Review of Zombie 3

Zombi 3 is a bad movie. No doubt. And it was from its conceivement. The producer Gaudenzi called Fulci for shot the sequel of Zombi Flesh Eaters (in Italy Zombi 2), the movie that give to the director an international fame. But we are in the 1988 and the italian cinematogrophy industry is pretty much changed from the '70, especially the exploitation genre. The producers have less money and they are less willing to risk in the projects; furthermore the good technicians that helps many director, like Argento, Bava, Lenzi and Fulci, are disappearing. Also Fulci has several problem with his health and the movies made after 1980 aren't good like their predecessors. With these premises Fulci goes in the Philipine for shot the movie and after 4 weeks come back in Italy with 70 minutes shot; for the producer is not enough and ask to Claudio Fragasso, the screenwriter of the movie, to write other scenes, and to Bruno Mattei, another director that was shoting his film Robowar in the Philipines, to shot the new scenes. The result is Zombi 3: a horror movie that doesn't scare, without suspense, and with several funny moments that I don't know how much are involuntary. The plot is simple: a group of terrorists steal from a scientific centre the virus called Death One; one of them is wounded during the chase and is being infected. From here we follow two stories: one is about a team of scientists that together with the army try to restrain the virus, the other is about a group of marines in permit that try to survive against the zombies. The story is quite ordinary but the real problem is on a several plot holes from the part with the scientists. For example, when they discover that the terrorist is been infected, they state that the virus can be propagate just via blood and in contact with the air die. But when the army catch the terrorist and burn his body, the scientists warn them that in this way the virus can be spread in the nearby through the air. And after, when the scientists try to find a cure, they state that the virus is spreading thanks the contact with the air. So we have a dissociated virus that die if is in contact with the air, but in the same time, thanks to the air, can spread itself. Another thing: where this virus come from? I mean, while watching the movie I understand that the virus has been made by the army, but for some inscrutable reason they give it to an indipendent scientific center, where the virus itself has been studied. Now, with all this people that has studied it why there is no one that has think about an antidote? What have they studied? Surely not how it spread! After that, the acting, oh ghosh! There isn't a single actor that know how to act and the characters are so boring that nobody really care what could do happen to them. But Zombi 3 is also a movie about the zombies, so we have to talk about the zombies. Ok, what are they? Serious, why they act like that? Some of them walk slowly, like the classic Romero's zombies, others jump, run and talk! Exactly, talk! And this, instead to be scary, is only ridicoulous! Also the makeup is not right. I mean, some zombies are ok but others wears rags. Why? The ordinary people in the Philipenes were used to wear rags? I don't think so! So they look likes they were pretty old corpse come back to life, and this is ok but you have to show me, otherwise it doesn't have sense. The same is for the buildings. Some of them have the interior full of webs and dust, like they were abandoned for years, but they aren't! The film try to made an obscure and dark atmosphere that fit more better with some old castle or haunted house, rather than a movie that describe the outbreak of a contagion! One characteristic of the Fulci's movie was the care given to the gore and splatter effects; unfortunately this is not the case. Just watch the scene where a zombi smash the head of a nurse against a mirror: the nurse begin to puke blood but it's pretty clear that she had the fake blood in the mouth. Another example is the infamous fly zombi head. No! This is unacepptable! Ok it's funny but it is useless and it's not a parody! So, why use it? The only real fun for the viewever is try to find out all the scene that pay homage (aka steal) from others zombies movies. All the quarrel between the scientists and the army remember the Romero's Day of the Dead, the spreading of the contagion through the ashes from a zombi corpse is like O'Bannon's Return of the Living Dead. From the same movie come from also the talkies zombies. The scene where a marine run towards some soldiers and he is been shot beacuse mistaken for a zombie remember the final of the Night of the Living Dead. The final scene where the only two survivors escape with a helicopter (found totally by chance) is like the final scene of Dawn of the Living Dead. Finally the siege of the zombies against the marines remember a similar scene from Zombi 2. The only orignal ideas? The flying head the zombi deejay (I don't want to talk about him; if you have the guts watch the movie and find out yourself). Great screenwriter! Unfortunately this is Zombi 3, a horror/action movie that don't scare and where the action is feeble. The movie rapresent perfectly what had become the italian b-movies industry in the 80s: no money, no ideas.