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1980 Dir: Lucio
Fulci With: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver.
An abandoned boat drifts into
New York City's harbour. Two cops investigate, one cop goes "down below to take a look" (always a bad idea!) He finds a severed
hand, and not long after a big fat zombie bursts out of a cupboard and kills him. The other cop fires at it when it makes
its way up to the deck, and the thing falls over the side into the water.
The daughter of the boat's
owner, a Dr Menard, arrives on the scene and tells the authorities that it's her father's boat. That night she sneaks on board
to investigate, and meets a reporter who's had the same idea. They decide to team up to go to the island of Matull to search
for her father.
They encounter a couple on
the way that have a boat, and the couple agree to take them (although they seem a little uneasy when the island of Matull
is mentioned - ut-oh!)
During the journey the woman
indulges in a spot of nude scuba diving to keep us entertained, and is soon being pestered by an "underwater" zombie. Luckily
a shark swims by and diverts the zombie's attention away from her. The zombie wrestles with the shark and takes some huge
bites out of it (and huge chunks at that -what an appetite!)
Cut to the island, and Dr
Menard leaves his wife home alone (always a great idea when the island you're on is swarming with the living dead!) His wife
decides to take a shower - and low and behold if she isn't interrupted by a zombie bursting through the window and attacking
her! She flees into another room and barricades the door, and now comes one of the most famous scenes in horror history. Trapped,
the woman's head is forced towards the door by the zombie and it brings her eye slowly into contact with a large splinter
of wood, until it makes impact.
When the doctor's daughter
and the reporter arrive at the island they asked to call in on Menard's wife. When they reach the doc's house they find out
how his wife is doing (she's doing just great now her eyeball's been squished!)
They try to find their way
to the hospital to meet up with the doc again but on the way they hit a zombie and crash (damn zombies - haven't they heard
of the green cross code?) They are forced to make the rest of the journey on foot and soon come across an old graveyard, where
they decide to take a rest (not a good idea really if you think about it not on an island where corpses have a nasty habit
of coming back to life!)
Pretty soon the dead start
rising from their graves and attack them, and kill our topless scuba diver!
In the end, they and the Doc
are holed up in a very zombie-accessible building, with many windows and doors for those hungry flesh-munching corpses to
get in. (Cue much blood spurting, head blasting etc - as our heroes try to stop them!)
They throw
firebombs at them to fend them off, and pretty soon there is a huge body count of zombies who've had their brains blown out,
and the whole place goes up in flames.
There is plenty of bad acting in this movie but that only adds to the entertainment
value. The worms wriggling in the zombies' flesh is a nice little touch! This is one of two notorious Lucio Fulci films, the
other being, The Beyond.
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