31 Nights of Halloween Horror part 21 - Zombies: The Beginning

Zombies: The Beginning
90 mins.
Dir. Bruno Mattei
2007/Italy

This one is for all my friends who revel in Italian zombie gut munchers.  Everyone else should steer clear.  Despite how crazy the description may sound, trust me this is like the backwash in a jar of gravy as opposed to your grandma's homemade sauce.

To know Bruno Mattei's films, is to love Bruno Mattei's films.  The man has made over 50 movies starting in 1970 and ending in 2007, with this his final film before his death.  He has touched upon just about every subject including nazisploitation, nunsploitation, zombies, women in prison, crime, he even is the man responsible for making Cruel Jaws. And if you know Bruno's movies, you know sometimes or most of the time, he is maybe not the most original man out there and has been known to ride the coat tails of other movies.  But despite his flaws, he has given us such classics as Zombie 3, Rats: Nights of Terror, Hell of the Living Dead, Women's Prison Massacre, The Other Hell and so many more.  In the early two thousands with film getting more expensive to shoot, Bruno switched to digital video for his next round of films and kept on doing what he did best.

And that brings us to Zombies: The Beginning which is actually a direct sequel to Island of the Living Dead.  But if you never saw that, there is really no need to follow along with this film.  I did not see Island and after this one, don't know if I could sit through it.  But who am I kidding, you know I will.  With all that being said let me just say right now, if this movie was shot on film and came out in the Italian heyday of the 80s, everyone would be talking about this movie as one of the greats.  Alas it is the digital video that really kills this for me and makes it seem so much more low budget than it probably is.  Like the shot on video before digital, I just can't get past that look.  It really takes me out and seems so amateurish.  With all that aside let's get into the meat of this movie.

Shot in the Philippines because, well it's cheaper.  The movie opens with rescuing Dr. Dimao from a raft floating in the middle of the ocean.  The sole survivor from the previous film.  Back home she is recovering in a hospital and has reoccurring nightmares of becoming a zombie.  She tells everyone there is an island full of zombies, but no one believes her so she joins a monastery and becomes a monk.  Here is where things get vaguely familiar.

Apparently the Tyler Company aka Weyland-Yutani brought some zombies to an island for some experiments or something and lost touch with those on the island.  So they want Ripley, I mean Dr. Dimao to lead a band of soldiers to the island and search for any survivors because she is the only one who knows what they are dealing with.  So Ripley and this rag tag group of over testosterone-fueled jar heads with itchy trigger fingers drive a large vehicle to a dark rainy island and go zombie hunting.  Once there everything turns to shit, game over man, game over.  Lots of zombie shooting, people getting bitten, sauce is spewed, chunks are flying, heads are shot, the company tries to contain some zombies and bring them back, the crew is expendable and then we get to the end.  Asian Ripley with a  flame thrower enters the queen's lair where (from what I can gather) women are impregnated and giving birth to zombie babies through large tubes hooked up to their vages, who grow up to be black eyed cone-headed kids and they are all controlled by a talking giant brain floating in a glass jar.  I kid you not, this is all 100% true and on screen.

Zombies: The Beginning does not skimp on the gore, and it is all practical and really that is all we care about in this film, cause it isn't the piss poor acting or scenes lifted direct from Crimson Tide or other films that we are here for.  It is all practical effect, and all clearly shown.  That is really the only saving grace going on here.  Sadly like I said, I can't get past the digital film quality and that is what mostly ruins the movie for me.  Again, if this was on film it would be one of the greatest worst film you ever saw.

Ciao Bruno, you made some of the best worst films out there and some good ones too.  A fine ending to a lustrous career.