DVD Review: Zombi 3

Following the success of Zombi (a retitled and recut, by Dario Argento, version of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead), and Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 (released as Zombie in the US, and unrelated to Romero's film), producer Franco Gaudenzi was looking to strike while the iron was hot and get another zombie movie out into theaters. So naturally, Gaudenzi approached Lucio Fulci about making another film, what would become Zombi 3. He agreed, and the end result is a film that is only partially Fulci's, despite his name being the only one credited, and one that he has said that he does not particularly like. Now, if the director doesn't like the film, why should we? The answer is we probably shouldn't, and it really isn't all that good. Still, there is something about this movie, and many like it that have an unexplained attraction for the horror movie fan.

Where to begin, should I give you some of the weird history of the movie, or jump right into the story and related content? Perhaps I should start by saying, and perhaps invalidating this review, that the DVD I have of the movie was defective, part of the disk is clouded, and the main film loses about 25 minutes out of the middle. The funny thing is, is that I do not feel that I missed much of the story. I believe my reaction would have turned out exactly the same. There are two sequences that I am sad to have missed, a zombie head that attacks from a freezer, and one of the zombie fodder characters losing her legs in a pool attack. Yes, I know this could cloud your feelings for my review, but please read on, as there was some fun to be gleaned from the feature.

The story opens with a man stealing a briefcase containing a highly dangerous experimental chemical called Death1, being developed as a chemical weapon. What it does is turn those who come into contact into zombies, who in turn can infect those they come into contact with (well, those they don't eat anyway). The thief is chased, and ultimately injured, but not before he is exposed. He takes refuge inside a resort hotel, where more people are infected. Soldiers in white decontamination suits are sent to "cleanse" the area, meaning find the initial source and kill the rest.

The military men in charge of the cleansing decide the best way to get rid of the body is to burn it, thus closing the incident. Those of you who are familiar with these movies will know that is not a good decision, it is just a convenient way to spread the infection to a larger area ensuring a much larger outbreak of zombie-itis. These scenes are highlighted by the emphatic arguments of the lead scientist, laughable in execution and a wonderful source of unintended comedy.

There is another side to this story, and it centers on party hunting soldiers on a day pass who meet up with a group of girls in an RV looking for a good time. All the fun and games are put on hold when they are attacked by a flock of zombie birds. Yes, you read that right, birds. This leads them to take refuge in a nearby resort hotel, yes, the same one that played host to the rapidly zombiefying thief from the opening. The only difference is that now, for some unknown reason, it is deserted and overgrown even though there has been no indication of time passage. I guess it just looked cooler to have the extra foliage.

Anyway, in this groups search to find help, they continuously run into zombies. Meanwhile, the white suited soldiers are put on orders to shoot anyone and everyone they come into contact with. This while a radio alert is sent out alerting everyone to run to these white suits, that they can help you with a cure for the infection. Yes, the cure is a bullet to the head.

The story is thin, and the action is a little zany, but there is an odd amount of fun to be derived from the movie. It does have a suitably apocalyptic conclusion, it has plenty of deaths, and plenty of inexplicable events and sights to offer up some comedy. Is it a good movie? No, but man does it provide some weird zombie fun. The zombies themselves, are a mix of the shuffling style and the kung fu hoppy zombies that are quite assertive in their desires to inflict harm on our heroes. Again, I did miss nearly a third of the movie, I wish I could have seen the zombie goodness in there, but I doubt it would have changed my opinion, or the outcome.

Now, the movie has an interesting history. The screenplay is attributed to Claudio Fragasso, although it was primarily written by his wife, Rossella. Fulci took the script and ripped out any of the tougher scenes to make and shot the rest, without much input from Fragasso or his wife. The resutling movie clocked in at one hour and ten minutes, which proved to be too slow for the producer, and subsequently another twenty minutes was edited out making the final movie a much too short fifty minutes. Fragasso and Bruno Mattei were brought in to write and direct more scenes, since Fulci was uninterested in working on it any longer. So, the two were not interested in expanding what was Fulci's film wrote a second story that could be blended in. This was also due to the original stars no longer being under contract. So, the story about the thief and the soldiers in white suits, and the argumentative scientists tale was written and shot. Neither Fragasso nor Mattei are credited, both agree that this was Fulci's film and did not wish to take that away.

The fact of three directors, and two different stories are the reason why the film has shifts in quality and tone. It is also a testament to some strange filmmaking practices employed while making these films, such as giving credit and who is responsible for what.

Audio/Video. Neither are all that great, but probably as good as we are likely to get. We get anamorphic widescreen and dolby digital audio. Until my disk skipped, I had no real complaints for thw quality of the disk. Never to be confused with a high profile title.

Extras. We get a trailer, and a few interesting interviews with the likes of Claudio Fragasso and Bruno Mattei, as well as a couple of the stars. The Fragasso and Mattei clips are the best, giving some perspective as to the weird tales of the movies production.

Bottomline. Not a good film, but does deliver some entertainment for zombie film fans. There are much worse titles in this genre to watch. It is recommended that this, and movies like it, be watched with a group of like minded friends ready to be dipped into the wacky world of Italian zombie films.

Recommended for zombie fans only.