"We Are Going to Eat You!" ZOMBI 2 DVD Commentary from B-Sol & Capt. Cruella!

For those of you living in the Outer Rim territories, the outstanding horror site Brutal as Hell just unleashed Zombie Jesus Weekend in recognition of Easter, and it sure was a lot of unwholesome, sacrilegious fun. And Captain Cruella and I were tickled pink when BAH impresario Marc Patterson invited us to be a part of it! Marc gave us carte blanche, and so we came up with the delightful idea of providing our very own "DVD commentary" for one of the most heinous grindhouse zombie movies of all time, Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2.

This ran on Brutal as Hell over the weekend, but I couldn't resist reposting it here for all you Vault dwellers, and so with Mr. Patterson's blessing--here it is! For those unfamiliar, the way it works is simple: sync up the audio of our commentary with your DVD of Zombi 2, starting both simultaneously so that our track plays over the movie. And just like that, it's like you're watching it with us... This was tremendously enjoyable to record, and I hope you get even half the kick out of it that we did.

Listen on the embedded player below, or download it for later use!


And while you're listening, take the experience to the next level (courtesy of Cruella's Concoctions) by enjoying a Caipirinha, a fine cocktail that fits right in with the tropical theme of Fulci's flick!

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Connecticut-Area Horror Hounds Prepare for Autumn Awesomeness!!

I don't usually like to do posts with only regional appeal, but this is just too cool not to plug. If you happen to be anywhere near the vicinity of Connecticut, in particular the city of Stamford in Fairfield County, then ye olde Avon Theatre has a few treats up its sleeve for you come this October. The Avon has been pleasing cinephiles with showings of great old flicks for years now, but this time they've outdone themselves in the horror department.

I just came back from checking out their newly announced fall lineup, which includes:

NEAR DARK - Thurs. Oct. 1, 9 p.m.
The Bill Paxton/Lance Henriksen cult vampire fave that was actually thought at one time to have no surviving film prints, despite being a mere 20 years old.

THE CALL OF CTHULHU - Wed. Oct. 7, 7 p.m.
Yes, I'm talking about the rare, silent film that is still the only screen adaptation of Lovecraft's most famous story. Plus, it will be hosted by the one and only horror critic extraordinaire, Maitland McDonagh. RayRay, you really need to come up to CT for this one, my man...

FRIDAY THE 13th - Thurs. Oct. 15, 8 p.m.
Needless to say, we're talking about the original here. And on-hand that night for a special Q&A? Everybody's favorite cable-knit sweater wearing momma, Ms. Betsy Palmer herself!

ZOMBIE & DEMONS - Thurs. Oct. 29, 9 p.m.
For Halloween--a double feature of Italian horror goodness. First Fulci, then Bava. Cose di pazze!

And it ain't all about horror, because the Avon also has scheduled showings of Full Metal Jacket (12/3), True Romance (11/12), Life of Brian (12/17), and Witness for the Prosecution (10/22, hosted by Gene frickin' Wilder!). Check out their website for more info. You better believe I'm going to be heading out to check out as many of these as Mrs. B-Sol--I mean, my schedule--will allow. Anybody else in the CT area (I'm lookin' at you, J-Rock and Maweanne), come down and join me, won't you?

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We Are Going to Eat You! OK... at Least Eat WITH You. Only If You Want...

In the tradition of Day of Woman's gloriously convenient space-filling "This Just In" posts, I wanted to share with you some relevant pics from me and the fam's visit to NYC last weekend... Psyched? Of course you are.

Staying in Manhattan's financial district meant that we were close enough to attempt a walk over the world-famous Brooklyn Bridge. And walking over the Brooklyn Bridge meant only one thing, as far as I was concerned. An opportunity to take a photo like this:


Yes, it's Zombelina and myself reenacting the infamous final scene of Zombi 2! Like my "Hannibal Lecter at the end of Silence of the Lambs" hat?

Then, we were off to the venerable old Trinity Church, where I was able to indulge my morbid fascination with crumbly old graveyards!


As well as pass this fascination along to the next generation!


But all good things must come to an end, and I'm now back in Fairfield, CT--otherwise known as the place where The Stepford Wives was filmed, and quite fittingly!

* * * * * * * * * *

In other news, this is just a reminder that we're halfway to the 2nd Annual Cyber-Horror Awards. So head on over to the CHA site for a little update on what you might expect from the 2009 awards!!

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Retro Review: Zombi 2

For my first installment of Retro Review, I've selected a movie that is now one of my absolute favorites, but which I put off watching for years: Lucio Fulci's exploitation epic, Zombi 2 (a.k.a. Zombie).

Let me explain a bit. I had been hooked on zombie flicks ever since age 15, when I watched Dawn of the Dead in my best friend's girlfriend's house while said best friend was busy georging said girlfriend's romero in the other room. You could probably go back a couple years earlier, when The Return of the Living Dead first tore through my pre-teen psyche. But the one movie I kept avoiding was Zombi 2.

I think it was that horrifying box cover I had seen glaring at me for years in the video store. Or all the heinous things I had heard about it, how it made Day of the Dead look like Fried Green Tomatoes and such. Back in those days, I really did have the benefit of a much more visceral reaction to horror movies than my more cynical, world-weary self can muster up these days. And zombie movies in particular drew me in with all the power of a five-car pileup on I-95 that you can't help but stare at, despite the fact that it would really mess you up. In short, I absolutely loved them at the same time that they filled me with legit dread.

I knew Zombi 2 would be the ultimate adventure. And when I finally crossed paths with it, I turned out to be right.

It happened about ten years ago, when this cheesy, third-string pay-per-view provider I used to have presented a Halloween double-bill of Zombi 2 and I Spit on Your Grave (trick or treat, kids!!). Having the movie all but dropped in my lap, I knew I simply had to tape it. The time had finally come to confront Fulci.

I don't think I can understate the sense of raw terror that filled my gut as I sat there watching it for the first time, completely alone in my newlywed apartment. From the second that astounding Fabio Frizzi score kicks in, I was off to the races. Easily one of the most powerful horror scores of its era.

Yes, it was filled with all the cheesiness we've come to expect from exploitation flicks of this ilk. A plot that often bordered on the irrelevant. A pace that might pose a challenge to the more attention-span-deprived viewer. But, truth be told, I was drawn in by the "fever dream" quality of Fulci's work, the effortless way that the man created atmosphere, zealously throwing all his efforts into grabbing hold of your emotions in that very Italian way--logic and continuity be damned!

Richard Johnson delivered pure, bleak desperation in his performance as Dr. Maynard--and this was years before I would come to love him as another doctor authority figure in The Haunting. And Tisa Farrow--boy did it screw with my mind trying to process the fact that the sister of Woody Allen's leading lady was the girl fleeing from cannibal corpses in a Euro-trash grindhouse flick!

There are so many aspects that have been discussed ad nauseum, but which were all new to me. The breathtaking zombie vs. shark scene, which to this day impresses me for the sheer ballsiness of it. The nearly impossible-to-watch eye impalement scene, a prime example of Fulci's innate ability to locate the core of what revolts the average viewer and poke at it relentlessly with all the ardor of a little boy pouring salt on a slug.

And then there was that moment I had seen bits and pieces of, and dreaded most of all--the conquistador graveyard scene, in which one of our heroines has her voicebox torn out in lovingly graphic detail by a worm-eyed zombie who--despite his extreme groadiness--had actually held up quite well for being dead and buried for 400 years. Maybe I'm just a big detail person, but I can never get over the way that Fulci's makeup genius Giannetto de Rossi went to the trouble of simulating mucus spewing forth from Auretta Gay's severed trachea. Blood is one thing, but that, my friends, is what you call going the extra mile.

God bless the Italians and their twisted Roman Catholic fixation on the perverse horrors of the undead. Because the gore is really what it's all about when you sit down to watch a Lucio Fulci picture, isn't it? And Zombi 2 delivered beyond my wildest dreams. Stripped of all the pesky social commentary and humor that Romero peppered throughout his films, Zombi 2 is instead a veritable orgy of mercilessly graphic and unspeakable violence. I always hear about the small budget they had to work with, and the corners they cut, but I'll be damned if this still isn't some of the most terrifyingly realistic looking stuff I've ever seen in a horror movie, period.

Fulci is definitely an acquired taste, and he isn't for everybody, no question about that. But I'm here today to declare whole-heartedly that he is for me--and it all goes back to my discovery of this 1979 classic. Now, there are those who will point to his later "trilogy" of City of the Living Dead, The House by the Cemetery and The Beyond as being all superior, but I disagree. While I enjoy those films very much, particularly House by the Cemetery, Zombi 2 will always be my favorite Fulci. It could very well be, plain and simple, the purest zombie film ever made.

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Icons of Italian Horror to Invade New Jersey

My apologies for two posts in a row on spaghetti horror, but this is a big one. And as a long-time Chiller Theatre patron, I personally couldn't be more excited.

Long-running northeastern genre expo Chiller Theatre, in association with Paura Productions, has announced that this April's Chiller convention will feature the largest collection of Italian horror luminaries ever assembled, including a 30th anniversary reunion of the cast and crew of Lucio Fulci's Zombie (a.k.a. Zombi 2).

"It will be a historic occasion," says Paura founder Mike Baronas, the evil mastermind behind the whole shebang. "It will be a surreal experience to stand in one place surrounded by all these folks I grew up adoring, and I'm certain I won't be alone in that respect."

Scheduled to appear are:

From ZOMBIE…

• Ian McCulloch (Dr. Butcher M.D., Contamination)
• Richard Johnson (The Haunting, Beyond the Door, Screamers)
• Al Cliver (The Beyond, Cannibals, Endgame, Demonia, Devil Hunter)
• Ottaviano Dell’Acqua (Rats: Night of Terror, Cut & Run, Zombi 3)
• Giannetto De Rossi (SPFX maestro of High Tension, Dune, The Beyond)
• Mirella De Rossi (Hair Stylist of Dragonheart, Conan the Destroyer)

The Children from THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY…

• Giovanni Frezza (Demons, Manhattan Baby, A Blade In The Dark)
• Silvia Collatina (Murderock, Big Alligator River)

Also Featuring…

• Luigi Cozzi (Director of Contamination, Starcrash, The Killer Must Kill Again)
• Zora Kerova (Cannibal Ferox, Anthropophagus, The New York Ripper)
• Malisa Longo (A Cat in the Brain, Fraulein Kitty, Miranda, Way of the Dragon)
• Beatrice Ring (Zombi 3, Graveyard Disturbance, Interzone)
• Michael Sopkiw (2019: After the Fall of New York, Devil Fish, Blastfighter)

Quite a bunch. I'm particularly psyched about 82-year-old Richard Johnson, a true horror legend going all the way back to The Haunting in 1963. And the creepy kids from The House by the Cemetery--need I say more?

Chiller Theatre happens in scenic Parsippany, New Jersey the weekend of April 17-19.

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No More Room in Hell: 40 Years of the Modern Zombie Movie, Part 2

George Romero's 1968 masterpiece Night of the Living Dead is rightfully credited with inventing the modern zombie genre. Yet it was the sequel to that film--released a full decade later--that effectively branded that genre into the collective consciousness of popular culture, ensuring that it was no fly-by-night niche but a category that was here to stay, much like vampires, werewolves and mummies before it.

Dawn of the Dead led to a veritable explosion of zombie movies, thanks to the ways in which it took the elements introduced in Night to a level virtually unseen in horror up to that point. In the 1970s, horror was all about the explicit, rather than the implied. And Dawn delivered explicit in buckets--audiences witnessed the flesh of victims being bitten; the heads of ghouls blown apart by shotgun fire; bodies being torn to pieces by hordes of the undead. And all in brightly lit full-color.

The picture was also a major evolutionary step forward both stylistically and thematically. Romero was able to create an overwhelming sense of impending dread and realism--this was a vision of the entire world literally falling apart. At the same time, he was able to deal with issues of race, gender and consumerism in bolder, more direct ways. Add a dose of black humor, and you have the ultimate horror epic.

Although released without the all-important MPAA rating, Dawn of the Dead managed to become a cult underground sensation. And its success opened the floodgates for a seemingly limitless flow of horror movies that dealt with the walking dead.

The craze first took hold in Italy, and the result was the infamous "Italian cycle" of zombie films. As had been seen with the earlier cannibal subgenre in Italian horror cinema, Italian filmmakers were not exactly squeamish when it came to delivering the bloody goods. And they took to the new subgenre almost as ravenously as the creatures that would populate their films.

Among the first was Lucio Fulci, whose dubiously titled Zombi 2 (1979) was unofficially marketed as a sequel to Dawn of the Dead (known in Europe as Zombi). Set on a Carribean island, the film harkens back in some respects to the more traditional voodoo-style of much earlier zombie films. Yet it is also decidedly a product of the Romero renaissance, focusing as it does on graphic depictions of rotting corpses and their flesh-eating frenzies. Yet there is something even more sinister at work in Fulci's flick--with no trace of humor in sight, it's a straight-ahead gorefest of unprecedented proportions. Unrelenting in its horror, the film seems to seek mainly to revolt the viewer as much as possible.

Fulci's later zombie trilogy continued his explorations into the utter bleakness of zombie horror. Hailed by some for being stylistically and technically superior to Zombi 2, City of the Living Dead (1980), The Beyond (1981) and House by the Cemetery (1981) were also less directly influenced by Romero. Here, Fulci struck out on more of an original path, tieing the zombie mythos to that of H.P. Lovecraft, and intertwining the zombie apocalypse with the apocalypse presented in the New Testament Book of Revelations.

Outside Fulci, the Italian zombie subgenre contained a relentless multitude of other entries--some good, some bad, all uncompromisingly brutal. For example, films like Nightmare City, The Nights of Terror, Zombie Creeping Flesh, and Zombie Holocaust were all released in 1980 alone.

The violence depicted in these movies was of a type never before seen in the history of cinema. Many have pointed to Italy's pervasive Roman Catholicism as the source for this zombie obsession. Specifically, in the Italian mindset, the living dead represent the ultimate horror, the most unspeakable blasphemy, because their existence refutes the sanctity of the human soul and is a perversion of the fundamental Christian belief in the resurrection of the body.

But Italy wasn't the only place where cinematic ghouls were flourishing. Some of George Romero's American compatriots were paying attention, as well. This was evidenced by films like John Carpenter's The Fog, released a year after Dawn of the Dead. Building on Romero's notions of social commentary, The Fog reinforced the idea that these movies could contain messages beyond the depiction of gore.

Unfortunately, however, Carpenter's work was an exception to the rule in America, where most zombie flicks could be included in the growing morass of junk that threatened to envelope the entire horror genre as a reaction to the voracious demand of the new home video market. Highlights include admitted cult favorite Night of the Creeps (1986) and Redneck Zombies (1987). If nothing else, the zombie deluge in America succeeded in cementing the subgenre in the annals of popular culture, a fact that can be attested to by Michael Jackson's classic Thriller video of 1983. The undead had arrived.

One of the ways in which zombie films managed to survive the 1980s despite the oversaturation was by adding healthy doses of what helped the entire horror genre survive the decade as well: comedy. Perhaps in no other era was the horror comedy so prevalent, and within this particular niche it earned an especially memorable name: splatstick.

Going in the complete opposite direction as the Italian cycle, splatstick flicks reveled in the absurdity of the zombie premise, serving up heaping helpings of irony and ridiculously over-the-top cartoon gore. Films like Bad Taste (1987), by newcomer Peter Jackson, were able to provoke both laughter and revulsion simultaneously. Despite being more about demonic possession than zombies, Sam Raimi's Evil Dead and Evil Dead II often get lumped into this category as well, particularly the sequel. The two most revered splatstick entries would have to be Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator and Dan O'Bannon's The Return of the Living Dead, which came out within weeks of each other in 1985.

Almost an instant classic, Re-Animator was based on the work of Lovecraft, and the satirical manner in which it dealt with the subject matter of bringing life to corpses made it the "anti-Frankenstein". Although its undead were not of the flesh-eating variety, Re-Animator was a more than worthy addition to the genre.

Return of the Living Dead's zombies were not of the flesh-eating variety either--no, they preferred brains. In fact, it was this film which directly led to the inextricable link between zombies and brain-eating that continues to persist in pop culture to this day. Originally envisioned as an unofficial sequel to Night of the Living Dead, O'Bannon chose instead, out of deference to the master, to take the proceedings in a more humorous direction. The result was a film which is regarded as one of the finest horror comedies ever made.

Ironically, ROTLD would go head-to-head with the long-awaited third chapter in Romero's series, 1985's Day of the Dead. Panned at the time by critics and rejected by fans, the film failed at the box office, its serious tone and depressing social message no match for the frivolity and punk rock mentality of O'Bannon's film. Also, budgetary constraints and creative disputes had caused the film to be significantly less than what Romero had originally intended it to be.

Nevertheless, Day of the Dead featured perhaps the most astonishing make-up work yet seen in a zombie picture (courtesy of Romero's right-hand man Tom Savini), and the most shocking violence this side of the Atlantic. It also gave us the sympathetic zombie Bub, one of the all-time great horror characters and another conceptual evolution in the subgenre. Over time, Day of the Dead would be reconsidered by fans and critics alike, and rightfully take its place alongside its two predecessors.

Once again, Romero had managed to reinvent the cinematic category he invented. But after Day of the Dead, several issues would cause the director to walk away from the world of the living dead. The genre would be forced to go on without him--and during a time when horror films in general would be suffering their lowest nadir in decades.

To Be Continued...

Part 1: They're Coming to Get You

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