The October Zombie-Thon 2009 - Day 24: Zombi 3
Posted by Trevor Snyder on 10.24.2009
It wouldn't be a Zombie-Thon without an Italian zombie movie. Unfortunately, it had to be this one.
ZOMBI 3 (1988)
Directed by: Lucio Fulci (& Bruno Mattei)
Written by: Claudio Fragrasso & Rosella Drudi
Country: Italy
Poor Lucio Fulci. Or, actually, should I say…poor Lucio Fulci fans. There's nothing quite like the disheartening experience of watching a once-brilliant filmmaker's descent into mediocrity. (take, for instance, Dario Argento's output for the last decade or so). Granted, it's tough for any director to maintain the same level of quality for their entire lives, especially when some of their earlier films are considered classics. But, nevertheless, it can be hard to face reality and realize your favorites might never again equal the works that made them your favorites.
Zombi 3 is a perfect example of this sobering reality, and that it was Fulci's final zombie film has to rank as one of the all-time greatest disappointments in horror. Fulci's name is second only to Romero in terms of the living dead genre, thanks to splatter classics like Zombi 2 (so named because it was an unofficial sequel to Romero's Dawn of the Dead, which was titled Zombi when released in Europe) and his loose "Gates of Hell" trilogy (City of the Living Dead, The Beyond and House by the Cemetery). But after shocking audiences with these ultra-gory masterpieces in the early ‘80s, Fulci spent most of the rest of the decade avoiding the undead. By the time Zombi 3 was announced for 1988, fans were chomping at the bit for a new Fulci zombie film. Unfortunately, this is the one they got.
It's important to note, however, that the final film is not entirely a Fulci creation. Although Fulci took most of the blame for its poor reception upon release, it would eventually be revealed in later years that the film was in fact something of a accidental collaboration between Fulci and noted hack director Bruno Mattei, the man behind such trashy schlock as Hell of the Living Dead, Robowar and Rats.
As an official synopsis puts it, "Zombi 3 combines the genius of Lucio Fulci with that of Bruno Mattei, who jumped in to direct the film halfway through when Fulci left." First off, for the record, I'm fairly positive that this is legally the only way you are allowed to use the words "genius" and "Bruno Mattei" in the same sentence. But it should also be noted that this explanation is something of an over-simplification – the true story behind Zombi 3's troubled production is more complex and somewhat muddled by conflicting opinions and stories of those involved.
Zombi 3 was originally conceived as a direct sequel to Zombi 2, which shows that something clearly went awry in the writing stages. It probably doesn't help that one of the co-writers was Claudio Fragrasso, who definitely rivals Mattei in the crap department. I could start listing some of Fragrasso's more questionable contributions to film, but it's probably suffices to say that he would later go on to direct the infamously bad Troll 2. ‘Nuff said.
Ignoring the final moments of Zombi 2, which saw the world in the early stages of a voodoo-created zombie apocalypse, Zombi 3 instead focused on a chemically created outbreak, relocating the action solely to the Philippines in order to keep costs down. Fulci was both ill and none-too-impressed with Fragrasso's script while shooting the film. Whether it was just one or both of these factors that led to the problems is unclear but, by most accounts, Fulci eventually took to simply ignoring large sections of the script and instead filming his own hasty rewrites, most of which were little more than long, uninterrupted shots of scenery. When producers viewed his final cut, they were aghast – at only seventy minutes, it was too short…but somehow also felt too long due to Fulci's indulgences. The producers ended up cutting another twenty minutes out in order to give Fulci's story some semblance of momentum, but as a result now had an even shorter film. In desperation, they asked Fragrasso and Mattei to come to the Philippines to write and direct (respectively) new scenes that would pad the running time out to a respectable length. The two agreed, but were forced to do so without Fulci's cast, whose contracts were already up.
The end result, not surprisingly is a complete mess of a film. It kicks off with Mattei's contribution – an extended prologue in which we meet a team of scientists working on a chemical known as "Death One," meant to create invulnerable soldiers. Of course, it instead creates flesh-hungry zombies, and a decision is made to destroy the chemical. But before they can, a thief makes off with a case of it. In the ensuing chase the thief himself is infected, eventually causing a small outbreak at a hotel. The military is called in to contain the situation, but make a big boo-boo when they decide to burn the thief's body. The scientists warn the General in charge that this might send his ashes up into the air, where they might then fall back to earth and contaminate the soil. "That's ridiculous," he retorts, "pure science-fiction." The dude can accept the idea of zombies, but air pollution? Well, that's just too much.
Well, of course, the scientists' warnings come true, and twenty minutes in we finally get to Fulci's portion of the film, as a swarm of birds – infected by the smoke from the burning body – swoop down onto a city's populace and begin attacking humans. This is thrillingly represented by shots which are clearly nothing more than crew-members standing just off-camera and waving bird puppets in the faces of the actors. The resultant zombie plague spreads quickly, leaving a group of horny soldiers and female friends to band together and fight off an army of surprisingly athletic zombies – far from the shambling corpses of Zombi 2, these ghouls run and leap about as if auditioning for a parkour squad. Periodically the film cuts to more Mattei-directed scenes, featuring the military and scientists arguing about which is the best course of action to contain the virus. The two parallel stories never really mesh together, but they almost come close to a cohesive whole in the final act, when soldiers in white bio-suits march into town and begin blasting away zombies and survivors alike.
Given Mattei's track record, it's tempting to blame him for Zombi 3's failures, but that would ignore the fact that Fulci's segments are just as terrible. In fact, I would almost argue that Mattei's bits are the better of the two! Sure, the acting of both the lead scientist and the Army General is atrocious, and the scenes don't really add anything of value to the film. But, in the end, Mattei was simply trying to improve an already broken film, and you can't really fault him for that. His additions aren't great, but they're not as disappointing as what Fulci had already delivered. The true misery of Zombi 3 is seeing Fulci's apparent boredom with the genre (or at least this script) actually come though on screen. His scenes contain none of the spirit or creative spark that fueled his earlier zombie efforts. Instead, he somehow finds a way to film gun-toting soldiers vs. living dead cannibals in as boring a manner as possible. If not for the film's inadvertent humor, there would be almost nothing of value here.
But, that's the good news, I suppose – there is inadvertent humor, if you're in the right mood. I have always maintained that even the worst Italian zombie movies (and this is definitely one of them) are still way more watchable than many of their American peers, and Zombi 3 is no exception. This is the Italian zombie genre at its lowest, and yet there is still a certain goofy charm. Like most Italian horror movies, it features great music, here in the form of Stefano Mainetti's score (although the main theme does tend to repeat a bit too much). There is also the requisite extreme gore (climaxing with a zombie baby clawing its way out of its mothers stomach), and some hilariously ludicrous moments – like when a severed head somehow defies all physics and leaps at one of our heroes. Plus, genre fans might have a good time noting all the obvious influences from 1985's Return of the Living Dead, from the virus spreading due to burning an infected body to the occasional talking zombies (one of whom even states, "I want your brains!").
Sporadic laughter aside, though, there's no denying how saddening it is to accept this as Fulci's final statement on the zombie genre. It's worth a look for any fans of the Italian zombie cycle (just make sure it's way down on your list of those films), but anyone who loved Zombi 2 or the "Gates of Hell" trilogy is gonna have a hard time walking away without a crushing sense of disappointment.
FINAL SCORE: 2 out of 4 Bubs (Italian Zombie buffs will want to check it out, anyone else need not bother)
