Zombie Flesh-Eaters.

Zombie Flesh-Eaters title

AKA: Zombie, Zombie 2, Zombies 2, Gli Ultimi Zombie, Island of the Living Dead,
Island of the Flesh-Eaters, L'enfer Des Zombies, Woodoo, Sanguelia

Tag Line : When the Earth spits out the dead...

Arguably the best film that cult Italian director Lucio Fulci ever made was this low budget zombie pic, released to cash in on the success of George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead".

Starting off in New York, two Police officers are boarding an abandoned sail boat drifting in New York's Hudson bay, when they are attacked by a blood stained zombie which bursts out from the decks below. One of the officers is killed by the creature before being shot "dead" by the other policeman.

The boat had belonged to an eminent scientist who went missing in the Caribbean months earlier. His daughter, Anne Bowles (Tisa Farrow), upon hearing of the incident fears the worst and decides to try and find out what happened to her father. Aided by newspaper reporter Peter West (played by British Actor Ian McCollough) who believes there to be a big story involved, they head off for the Caribbean in the hopes of finding the remote Island he was heading for.

Teaming up with a couple of American tourists, Bryan (Al Cliver) and Susan (Auretta Gay), who are on a sailing holiday, eventually they do discover the Island of Matuul, which to their horror they find over run by a lot of slow moving, cheesy looking zombies. After being chased several times around the Island, they are helped by a Dr Menard (Richard Johnson), who's there on missionary work and is convinced the virulent plague ravaging the island is somehow responsible for the dead coming back to life.

However he fails to prove his theories before they find themselves under siege and fending off a violent attack by the living dead at the local church. Displaying all the usual low budget trademarks of Italian cinema, the film makes up for its lack of budget with excessive gore. However many of the UK releases of this have been cut in varying degrees, so if you fancy seeking this film out in all its uncut glory, you may wish to consider importing one of the overseas releases.

Overall Marks : 7/10 (for the uncut version).

Other Information.

Alternate tag lines to the one listed above are, "When the earth Spits out the dead...they will come back to suck the blood from the living.", "When the earth spits out the dead... they will come back to tear the flesh from the living.", "The dead are among us.", and finally "We are going to eat you!" (that last one's a classic).
Tisa Farrow is the sister of actress Mia Farrow. She also starred in Antonio Margheriti's "The Last Hunter" and Joe D'Amato's "Anthropophagus" (Grim Reaper).
The music was composed by Fabrio Frizzi, who also scored Fulci's "City of the Living Dead" and "The Beyond". The producer Fabrio DeAngelis also worked on Fulci's "The Beyond" and "The House by the Cemetery" and the cosmetic effects man Gionetto DeRossi worked on "The House by the Cemetery", "City of the Living Dead" and "The Beyond".
Al Cliver also starred in Lucio Fulci's "The Beyond" and "The Black Cat".
The original UK cinema version was VERY heavily censored by the BBFC, which cut out virtually all the gore. The original UK video release was however fully uncut, but this was withdrawn after being listed as a "Video Nasty" and the distributors prosecuted under the "Obscene Publications Act".
Cult TV fans may remember Ian McCollough from the seventies BBC Sci-Fi series "The survivors".
The UK re-issue in the early 90's was of the cut cinema version, which also missed out the pre-credits intro due to print damage, showing Dr Menard shooting a zombie. A more complete version was passed in 1999, dubbed the 'extreme version', which only missed out the "eye splinter" and subsequent "gut munching" scenes.
Director Lucio Fulci has an uncredited guest role as the newspaper editor.
The Australian video was apparently the same as the heavily censored UK version, although it has since been re-issued fully uncut on DVD.
In the USA the film was called Zombie. In Italy it was called Zombie 2, which was a marketting ploy to cash in on the success of "Dawn of the Dead" which was entitled "Zombie" in that country (confusing or what?). But for its UK release it was re-named Zombie Flesh-Eaters.
Fulci was originally attached to direct a sequel entitled "Zombi 3" in 1988 (remember Zombie Flesh-Eaters was originally released as Zombie 2), however he quit after only a weeks filming, partly due to ill health and partly because he thought the plot was awful (not to be confused with the film "Nights of Terror" which was released as Zombie 3 in Holland).
The fully uncut version was finally passed by UK censors in 2005, but has so far only been included in a box set of other previously banned videos. The standalone DVD release is still of the slightly cut 'extreme version'.
Other uncut versions are available on US DVD by Anchor Bay entitled "Zombie" and by Shreik Show who have released their own special edition DVD entitled "Zombi 2" (I wonder how many people by them both thinking one's a sequel). There's also an uncut Dutch DVD by Italian Shock under the "Zombi 2" moniker and there's a German disc by Laser Paradise/Dragon Entertainment entitled "Woodoo", but beware of a heavily edited version by KSM which is as badly cut as the old UK release.