WHITE ZOMBIE (1932)

One from the golden age of horror... This film (more widely known as the namesake inspiration behind Rob Zombie's band, White Zombie) holds up remarkably well even now, an immensely watchable film that has earned its place in cult movie history. Shot in black and white and dating back to the 1930's this is probably the earliest of the zombie flicks I have seen.  No gore or special effects to speak of in this film, it has to rely on plot, dramatisation, musical score and acting and it comes across as a very solid film even from the point of view of a modern (well 80's horror fan) movie fan.

The plot follows a young man Neil who is moving up in the world and his soon to be wife Madeline on the island of Haiti, where upon arrival they are greeted by stories and a close encounter of the undead roaming the island at night and working in the sugar mills (Good to see someone smart enough to put those zombies to work... think of all that free labour going to waste in modern zombie films) ... What I like about the story line in this film is that it sits closer to the historical origin of zombies than the "Night of the living dead" style zombies which is a pleasant change. Madeline has also unfortunately attracted the attention of Charles a wealthy businessman from the island who decides that since he can't have her he will turn her into a zombie.

Some kind soul has been kind enough to upload a remastered version of this classic! check it out below!

Check out our review for Revolt of the Zombies

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ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS / ZOMBI 2 (1979)

Firstly just to clarify a few things... My copy of this release goes under the name "Zombie Flesh Eaters" but I've more commonly heard it referred to as "Zombi 2" … George Romero's second installment of his "Dead" series, Dawn of the Dead from 1978 was titled "Zombi" in some parts of Europe. The only sensible thing to do was now to cash in on the success of "Zombi" and release another flick while the iron was still hot, and of course set it up as an unofficial sequel... and thus we have Lucio Fulci's "Zombi 2". I find this practice annoying and I'd much rather refer to it as "Zombie Flesh Eaters" (just to make it worse it has a few more variations of those names as release titles too)

The movie itself is actually pretty good and quite enjoyable... it has that distinct Italian style about it, very gritty and the gore is quite full on for its time as well... Earning it a spot in the "VIDEO NASTIES" list and getting banned in some places. Compared to some of the movies on that list, this is not the most extreme by any stretch infact id say there's only one scene (where a zombie drags a womans head into shattered glass and pierces her eye/eyesocket) as the only really extremity in the film while the rest of it is fairly standard zombie, munching, maggot riddled goodness these Italian flicks are known for.

The plot revolves around a missing scientist who is researching ancient voodoo magick on an island off the carribean which has fallen under attack by zombies... these undead nod a little to the older Haitian zombie legends rather than purely following the lead of the Romero type zombies but they're basically the same.  The film itself starts when a ship leaves the island and is discovered by coast guard when the occupants have been killed and  zombie who is still on board bites and infects a coast guard and investigations lead back tot he island.

Its gritty, well shot and has some levels of nudity in it but one scene in particular which I thought was really well done where a zombie attacks a shark I thought was rather well done! Especially for the vintage of this this film.

Overall I quite liked it, it didn't require too much thinking but it flowed well and was quite entertaining...…..  Id recommend any zombie to get a hold of this if they can find it.

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DAWN OF THE DEAD (remake 2004)

In all honesty this remake is pretty good, production values are great and the violence and gore is top notch. It just misses something. It follows a fairly similar story line and progression to the original "Dawn of the Dead" but something about the souped up special effects leaves me feeling like I miss the "Good old Days" so to speak.

The plot itself follows a few small groups of people who after the zombie apocalypse have holed up in a shopping mall in an effort to survive. Obviously with the situation unfolding around them the tensions mount and relationships between the parties are strained... one by one they are picked of by the hordes of zombies surrounding and breaking into the mall to feast on the survivors. There are slight plot differences, enough to keep it interesting and updated for current fans but no major departures from the original story line.

One thing that really annoyed me about this film was the fast moving zombies, to me zombies are supposed to be slow, sluggish and brain dead, where as these zombies run around like Olympic sprinters and seem to be able to master more complex operations than the zombies featured in the original film.

That aside, I really don't have any problems with anything else the film has done and in a way its probably a necessary evil as I'm sure it exposed a whole new generation of scare fans to the work of George Romero.

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NIGHT OF THE LIVNG DEAD (1968)

This is George Romero's ground breaking zombie flick from 1968.   

Shot on Black and White film, and filmed on what can only be described as a shoe-string budget this film is singlehandedly responsible for bringing zombies as we know them today  (as opposed to the haitian/voodoo zombies in movies like White Zombie that had previously been depicted in movies until then) into the mainstream of modern culture and spawning countless zombie films just like it, some better and many immeasurably worse. It is also the earliest film I can think of that uses explicit gore, levels of gore which now have been rendered "cute" by todays standards but were revolutionary by late 60's standards.

Basically the plot revolves around a scenario where the dead are coming back to life and a small group of survivors are trapped in a farmhouse left to defend themselves with whatever weapons they can find, while the undead around them are literally "chomping at the bit" to take a bite out of them.

While much of  it now would be considered outdated and the special effects used rather plain this is still quite a watchable film and something that you could use to introduce your kids to the world of horror without traumatizing them. Featuring none of the over the top gore that the following films in the franchise (Day of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead etc....) were renowned for, this can probably be considered one of the safer films for the horror newbie, where I guess hardened gore-fiends might find the pace of this one a bit slow.

Over all its a great watch, and historically important to gain an understanding where the zombie infection first took a hold on mainstream cinema audiences

It is presented below in all its glory on you tube for those that haven't had the pleasure!

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REVOLT OF THE ZOMBIES (1936)

I hear this is supposed to be a loosely based sequel for seminal zombie film White Zombie, and also directed by Victor Halperin (who directed White Zombie) it does seem to follow on after that first film, at least chronologically, with reports filtering back to the Allied forces in French-Austria that there were in fact zombies in Angkor (in the orient) which starts a military expedition to find and destroy the secret the zombies, after a failed attempt to extract information about the zombies from a priest they had previously captured  from the Orient, fearing the Zombies could be used against the alllied forces

There's a subplot around Claire part of the expedition who falls in love with Cliff (after they've been in the orient a few months or so) but accepts a marriage proposal from Armand to make Cliff jealous..... which works and she ends up marrying Cliff after he finally confesses his love for her, its all a little hammy in that 1930's kind of way, but after that's all out of the way its starts to get a little more interesting and the movie moves along a little faster.

Not to be defeated in love or life Armand persists and unlocks the secret of enslaving the unwitting into zombie-hood to do his bidding and eventually creates an army of zombies (one should remember that the zombies in these early films are not the decaying flesh eating creatures made popular in movies like the Night of the Living Dead etc... rather they are more slaves of will in a state of hypnosis like trance) Armand threatens to turn Cliff into a zombie like he as done to everyone else unless Claire agrees to marry him in exchange for Cliff being left unharmed.

Without giving away the plot I will say the ending left me a  little underwhelmed, but over all its a decent enough watch, and interesting from an historical point of view. I will say that the passing of time  and events in the film can be  a little unclear as well which makes what is an otherwise pretty cool story a little disjointed.

Obviously being shot in 1936 this is a black and white film and the audio has that scratchy feel to  it as well. I know that many people don't like to watch black and white cinema but if you can get past that its a fairly decent watch, I don't think it comes up that well against White Zombie, but its a fairly cool watch as well. Like Most B&W films it does rely on dialogue, and a decent story line and lets face it the special effects and gore were non-existent back then, so it has to stand up as a story on its own as well.

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WYRMWOOD (2014)

Wyrmwood is an Australian made horror flick. What separates this from the multitude of zombie flicks before it you ask? Well not that much to be honest if you've seen a million zombie flicks before this may not be the ground breaking experience you were hoping for. It is however a pretty cool attempt at injecting a little freshness into what can be a stale genre at times , and while it doesn't add anything ground breakingly new to the genre the zombies have been done really well, and gore effects are top notch, a definite step above many zombie flicks that came before it....

Plot wise it centres around a few unrelated Aussies in the outback who find themselves knee deep in a newly formed zombie apocalypse.......  many gratituous zombie killings follow as the few left alive band together in the hopes of staying staying that way. Pretty standard fare really plot wise but its the classic dialogue moments that could have only come from an Aussie flick that make this stand out... classic one liners from an ocka Aboriginal bloke like "Thats fucked eh?"  and some very casual Australian moments when faced with a zombie holocaust really add an air of Aussie humour to the whole thing.

The actors are unknown to myself but overall its a pretty convincing attempt at a zombie flick and well worth a watch, is it a classic? Nope, not by any stretch but indeed a worth watch and good fun from start to finish. Also good if you have friends around a want to have a few beers, missing the odd moment of this won't ruin the story continuity either and you all may get a few chuckles out of it too

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