ZOMBIE (1979) (Blue Underground 4K Ultra HD Review)

ZOMBIE (1979) 

Label: Blue Underground
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 92 Minutes
Audio: Dolby Atmos; 7.1 DTS-HD; 5.1 DTS-HD; 1.0 DTS-HD; Dolby Digital 1.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (2.40:1)
Director: Lucio Fulci
Cast: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver, Olga Karlatos

My first viewing of this infamous Fulci Video Nasty did not disappoint, it was on a beat-up dubbed VHS tape hand-scrawled with the title 'Dawn of the Dead 2' that I bought for fifty cents at a garage sale. It wasn't what I was expecting but it was my introduction to both the fevered world of Italian horror cinema and the mad-genius of director Lucio Fulci, and it was love at first sight, starting off with that intensely eerie scene of a seemingly abandoned yacht drifting into New York Harbor. It's intercepted and boarded by a pair of Harbor Patrolmen, one of whom is attacked by a grotesquely bloated fatso zombie who tears a chunk of his throat out before being shot by his partner and sent falling into the harbor. We're just a few short minutes in and already the blood was gushing and I was scared stiff, it's a classic opening.

It's later revealed that the derelict boat belongs to the father of a woman named Anne Bowles (Tisa Farrow, Anthrophagous), her father having gone missing after travelling to the tropical island of Matool. When the NYPD offer little in the way of answers Anne teams-up with intrepid Kolchak-styled reporter Peter West (Ian McCulloch, Contamination) who was sent to investigate the attack on the officer by his editor, another fun cameo from director Lucio Fulci. The pair end up flying to the tropics on the newspaper's dime where they charter a boat, captained by ginger-beardo Brian Hull (Al Cliver, The Beyond) and his wife Susan (Auretta Gay, Ombre) to the island of Matool. On the way there they don't seem to be in too much of a hurry, with Susan taking a moment to scuba dive topless, but with a shower cap, along a scenic reef where she encounters not just a predatory tiger shark but a zombie who appears from nowhere and takes a bite out of the shark! Truly some ingenious Jaws-ploitation action that's both WTF crazy and OMG awesome. It's pretty amazing stuff as the zombie grabs a hold of the drugged-out shark, tussles with it and then tears off a chunk of flesh, this being one of two scenes that anyone who has seen this movie even once will never forget for the rest of their natural life.

Susan survives the doubly-strange attack and gets back on boat, where I'm sure no one REALLY believed her shocking story about the zombie/shark encounter, who would, right? Continuing onto the island of Matool they meet Dr. David Menard (Richard Johnson, The Haunting) who has a rudimentary medical station set up at a Christian mission. He describes how the island has been plagued by an epidemic of the undead, with corpses rising from the grave and feasting upon the flesh of the living. Menard being a man of science believes there has to be a rational science-based explanation to the epidemic and has stayed on to pursue a cure - much to the dismay of his stunning wife, Paola (Olga Karlatos, Purple Rain).

The doctor keeps his wife under lock and key back at their estate where he assures her that she's perfectly safe, but she's rightfully doubtful because after a wonderfully voyeuristic shower scene she falls prey to the undead! This attack on the Euro-beauty results in the greatest eye-piercing scene in all of horror cinema history, I have yet to see one that even comes close to thing splinter-in-the-eye gore-fest. While she futilely attempts to force a door shut on an attacking zombie the wood of the door splinters, the zombie grabs a hold of her by the hair and oh-so slowly pulls her face-first into a sliver of wood. The scene seems to go on forever before it penetrates her eye, the scene is a masterstroke of suspense, gooey oozing-eye practical special effects and editing, it alone is worth the price of admission, this is the second scene that you will never forget after watching this film even once.

At this point in the film really starts to pick-up steam, having been so far been eerily creepy but not exactly jam-packed with wicked thrills, but trust me, it's the best kind of a slow burn, the one with loads of gory pay-off. Our foursome find themselves besieged by a mass uprising of the undead that includes long-dead conquistadors and more recently deceased islanders, among them the iconic dirt-covered, worm-infested zombie so famously seen in the film's advertising. The zombie effects are simply executed but brilliant in their effectiveness, in my opinion besting any of the Romero/Savini archetypes from his trilogy. What's so disturbing about them for me would have to be how fetid and revolting they are, you can practically smell the undead stench coming off the 2160p UHD presentation. The scenes of the zombies unearthing themselves are fantastic, rising from the ground, dirt covered and creepy, these still get under my skin when I am on the right frame of mind. I also love that Fulci has gone pre-Romero and brought this undead uprising back to the original voodoo origins, at this point that was rare, Romero practically invented the gut-munching zombie, but the original idea of zombies are more in line with Fulci's vision here.

Our quartet eventually find themselves back at the island mission alongside Dr. Menard where we are treated to one of the finest zombie-siege scenarios of all time, it's a thing of macabre beauty laced with dream-like suspense and atmosphere with an overwhelming dread, culminating in a haunting wrap-around finale that takes us back to NYC for a truly apocalyptic vision that remains one of horror-cinema's most enduring and dour endings, it's haunting stuff.

Zombie has pretty much everything you need, memorable tropic set pieces, an eerie, gut-churning electronic score from Fabio Frizzi (Manhattan Baby), fantastic cinematography from Sergio Salvati (The Beyond) and Lucio Fulci's signature gore and dread aesthetic. The zombies are iconic, the atmosphere is claustrophobic and there's a ton of great gut-munching courtesy of Gino and and Gianetto De Rossi's (Dune) spectacularly gruesome make-up and special effects work. Zombie might have been spawned as a knock-off of Romero's Dawn of the Dead but it stands beside it as one of the finest undead films ever made, in fact I think the atmosphere of Zombie bests DOTD on several fronts and holds up better without the anti-consumerism social commentary and humor breaks. What say you to that? 

Audio/Video: Lucio Fulci's Zombie (1979) arrives two-disc 4K UHD/ Blu-ray from Blue Underground utilizing the same gorgeous 4K restoration sourced from the original uncut 35mm camera negative used for their 2018 three-disc limited edition Blu-ray release, framed in 2.40:1 widescreen in 2160p UHD. I absolutely loved the 2018 restoration and presentation but this new 4K UHD with the benefit of the increased resolution

and Dolby Vision HDR10 is another game changer. The source is in fantastic shape with only some minor blemishing appearing briefly, the thin layer of film grain is well-managed throughout with pleasing fine detail, depth and clarity. I've watched the previous Blu-ray about a half-dozen times so I wasn't expecting to be wowed as much as a I was by the UHD presentation, but I was knocked out, the scenes of the zombies rising from the ground and the scenes of the zombies pursuing the group thorough the island jungle and during the final siege on the island are so well lit and and composed by cinematographer Sergio Salvati (The Beyond) that the added benefit of the increased resolution and HDR color-grading make it shine like never before, it's just a wonderful presentation that adds to the beauty of certain shots while also capturing the grit and horror of others. At this point I cannot grab screenshots from 4K UHD but if you want to see images from the 2018 Blu-ray release with a comparison to the 2011 Blue Underground Blu-ray read the review HERE. 

When it comes to audio options Blue Underground go the extra mile for this Fulci flick with a Dolby Atmos remix that sounds fantastic, it has a ton of cool use of the surrounds that add to the viewing, and the Fabio Frizzi score of course sounds terrific, benefitting the most from the Atmos uplift. We also all the audio options that accompanied the three-disc limited edition by wat of English DTS-HD MA 1.0 Mono, 7.1 Surround, Italian DTS-HD MA 1.0 Mono and 5.1 Surround, and French Dolby Digital Mono. I once again found myself preferring the more direct sounding English mono mix, with these Italian dubbed flicks that's just my preference, which is not to take away from the string Atmos and DTS-HD presentations. The disc has optional English subtitles as well as a plethora of other languages. 

Onto the extras, disc one is the UHD disc and contains the main feature as well as a selection of extras. We get the archival video intro by director Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy), plus a pair of audio commentaries. The first is a vintage commentary with star Ian McCulloch moderated by Diabolik Magazine Editor Jason J. Slater. McCulloch tells some great stories about the making of the film and his relationship with Fulci, commenting on what it was like working with the rest of the cast. He also gets into the the reception of the film, it's cult status, the extreme gore of the film and so much more. The second commentary is with Troy Howarth, Author of 'Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulci and His Films', who does his usual bang-up job giving an overview of the film with some scene specific commentary as well as info and anecdotes about the cast and crew, the filming locations, the score and effects a bunch more. 

Fulci authority Stephen Thrower shows up for a 33-minute appreciation of the film, getting into the director's entire career, and how he ended up on the project as a director for hire, he not being the producer's initial choice ti direct it. The UHD disc is buttoned with an array of trailers, TV  and radio spots, plus an extensive image gallery covering home video and  soundtracks releases and loads of promotional materials from various territories.

The the second disc is the same exact Blu-ray disc of extras that accompanied the three-disc limited edition release with identical artwork and serial number. It begins with the 22-minute 'Zombie Wasteland' which was shot during the 2010 Cinema Wasteland Zombie 30th Anniversary Reunion featuring interviews with cast and crew who offer their Fulci recollections; such as Ian McCulloch recalling him as a quite a bully while  Richard Johnson remembers Fulci becoming so angry on the set that he actually ate dirt, now that's pissed off! Al Cliver further fuels the foul-Fulci feelings by offering that Fulci might have hated women because of a poor personal history with the fairer sex, and stuntman Occtavio Dell'Acqua (the iconic worm eyed zombie) recalls Fulci being incredibly difficult to work with. It's all pretty one-sided and not really all that surprising, the director is usually remembered as being difficult to say the least, but in more recent interviews I have seen on the recent Severin releases of Fulci's Aneigma, and Demonia the director is made out to be not quite so tyrannical, but no less difficult.

Up next is the 14-minute 'Deadtime Stories' which features Italian screenwriting legend Dardano Sachetti on the origins of the film starting out as a zombie-western having been inspired by horror-adventure comics of the time and its transformation from the western setting to an island while co-writer Briganti speaks about the magic of the film and her own appreciation of it. In Italian with English subtitles.

'Flesh Eaters on Film' is a 10-minute interview with co-producer Fabrizio De Angelis, who in contrast to some of the other interviews, speaks to Fulci's humor on-set, the demanding nature of the shoots and it's many locations plus the importance of producers on a film set. This is in Italian with English subtitles.

'World of the Dead' is 16-minute of interviews with cinematographer Sergio Salvati and production and costume designer Walter Patriarca  who both discuss the look of the film and set design, making the zombies harsh and ugly looking, and editing the infamous eye-scene, an infamous scene indeed, my favorite eye gouging scene in a catalog of films from a man who really enjoyed a good eye-gouge, no doubt. In Italian with English subtitles

The director's daughter Annette shows up for the brief 6-min 'All in the Family' speaking about her father's crazy treatment of actors and his view on the use of gore in his films. In Italian with English subtitles

'Notes on a Headstone' is a 7-minute interview with frequent Fulci composer Fabio Frizzi (The Beyond, The Psychic) speaking about Fulci's placement of music in his films, his restraint and his passion for filmmaking. In Italian with English subtitles.

The 17-minute 'Zombi Italiano' features interviews with special make-up effects artists Gianetto De Rossi and Maurizio Trani and special effects artist Gino De Rossi all of whom discuss the iconic imagery and special effects, from the low-budget clay zombie applications to the eye-gouging perfection when the wooden splinter meets eye, alongside the difficulty of shooting on a shoe-string budget. In Italian with English subtitles.

And lastly 'Zombie Lover' is a 10-minute appreciation from director Guillermo del Toro (The Devil's Backbone), the Oscar-winning director being a great admirer of the film and of Fulci's body of wrok in general. He recounts seeing the film for the first time as a kid, paying respects to stuntman Ramon Bravo who was the zombie in the zombie vs. shark scene and just really laying on the love for the film. del Toro is such a supporter, his enthusiasm is contagious and his appreciation really ended up being my favorite feature on the set.

The two-disc UHD/Blu-ray release arrives in a black keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the iconic "We are going to eat you!" original movie poster. We also get an embossed slipcover with the same artwork with raised lettering on the front, back and both sides of the spine, plus each of the discs inside have artwork printed on them. If you already own the three-disc limited edition I would encourage you to hang onto it as it does have packaging extras you will not get with the UHD. Not reproduced for this release is the reversible sleeve of artwork or the lenticular slipcase, but as I wasn't that big of a fan of that particular series of lenticular artworks that no biggie, but also do not get the 20-page collector's booklet with writing on the film by Stephen Thrower, or the 18-song CD soundtrack containing the Fabio Frizzi score. I still highly recommend upgrading to the 4K UHD if you want the absolute best looking and sounding version of the film you can find, but if you're a packaging and extras whore like myself you're still gonna want to hang onto that sexy three-disc limited edition release.

Special Features:

Disc 1 (4K UHD Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:

- Audio Commentary #1 with Troy Howarth, Author of Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulci and His Films

- Audio Commentary #2 with Star Ian McCulloch and Diabolik Magazine Editor Jason J. Slater

- When The Earth Spits Out The Dead - Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci (33 min) HD 

- Theatrical Trailers (7 min) 

- TV Spots (1 min) 

- Radio Spots (2 min) HD 

- Poster & Still Gallery (10 min) HD 

- Guillermo del Toro Intro (1 min) 

Disc 2 (Blu-ray) Extras:

- Zombie Wasteland - Interviews with Stars Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson & Al Cliver, and Actor/Stuntman Ottaviano Dell'Acqua (23 min) HD 

- Flesh Eaters on Film - Interview with Co-Producer Fabrizio De Angelis (10 min) 

- Deadtime Stories - Interviews with Co-Writers Elisa Briganti and (Uncredited) Dardano Sacchetti (15 min) HD

- World of the Dead - Interviews with Cinematographer Sergio Salvati and Production & Costume Designer Walter Patriarca (17 min) HD

- Zombi Italiano - Interviews with Special Make-Up Effects Artists Gianetto De Rossi & Maurizio Trani and Special Effects Artist Gino De Rossi (17 min) 

- Notes on a Headstone - Interview with Composer Fabio Frizzi (8 min) HD 

- All in the Family - Interview with Antonella Fulci (9 min) 

- Zombie Lover - Award-Winning Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro talks about one of his favorite films (10 min) 

There's not much more I could say about Lucio Fulci's Zombie (1979), it's my favorite Zombie film of all-time, a gut-munching, eye-gouging slice of Euro-cult perfection. Blue Underground have assembled the definitive statement on home video with this eye-popping 4K Ultra HD release, their loving restoration is chock full of gory razzle-dazzle and the extras are absolutely exhaustive, this is another must-own for fans of Fulci, Euro-cult and/or zombie flicks. I have seen a lot of major studio 4K UHD releases that don't even come close to approaching the level of A/V perfection offered by Blue Underground on their initial batch of 4K UHD releases, my mouth and eyes are watering in hungry anticipation of their next batch of UHD releases! 

DEMONIA (1990) (Severin Films Blu-ray Review)

DEMONIA (1990)

Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 89 Minutes 
Audio: English & Italian 2,0 Mono with Optional English Subtitle
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1) 
Director: Lucio Fulci
Cast: Brett Halsey, Meg Register, Lino Salemme, Christina Engelhardt, Pascal Druant, Grady Clarkson, Al Cliver

Lucio Fulci's Demonia (1990) opens in in Sicily in the year 1486 with an torch-carrying angry mob storming a convent and crucifying five nuns suspected of practicing witchcraft or some such satanic thing. The nuns are crucified and set on fire, their remains are then walled up in a cavernous chamber right beneath the convent. This frightening event is witnessed by archaeologist Liza (Meg Register, Boxing Helena) in Toronto, Canada during a frightful seance in the year 1990. Next thing we know Liza is in Sicily working on an archaeological dig with her university instructor Professor Evans (Brett Halsey, The Devil's Honey), who tells her to stay away from such phantasmagorical nonsense as seances and to focus her attention on the archaeology dig.

Later while exploring an abandoned monastery located near the archaeological dig Liza discovers a walled-off crypt after breaking through a wall with a pick-ax, where she finds the charred skeletal remains of the five crucified nuns from the start of the film, and again when she tells her professor of the strange find he tells her to forget she ever saw it. His intuition is correct though, the locals in the area have been none too pleased about these foreigners digging up the area's forgotten past, including a local politician, angry butcher Turi (Lino Salemme, Demons) and an American underwater archaeologist named Porter (Al Cliver, Zombie), all of whom advise, to varying degrees of hostility, that they should leave the area immediately. Despite these warning the dig continues and a series of bizarre deaths begin to plague those involved, beginning with the harpooning and decapitation of Porter on his boat by the naked ghost of a nun!

Demonia (1990) is sometimes referred to as the last great Fulci film, and that's quite a generous statement from some rabid fans, my own opinion is that it's a bit less than that, but still enjoyable. Demonia borrows heavily from the filmography of Fulci with story vestiges from The Beyond, The City of The Living Dead and Zombie, but it's only a pale imitation of those gore-tastic classics with the introduction of a singular new element, a bit of supernatural nunsploitation. It doesn't help that the cinematography is flat and uninspired with a thick and gauzy diffused appearance that recalls Fulci's fantasy-adventure film Conquest (1983). At times it looks decent with good depth and clarity but other scenes appear to be marred by too much light exposure, often within the same scene the visual density will change, calling attention to itself to the point of distraction.

The film does have some fun gore set-pieces that don't disappoint, we get a meat hook through the neck and then a tongue nailed to a butcher's block, eyes are scratched out via a hokey looking feline attack, there's an impalement on iron spikes, a fiery Crucifixion that includes a nail through the throat, a neck-stabbing during sex, and a severed head impaled on the tusk of a boat anchor, with the best of the bunch being a man ripped in half wishbone style, leaving his son drenched in his blood! Not all the special effects are executed with highest degree of artistry though, some are quite ropy in their application, and none are helped by the unattractive lensing and poor editing that plagues the film.

As a Fulci fan I certainly appreciated the stream of echoes from the director's earlier works, with Meg Register's character name being a direct reference to The Beyond, Al Cliver's boat-living archaeologist recalls his character from Zombie, and a scene of Liza breaking through a wall with a pick-ax is shot to mirror a similiar scene from The City of The Living Dead. It's sort of like when a band loses the rights to their early catalog so they re-record their biggest hits, but their new recording fail to capture what was so great about the original recordings, and such is the case with Demonia (1990), it's an echo of better works from Fulci. It's also great to see Fulci make his usual Hitchcockian cameo as an inspector investigating the string of strange murders, but unfortunately the film lacks the usual Fulci atmospheric touches that might have served to pull viewers in and smooth over the poor editing, but I still dig it as morbidly curious fan of late-era Fulci.

Audio/Video: Demonia (1990) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Severin Films with a new brand new 4k scan of the original camera negative framed in 1.66:1 widescreen, presented in 1080p HD. The flick is advertised as being "scanned in 4k from the original negative recently discovered in the attic of a Collevecchio convent", yeah, okay, I guess those nuns were huge Fulci fans, who knew? This Fulci film has always been a bit of an ugly looking entry, shot with heavy lens filtration that gives it a foggy shroud that's not always pleasant to look at. It also suffers from some technically issues that looks to be either over-exposed and/or overly diffused film. This new 4k scan does take a bit of the edge off those shortcomings, offering a bit more clarity and detail in the close-ups occasionally, but it's still not a pretty sight. That said the foggy and darker interior scenes are better resolved with some decent fine detail, and the colors are more vibrant and deeper than what I've seen before, so it is a quantifiable improvement over the previous release. 

Audio on this release come by way of English & Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono with optional English subtitles. Dialogue in both Italian and English is clean and direct with no issue with hiss or distortion, though I preferred the English dub over the Italian dub. I thought the score from Giovanni Cristian was rather unremarkable but it does have good fidelity, it just doesn't do much to enhance the film. 

Extras kick-off with another great Fulci commentary with Stephen Thrower, Author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci, a dyed in the wool Fulci expert and fan who I always look forward to hearing from whenever we get a new Fulci release. He dives into this late-era flick with a candid appreciation, always game to point out it's less than stellar aspects while also giving it plenty of love when appropriate, backing up his commentary with extensive production notes, biographical background and some historical context for happenings in the film. 

In the 33-min 'Holy Demons' the uncredited co-writer/assistant director Antonio Tentorin talks via Skype during the pandemic of being a huge Fulci fan and seeking out his films at the cinema, before meeting him 1986 at a radio station where he was a DJ at the time, and how that lead to collaborating with Fulci in this film and beyond. 
Camera operator also Sandro Grossi shows up for the 15-min 'Of Skulls and Bones' in which he discusses his passion for film, and of how seeing Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon made him want to pursue a career in film. He also touches on shooting the film, Fulci's love of the fog filter, visual trucks here learned from Fulci, the director's slovenly appearance and trouble with women, and how the Fulci's death affected him. The disc is buttoned-up with an om-set interview with Fulci during the making-of Demonia (1990) and a trailer for the film. 

The single-disc release comes housed in a standard black keepcase with a single-sided  sleeve of artwork that while not amazing it is a a bit of an improvement over the Media Blasters DVD artwork. This has never been a film with a good looking movie poster or home video artwork, so this is at least an improvement over anything else, it's amazing what a little bit of mint-green color can do.   

Special Features: 
- Holy Demons: Interview with uncredited Co-Writer/Assistant Director Antonio Tentori (33 min)
- Fulci Lives: Interview with Lucio Fulci on set of DEMONIA
- Of Skulls and Bones: Interview with camera operator Sandro Grossi (15 min) 
- Audio Commentary with Stephen Thrower, Author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci
- Original Trailer

Demonia (1990) has never looked better on home video, but that's not saying that much, it was an ugly film when it made it, and you can only polish a turd so much, but Severin do admirable work breathing new life into this stale looking film. The movie itself is a bit of a fun greatest hits tour for Fulci, and fans who are still enamored with the director's late-era work, despite it's shortcomings, are sure to enjoy revisiting this slice of Fulci nunsploitation. I also appreciate that Severin have present it with some quality extras that make this a must-own for any Fulci fan, regardless of your feelings about the quality of his late-era stuff.   

More screenshots from the Blu-ray: