{"id":18114,"date":"2018-07-09T22:53:22","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T02:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=18114"},"modified":"2018-07-10T11:37:41","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T15:37:41","slug":"br-zombie-4-after-death-after-death-oltra-la-morte-1989","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=18114","title":{"rendered":"BR: Zombie 4: After Death \/ After Death \/ Oltra la morte (1989)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Film<\/strong>: Weak<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Excellent<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: Very Good<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong> Severin<\/a><\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0A, B, C<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0 May 29, 2018<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Horror \/ Zombies<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0A young woman and her friends return to the island where her parents became zombie fodder.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0 3 Interviews featuring “Run, Zombie, Run!” with director Claudio Fragasso and writer Rossella Drudi (31:49) + actor “Jeff Stryker in Manila” (9:31) \u00a0+ “Blonde vs. Zombies” with actress Candice Daley from 2002 (2:18) \/ Archival behind-the-scenes footage (3:44) \/ Theatrical trailer \/ Bonus soundtrack CD with first 3000 copies.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not unlike the Demons \/ Demoni<\/a><\/strong> series, the Zombie<\/strong> franchise consists of an original and a true sequel, and several unrelated films, rebranded by producers for extra recognition and push on video rental shelves. Zombie 4<\/strong> (formerly known as After Dark<\/strong>) repeats several scenes from George Romero\u2019s Night of the Living Dead<\/a> <\/strong>(1968) and Dawn of the Dead<\/a><\/strong> (1978), the latter released in Italy as Zombie<\/strong>, so thematically Z4 fits within the franchise in which the walking dead lay siege to a group in an isolated environs, taunting & teasing until barely anyone is left alive.<\/p>\n

Production of the first of three franchise entries was anything but smooth for the filmmakers. Whereby Bruno Mattei and Fragasso shot new material to expand Lucio Fulci\u2019s first cut of Zombie 3<\/strong><\/a>, for Z4 Fragasso did double duty, shooting at night and co-directing Strike Commando 2<\/strong> during the day; such a grueling schedule might explain the hastiness that radiates from the finish product.<\/p>\n

Like Z3, the film\u2019s first cut proved too short, so Fragasso directed a nonsensical sort-of prologue involving a priest and a demon in a cavernous confrontation that looks and feels disconnected from the film proper, but the extra material merely adds to the wonkiness of Z4\u2019s structure where two story threads converge.<\/p>\n

The first stream has a trio of ‘archeological hikers\u2019 finding the cave of a cannibal cult and encounter fast-moving flesh eaters; the second stream has a group of tourists with the maturity of teens stranded on the very island where one member, pretty Jenny (Candice Daley), lost her parents a decade earlier to zombies. The survivors of the two groups eventually barricade themselves in a cabin while zombies converge outside, but when an infected mate reawakens as a flesh eater, several members are picked off within their shabby sanctuary.<\/p>\n

Among their substantive group of genre films produced during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Fragasso and Mattei made solid use of Philippine locations, but what ultimately makes Z4 such a mess is Drudi\u2019s incoherent script and her tin ear for dialogue that\u2019s almost Ed Woodian. Experienced actors would\u2019ve had trouble inserting beats of gravitas, but the variety of overacting and novice performances create a special kind of ridiculousness which at times is hilarious, and hints at the fromage Fragasso & Drudi created in 1990 with Troll 2<\/strong>, often billed as one of the worst films ever made.<\/p>\n

To Drudi, the film makes sense as an attempt to establish an evolutionary narrative of the zombie with the heroine becoming the latest hybrid, but the integration of the supernatural, which encompasses an evil book, candles, and an amulet Jenny has kept around her neck since mumsy placed it there, negates Drudi\u2019s Darwinian theorem.<\/p>\n

Instead of the rapid-moving zombies in Z3, Drudi\u2019s latest incarnations vary in speed and motor skills, and are more sentient and better problem-solvers, some of whom can speak. In more contemporary genre entries \u2013 28 Days Later<\/strong> (2002), Dawn of the Dead <\/strong>\u00a0(2004), Dead Set<\/a><\/strong> (2008), The Dead<\/a><\/strong> (2010) \u2013 sudden reanimation is viral-based, making Drudi\u2019s spiritual elements a bit confusing: we\u2019re accustomed to salvation coming from a scientific cure instead of appeasing spirits, but in Drudi\u2019s vision, it\u2019s an unsuccessful fusion of science and demonic elements that remain at odds through the finale.<\/p>\n

Romero would take a crack at evolution in Day of the Dead<\/a><\/strong> (1985) with Bub, a creature who possessed not only vestiges of his pre-zombie life, but had residual areas of the brain\u2019s speech centre which enabled him to utter tones, but there were no religious & supernatural elements influencing the developing mob of zombies that tear apart a miniature military junta.<\/p>\n

SPOILER ALERT<\/p>\n

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Unlike the sudden leap at the end of Z3, Drudi scaled back her evolutionary trajectory in Z4, but overcomplicated the progression, making the finale rather incoherent: as a self-aware Jenny becomes a zombie, she tearfully rips out an eye to punctuate the transition in a moment that could be read as a echo to \u2018the new flesh\u2019 in David Cronenberg\u2019s Videodrome<\/strong> (1983), if not Brundlefly pulling off dead and now redundant facial appendages in\u00a0The Fly\u00a0<\/strong>(1986).<\/p>\n

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END OF SPOILER<\/p>\n

Fragasso & Mattei\u2019s work has a greater disposable feel than Z-grade productions produced \/ realized by Empire Pictures, Vestron, New Concord, and other entities whose specialties shifted from drive-in to home video markets, but the interviews archived in Severin\u2019s Z3 and Z4 discs have the filmmakers being both candid, and showing some subtle vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n

In the archival interview on Z3, Mattei admits he doesn\u2019t like his movies, whereas on the Z4 disc Fragasso expresses genuine hurt when he\u2019s referred by critics as a Grade Z filmmaker, a moment that causes Drudi to place her hand on her husband\u2019s; it\u2019s a striking contrast between self-acknowledge hack Mattei, and filmmaker Fragasso who aspired to attain greater creative & critical standing but couldn\u2019t see the flaws in the work in which he\u2019s the exclusive director.<\/p>\n

If there are shared elements within the Mattei-Fragasso-Drudi films, it\u2019s the reliance on montages where characters wander through jungles, isolated or abandoned locales; and interruptions of gunplay and explosions. Nudity seems a lesser element in their action-heavy work, and gore is either offered with gusto (as in the trio\u2019s two Zombie<\/strong> films) or perfunctorily; perhaps the need for a close-up or exploding bloodpack is directly related to budget, and how much time is left on the production clock.<\/p>\n

For fans of Troll 2<\/strong>, Z4 is a sampler of greater nonsense to come, but the film\u2019s cult status also lies in the casting of porn Jeff Stryker as hero Chuck. As he states in his resonant voice in Severin\u2019s new interview, Stryker had wanted to make the leap to Hollywood productions, and although he seemed to enjoy the experience (and is quite fine in the film), Z4 didn\u2019t provide the legit film career launch or attract agents, hence his continuation as a bisexual adult film star.<\/p>\n

Fragasso had no idea of Stryker\u2019s fame \u2013 he was cast based on an agent’s suave pitch \u2013 and yet it is strange how the director never felt the need to exploit both the physicality of his male and female cast. Neither Stryker nor buffed stuntman (and Mattei-Fragasso stock company regular) Massimo Vanni appears shirtless, and there are no exploitive angles for actresses Adrianne Joseph and Candice Daly (who wears a bathing suit in early boat scenes, but spends the rest of the film in pants).<\/p>\n

Like Severin\u2019s Z3 disc, the label gathers select extras from the prior Media Blasters special edition released around 2002,\u00a0and later repackaged in a 2009 Zombie Pack gathering films 3 thru 5. Retained is behind-the-scenes footage of Fragasso shouting in Italian directions in the prologue to slightly confused actors; and a brief interview with Daly. (Daly had small roles in a few feature films and TV series up to 1998, plus a rare leading role in the 1991 eroto-thriller Liquid Dreams<\/strong>, but died in 2005, reportedly from a drug overdose or under suspicious circumstances.)<\/p>\n

A new interview with Stryker replaces the prior 2002 Q&A, and the actor reflects on his career in the adult world. Stryker’s rare\u00a0forays outside of hardcore include Joe D\u2019Amato\u2019s Dirty Love<\/strong> (1988), and a small role in the German TV movie Der schwarze Fluch – T\u00f6dliche Leidenschaften<\/strong> (1995), starring James Brolin and Deborah Shelton (Body Double<\/a><\/strong>, TV\u2019s Dallas<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Lastly, like Severin\u2019s Z3 release, the first 3000 copies include a soundtrack CD, this time featuring Al Festa\u2019s previously unreleased score, which is a real mixed bag of rudimentary synth tracks and alternates. Festa\u2019s title synth-rock vocal (\u201cLiving After Death\u201d) features ludicrous lyrics, but a few instrumental derivations offer some interesting touches, such as tapping backbeats and circular electro-beeps, or steady pulses and electric guitar.<\/p>\n

One track runs an epic 15 mins. and was undoubtedly designed to be edited or tracked over montages of jungle trekking and preparing the cabin for the inevitable zombie assault. It\u2019s also a blatant soundalike of John Carpenter\u2019s \u201cThe Duke Arrives\u201d theme from Escape from New York<\/strong> (1981), with a similar bass ostinato, synth claps, and the odd synth mechanical whirring effect.<\/p>\n

The bonus CD also includes assorted alternates (some more threadbare versions of suspense tracks) and while maniacally repetitive in spots, the previously unreleased material should please connoisseurs of vintage 80s synth horror scores.<\/p>\n

Fragasso and Drudi\u2019s collaborative careers remained steady well into the 1990s, and includes feature and TV productions. The Joe D\u2019Amato-Claudio Lattanzi films Killing Birds<\/strong> (1987) was later rebranded as Zombie 5<\/strong> for international and home video release.<\/p>\n

Zombie 4: After Death<\/strong> is part of Severin’s three-film Bruno Mattei wave that also includes\u00a0Zombie 3<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>(1988) and\u00a0Shocking Dark<\/strong><\/a> (1989).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2018 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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