{"id":18117,"date":"2018-07-09T23:13:14","date_gmt":"2018-07-10T03:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=18117"},"modified":"2018-07-10T11:22:30","modified_gmt":"2018-07-10T15:22:30","slug":"br-zombie-3-1988","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=18117","title":{"rendered":"BR: Zombie 3 (1988)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

Extras<\/strong>: Excellent<\/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>\u00a0Theft of a potion that reanimates the dead leads to mass infections among humans on an picturesque tropical island.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a02002 Audio commentary with Stars Deran Sarafian and Beatrice Ring \/ “The Last Zombies” interview with co-director & co-writer Claudio Fragasso and co-writer Rossella Drudi (18:49) \u00a0\/ 4 interviews from 2002 feature “Tough Guys” with actors-stuntmen Massimo Vanni and Ottaviano Dell’Acqua (4:54) + “The Problem Solver” with replacement director Bruno Mattei (8:30) + “Swimming with Zombies” with Actress Marina Loi (4:30) + “In the Zombie Factory” with FX Artist Franco Di Girolamo (5:50) \/ Theatrical trailer \/ Bonus soundtrack CD with first 3000 copies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The origins of the Zombie<\/strong> franchise stems from a peculiar case in which Dario Argento, the producer of George Romero\u2019s second living dead entry, Dawn of the Dead<\/a><\/strong> (1978), chose to release the Italian cut as Zombie<\/strong> \u2013 simpler, catchier, and ultimately fruitful for producers Fabrizio De Angelis and Ugo Tucci, who released their own 1979 cash-in production as Zombie 2<\/strong> in Italy.<\/p>\n

Z2 director Lucio Fulci was in top form, balancing the lush colours of tropical locations with finely detailed makeup that enabled assorted dead to emerge from the ground, eating whomever was dumb enough to get in their way. Those bitten but still in possession of their main appendages returned as flesh eaters, infecting the entire island and eventually other regions.<\/p>\n

The success of Fulci\u2019s film probably led to the director being nagged to make a sequel, but neither Tucci nor De Angelis were involved with Zombie 3<\/strong> (1988); that honor belonged to Franco Gaudenzi, an art director on Joe D\u2019Amato\u2019s Emmnauelle in Bangkok<\/strong> (1976), Black Cobra Woman<\/strong> (1976) and Buio Omega<\/strong> (1979), and more fortuitously, Bruno Mattei\u2019s SS Girls<\/strong> (1977).<\/p>\n

By 1988 Mattei was a prolific director-producer-editor of genre knock-offs \u2013 Strike Commando<\/strong> (1987) riffs Rambo:\u00a0First Blood Part 2<\/strong> (1985), and later films Robowar<\/strong> (1988) and Shocking Dark <\/strong>(1989) ripped off Predator<\/strong> (1987) and Aliens<\/strong> (1986), respectively \u2013 and his chief scriptorial collaborators were Claudio Fragasso and Rossella Drudi, the pair who would achieve bad cinema immortality with their bizarre sequel-in-name-only,\u00a0Troll 2 <\/strong>(1990).<\/p>\n

The pair\u2019s script for Z3 was reportedly so displeasing to Fulci that he delivered a 70 minute cut, and refused to return for reshoots when the producer was upset with \u2018endless\u2019 montages of characters rowing and navigating through a Philippine jungle river.<\/p>\n

Mattei, busy making Robowar<\/strong>, was not far from the original Fulci shoot, and with Fragasso’s aide, directed new material written by Fragasso & Drudi which expanded the film\u2019s running time to 95 mins., replacing Fulci\u2019s ‘endless’ paddling montages with new material to smoothen an already weak narrative.<\/p>\n

Like Robowar<\/strong>, Z3 percolates with the same tighter pacing (courtesy of Mattei) and fast action (reportedly Fragasso\u2019s specialty), but also the same ludicrous dialogue that may have forced Fulci to plug his ears whenever the actors went through scenes. Fulci was suffering from a lethal illness, and in spite of his great use of abandoned locales \u2013 a hotel, a public spa \u2013 and kill scenes, there\u2019s sense his heart wasn\u2019t in crafting magnetic material.<\/p>\n

Fragasso and Drudi\u2019s most surreal contribution to the zombie genre are zombie birds (an idea revisited in 2007’s\u00a0Resident Evil: Extinction<\/strong>), and a levitating zombie head (inarguably the most ridiculous moment in Z3). The filmmaker’s most important addition, however, is having the living dead move fast<\/em>, predating Zak Snyder\u2019s 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead<\/strong> and Marc Forster\u2019s World War Z<\/a><\/strong> (2013).<\/p>\n

Within Z3 there\u2019s one great example where adrenalized zombies pays off, and another that\u2019s awfully contrived.\u00a0When a couple stops for gas and the heroine ventures into an abandoned station, she\u2019s chased by a machete-wielding zombie that feels contemporary and is wholly terrifying \u2013 the first viewing is so intense it initially masks the camera\u2019s undercranking which accelerates the tension before the sequence\u2019s explosive conclusion. That\u2019s one human vs. one zombie, and it works swell.<\/p>\n

Conversely, when one of the heroes explores the old spa for too long, zombies converge from all sides, leaping from bushes, running up stairs, and wading fast through the brackish pool, but with too many zombies moving briskly, scenes become overcrowded, necessitating the doomed hero (actor \/ stuntman Massimo Vanni) to keep looking back instead of charging up the stairs and heading for safety full speed ahead. The lack of logic bleeds through most of the action scenes \u2013 aspects that perhaps drained Fulci from wringing the best from an amateurish script \u2013 but what really harms Z3 is the low budget and terrible acting.<\/p>\n

Zombie<\/strong> had veteran stage & screen thespian Richard Johnson (Khartoum<\/a><\/strong>, Julius Caesar<\/a><\/strong>, Doc Martin<\/a><\/strong>) exuding gravitas (plus he was the central character to whom everyone converges), but Z3 has no one<\/em>. The extras hired to play zombies are dreadful, and the makeup budget seemed to cover only hands and parts of faces, leaving other exposed skin looking healthy and well tanned.<\/p>\n

At this stage it sounds as though Z3 is a complete disaster, if not outright awful, but that\u2019s not quite the case. Fans of the franchise and genre proper will have fun picking out attempts to inject new ideas, and there is the perverse fascination, much like a coroner, in examining the seams where the Fulci and Mattei material intersect. The script is terrible, but it\u2019s interesting to see how a 50+ min. zombie film wasn\u2019t just goosed, but expanded in the most curious ways.<\/p>\n

Mattei\u2019s new material consists of the ludicrously acted prologue in which Death One, a serum designed to resurrect the dead, is stolen and infects its lead thief. The opening resurrection is delightfully disgusting, but whoever directed the manhunt in the prologue decided the mass of armed soldiers shouldn\u2019t pursue the easily visible thief, and the sniper in the tracking helicopter must have the ballistic accuracy of a turnip.<\/p>\n

Such directorial finesse heavily affected Z4 \u2013 a mess and precursor to Fragasso & Drudi\u2019s infamous stinker Troll 2<\/strong> (1990) \u2013 but the pair\u2019s most curious addition to the narrative is a blind DJ named Blue Heart to whom everyone<\/em> on the island listens for music and plague alerts. His scenes are cleverly integrated throughout the film, but his increasingly anti-establishment broadcasts are patterned after the live warnings blind DJ Super Soul gives to wanted driver Kowalski, keeping him abreast of a determined police posse in the existential \/ nihilistic classic Vanishing Point <\/strong>(1971).<\/p>\n

The appropriation isn\u2019t mere coincidence: Z3\u2019s star is Deran Serafian, son of VP\u2019s director Richard Serafian, and what makes the usage amusing is how Deran was likely unaware of the new material, as himself and the original cast couldn\u2019t be reunited for the reshoots \u2013 hence Mattei\u2019s tone deaf casting choices. Z3\u2019s finale isn\u2019t hopeful, but the final scene is either preposterous, or is a hasty attempt by Fragasso & Drudi\u2019s to add a new evolutionary step to the zombie canon: they not only move, but can speak \u2013 aspects carried over in more linear Darwinian stages in Z4.<\/p>\n

Severin’s Blu-ray is a major upgrade from the old Media Blasters DVD released around 2002, and later repackaged in a 2009 Zombie Pack, with Zombie 4: After Death<\/strong>, and Zombie 5: Killing Birds<\/strong>. Carried over is the very odd commentary track with Serafian and Ring, co-stars and a former couple whose chiding and banter tends to drift into the irrelevant, often with oblique deadpan statements. Once in a while there’s a nugget of production minutia, but it’s a negligible track that might have worked better as an edited on-camera Q&A with the actors.<\/p>\n

Also retained are archival interviews with the film’s two key stuntmen, stunning actress Marina Loi discussing her final scene with Vanni, and makeup artist\u00a0Franco di Girolamo surrounded by assorted tormented heads and masks.\u00a0Co-director Mattei also appears where he articulates his contributions yet insists Z3 is very much a Fulci film, with the new material written and directed in the spirit of Fulci. Rounding out the nostalgia trip is a new interview with Fragasso and Drudi as they reflect on their work in Z3.<\/p>\n

The last notable extra is a bonus CD that contains the same 15 tracks from Beat Records’ 2005 CD, and is included with the first 3000 copies of Severin’s Blu-ray.<\/p>\n

Stefano Mainetti\u2019s percussive main theme is a great homage to Goblin\u2019s Dawn of the Dead<\/strong>, with synth voices, a heavy bass line and atmospheric effects, but half the album is comprised of completely ditzy source cuts, some of which are heard from car and portable radios. Performed by Clue in the Crew, \u201cTumble Down\u201d is a synth-pop \/ jazz fusion, but it\u2019s \u201cThe Sound of Fear\u201d that ranks as one of the most ridiculous synth-rock ditties ever written for a horror film. The CD\u2019s program alternates awkwardly between score & source tunes, but there’s a good prog-rock version of the main theme, a jazz fusion variation, and a weird jazz lounge cut with female vocals & saxophones. Prog rock excepted, all songs have unremarkable instrumental alternates.<\/p>\n

The final film edit really sacrifices fidelity and music continuity: the narrow mono mix lacks the subtleties and instrumental details of the otherwise crisp stereo engineering of the score & songs, but Mattei & Fragasso\u2019s fixations of chase montages mandated hacking up the title track and stitching pieces to form a monotonous loop which makes Mainetti\u2019s main theme sound cheap and lazy.<\/p>\n

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

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

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