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Zombie 3

1988
Director: Lucio Fulci, Bruno Mattei (Uncredited)
Cast: Deran Sarafian, Beatrice Ring, Alex McBride
Running time: 93 minutes
Rating: Un-rated

Story: A terrorist, after stealing a new bio-chemical, becomes contaminated and transforms into a flesh-munching zombie. After he's captured and cremated, the chemical is released into the air and contaminates the inhabitants of a nearby village and havoc ensues. A group of soldiers and civilians get trapped in the middle.

Review: Sequels have always been a big money maker, especially sequels to classic horror films. No wonder there are so many 'Halloween' and 'Friday the 13th' sequels and in the case of some franchises they keep coming. In the 1990s there didn't seem to be quiet as many, but like the current decade they were a big deal in the 1980s. Apparently some things never die. Even in Europe at that time there were quite a few sequels being made, although some just had that slapped on there to bring in more viewers and money.This proved to be quite successful.

Lucio Fulci had never done a sequel to any of his films, unless you count 'The Beyond' a semi-sequel to 'The Gates of Hell.' He enjoyed a prolific career throughout the 1970s and 80s, but towards the end of the latter decade the quality of his films was starting to decline, and fast. Films like his 1987 supernatural thriller 'Manhattan Baby' paled in comparison to his most accomplished efforts. The following year he began production of 'Zombi 3', a sequel to his 1979 hit. As the story goes, Fulci was both ill at the time and none too thrilled with the script and eventually bailed. Enter Bruno Mattei, a director some many call Italy's answer to Ed Wood.

Mattei finished the film, with a script by Claudio Fragrasso who he frequently collaborated with, and what we got was a sight to behold. The end result was a silly, plotless, brainless gorefest that had little to do with 'Zombi 2' other than the title and that it has walking dead people eating the living. So you can imagine it didn't have the acclaim nor did it gain the cult status it's predecessor did. It really would have been interesting to see what Fulci would have come up with had he been able to finish it, but I guess that wasn't meant to be. 'Zombi 3' is trash, make no mistake about. However, if you're like me and you enjoy a great piece of cheesy low budget horror then you might derive some pleasure from this, I sure did.

Like the previous film there's a lot of gorgeous, lush island scenery. A different, but really awesome score that helps keep the film lively. The acting isn't what you could call good, but at least the cast isn't wooden and seem to be having fun. The films starts a little slow, but soon the pace just starts to zip right along like that of an action flick. For lovers of bad horror movies there's plenty of cheese and unintentional hilarity to be found. It's possible this was meant to be a horror comedy similar to 'The Return of the Living Dead.'

Good job on all the make-up and gore effects. There's not a lot of gore, but what little there is decent and there's loads of blood. That does it for the positives, now for the darker side of things. As I said before, this film is virtually plotless. Also there's really nothing we haven't seen a million times. This film blatantly rips of some things from the first two 'Return of the Living Dead' films.

All the characters one-dimensional and so we couldn't care less about them. The film has not aged well. The clothing, cheesy 80s pop rock music, and overall feel of the film date it terribly. This is a film to not be taken the least bit seriously. If you enjoy movies like this then give it a shot because it's actually a lot of fun, but for all the wrong reasons.

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