I decided to go for a movie for Sunday night after spending the day reading on my porch while the weather will still let me do so. The question was then what I would opt for. I ended up with this movie mostly because I hit the “play” button by mistake and figured it was good enough. Sure, it’s an Italian movie that tried to set itself up as a sequel to Night of the Living Death, but it is the movie famous for a fight between a zombie and a shark. True, the shark didn’t seem interested in fighting, but the zombie actor did manage to hold his breath for that scene and his make-up didn’t wash off, so that’s something.
Also, this movie has multiple titles, so I am using the one Wikipedia uses.
A sailboat is adrift in New York Harbor, and something odd happens: when two cops board the boat to look around, they are attacked, one killed, by a pale, mute man who looks like he might be some sort of rotting corpse. As it is, the boat belongs to a missing man whose daughter Anne (Tisa Farrow) hasn’t heard from him in a while. With help from reporter Peter (Ian McCulloch), they get a lead to her missing father’s whereabouts on a distant Caribbean island. Traveling with American tourists Brian (Al Cliver) and Susan (Auretta Gay) by sailboat, the pair set off to get some answers.
What’s going on is pretty straightforward: flesh-eating zombies are all over that island, and they’re going to do the sorts of things that zombies do, particularly in Italian movies. There’s a scientist on the island, Dr. Menard (Richard Johnson), who was told the zombies are a product of voodoo, but he wants to find a scientific explanation for what’s happening. Menard doesn’t seem to mind putting people in danger while he looks for answers, most notably with his unhappy wife (Olga Karlatos), but he’s not necessarily evil either. He’s just inclined to ignore the advice of the locals and get the hell of the island, taking Annie, Peter, and the others with him when he does. So, you know, it’s only a matter of time before there’s a lot of dead people who won’t stay down running around.
That is, essentially, the easiest way to explain this movie. Oh, it’s not hard to follow or anything, but Italian horror movies often follow their own logic. Just be aware there will be some inconsistencies, like whether a zombie can only be killed with a headshot or how quickly the dead get back up again. The famous shark fight is one thing, but the zombies also seem to ignore other animals later on. Plus, let’s just say there’s a lot of shots that shows director Lucio Fulci enjoys the use of the male gaze. That’s hardly unique to Italian movies, but what little experience I have with Italian horror suggests that tone and gruesomeness are often more important than character or plot.
But there is a lot to get into here if this is your thing. The zombie make-up is often good, and Fulci does know how to create tension. He also knows how to make things seem queasy. I may have recognized that the guts the zombies were chewing on wasn’t real human intestines, but the abandoned boat at the start of the movie is plenty gross even before the zombie attacks. Besides, Fulci has a reputation for doing things to eyes, and the best theory I heard on that is that just about everyone has accidentally been poked in the eye at some point and knows what that feels like. That may say the most about Zombi 2. Whether it makes sense or not is immaterial–even though it mostly does–the much as the movie’s ability to make the viewer squirm in discomfort. That, at least, I can safely say the movie accomplishes.
Grade: B-
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