6. Zombie Flesh Eaters (1978)
An abandoned yacht floats into New York and two policemen go to investigate. One of the policemen comes across a large, decomposing zombie who bites his neck and kills him. He is sent to a morgue and we see movement under the sheet... A group of men and women are going to the Caribbean islands for different reasons. Chief among them is Anne Bowles who is on a mission to find her scientist father on the island of Matool. Everyone agrees to go there and give Anne a hand in finding her father and so they set off to Matool. Of course Matool is a cursed island where the dead are reanimating and eating the living. Dr Menard insists, despite the protestations of his neurotic wife Paola, on carrying on his research. Interesting things begin to happen. One of the women in the group of people travelling to Matool goes diving and is attacked by both a shark and a zombie. She escapes harm when the zombie attacks the shark. This is a fantastic under water sequence. Paola gets stiffed when a zombie forces her eye onto a giant splinter in an agonising scene. She becomes mighty good chow for the living dead. Our friends come under attack by zombies whenever they arrive on the island. There is a great section in the film when the group witness the resurrection of some conquistadors. This is beautifully realised by Fulci but it takes a lot of time for the bodies to rise. Why didn't our pals just run away? They stick around long enough for one of the women to have her throat ripped open by a Conquistador. Eventually, everything goes to hell in a hand basket. The zombies become too great in numbers for the humans to cope with. The hospital is overrun by the undead and Dr Menard and his nurse are killed. By throwing molotov cocktails, a few people manage to escape to the boat. One of them - Bryan - has been attacked by a zombie and is showing signs of infection. He is locked up by Peter and Anne - the sole survivors who set sail for New York. Unfortunately when they sail up to New York, there is a radio broadcast that says zombies have overtaken the city and Peter and Anne can hear Bryan, now a full zombie, battering on the door to try and get at them. We see a parade of zombies lurching down Broadway. Fin. I must confess to having a serious affection for Zombie Flesh Eaters. I think I prefer it over Romero's zombie films because it is just an exercise in pure horror and terror that doesn't have any pretensions for social commentary. I prefer the music and I prefer the zombies who actually look like they are rotting instead of a lick of grey paint upon their faces. This is just my personal preference, I'm sure that 99% of you prefer Romero's film but there is just something so charming about Fulci's little film - the zombie versus shark sequence, the dark atmosphere of its Caribbean setting and the creepy Conquistadors. Another triumph for Fulci.