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Obviously oblivious to the use the military is planning to put it to,
doctor Holder (Robert Marius) develops a compound called Death One, that
is able to spread a deadly disease. Of course enemy forces are more
than eager than get their hands on it & promptly rob it from a
military base. & though they are hunted down soon enough, one of
them has already contracted the disease & turned into a flesh-eating
zombie. & when he is burned, his ashes spread over the whole area,
randomly infecting people & birds ... like the birds Patricia
(Beatrice Ring) & her boyfriend Glen find lying dead on the street
they are driving on, but when they want to pick them up , they suddenly
come to life again & attack them, and they also attack a busload of
girls , who are saved by a trio of soldiers. Soon the girls & the
soldiers take up camp in an abandoned hotel to nurse the wounds of those
hurt by the birds, yet oblivious to the fact that they all will turn
into zombies eventually. One of the girls & one of the soldiers
soon decide to go looking for help too, but wouldn't you know, on their
way through a nearby abandoned village their car breaks down, & they
are of course attacked by zombies, who eat her up while he runs across
Patricia & the wounded Glen who offer him a ride. But soon Glen has
turned into a zombie & attacks the others, successfully killing off
the soldier with some undead colleagues while Pat saves herself by
jumping from a bridge. Back at the hotel, things start to worsen, too,
since the place seems zombie infested from the beginning, as an undead
head is found in a fridge that jumps at one of the group, killing him. But
it doesn't seem until Pat joins them that the soldiers are even starting
to comprehend the seriousness of the situation, then they finally start
to barricade themselves in, but their barricades do not hold the zombies
off for even half a minute (really !). The survivors of the group are
soon down to 4 - Patricia, Roger (Richard Raymond), Kenny (deran
Serafian) & Nancy (Ulli Reinthaler), & they, escaping the hotel
& trying to make it to safety, now not only have to fioght the
zombies but also the military who has been ordered by general
Morton (Mike Monty) to shoot anyone in the area. The foursome soon
comes to a hospital where Pat is confronted by her boyfriend Glen again,
who, despite his undead condition has not lost his appetite for her
(though appetite has now a quite literary meaning), but she manages to
kill him, while Nancy wants to help a pregnant woman in the infirmary to
give birth, but instead is killed by the baby who is already a zombie. In
the end, only Pat & Kenny make an escape by a helicopter they
conveniently find on the premises while Roger is turned into a
zombie-snack covering their back. In the end, our 2 survivors hear
over the radio that radio announcer Blue Heart - who has held the film
together as a sort of Greek Chorus - has turned into a zombie too - in a
scene even more hilarious than that of the radio announcer at the end of
Zombi 2). It should have been an ecological zombie
thriller & the long-awaited sequel to Fulci's biggest success Zombi
2, but the chaotic conditions under which this film was made are
well mirrored in the outcome, that, if anything, proves the total
disinterest the movies makers had into their product (Fulci even left
the set prematurely & the film had to be finished by Bruno Mattei -
which shows in the pitiless treatment of its lead characters, but also
in the fact that the plot is alnmost identical to Mattei's earlier Virus). The film actually fails in almost any
department, creating an atmosphere (& despite other flaws Fulci's
horror movies had, & there are many, he was always eager to create a
spooky atmosphere), storytelling (the movie totally fails to focus on
any of the characters, they seem to be just thrown in to be bumped off
at any deliberate moment), characterizations (which was always a weak
spot of any Italian zombie movie), & even the zombie masks & gore
effects are worse than average Italo-zombie fare. Robert Marius's
uncontrolled overacting as the central scientist is a hoot all in itself
though, & gives the mofie at least some unintentional chuckles. |