which was released here in the UK as "Zombie Flesh-Eaters 3", as well as working on the ill fated horror comedy "Troll 2" with Joe D'Amato.

• Apparently the movie was originally filmed in ArriVision 3-D, but was never shown in 3-D outside of Italy.

• The special cosmetic effects were by Franco Digirolamo, who also worked on Fulci's "The Smuggler", "The Black Cat" and "New York Ripper". His other credits include Umberto Lenzi's "Nightmare City" and Fragasso's "After Death".

• French born actress Beatrice Ring, who played the female lead Patricia, was the daughter of the head of VP Distribution, who work for the United Artists filmgroup. She appeared in 3 other Italian films following the release of Zombi 3, although these days she can be found working as a graphic designer in Southern California.

• Deran Safarian, who plays the lead soldier Ken, is the son of director Richard Sarafian (best known for directing the 1971 road movie "Vanishing Point"). He went onto become a director in his own right, his early credits including "Mutant 2". His most notable film being the 1994 Charlie Sheen film "Terminal Velocity". These days he mainly directs US TV shows, his credits include V.I.P., Nash Bridges, and even episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

• The UK release by Vipco is uncut in terms of gore, but misses out a five minute pre-credits intro sequence showing a failed attempt to re-animate a corpse. This is also missing from most European releases of this film, which instead goes straight into the main titles. The Japanese Video (by Tokuma) and DVD (by Magnet) are the full complete versions, and have the intro scene intact. As does the US DVD by Shriek Show.

Cast & Crew

Cover Gallery

Italian theatrical trailer. (1.7MB)
The missing pre-credits scene
(Only available on the Japanese & US release)
The missing intro (part 1) (1.82MB)
The missing intro (part 2) (355KB)

Buy the UK DVD.

Buy the UK DVD

Buy the US DVD (spec-ed).

Notes on affiliate sites.
 

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