Zombie 3 — Zombie 3( Blu Ray/ CD)
Appearing in 1988 Zombie 3( aka Zombi 3) was an Italian production that was shot in the Philippines- and by all accounts, it had a very messy production. Originally the film started up been directed by lucio fulci, but sadly due to illness he had to dip out. Then in stepped infamous Italian B movie screenwriter Claudio Fragasso, and euro trash mister Bruno Mattei. And what you get left with is a campy & often cheesy mess of a film- if you’re after a serious & coherent Zombie film, with creative effects- then Zombie 3 is not for you. But if you fancy some euro-horror silliness- featuring ridiculous gooey & at times OTT effects, dumb characters, silly plotting, and general 80’s campiness- then you’ll enjoy what we have here.
The plot is far from original- it starts off with a terrorist stealing a secret government chemical- it leaks, and he becomes infected fairly soon his skin is bubbling & popping, & he’s hacking off his limbs in a rundown hotel. Fairly soon the white-suited gas mask wearing government goons turn-up, the bodies incinerated, and surprise, surprise the outbreak spreads. Into this, we get a group of dumb teens in a motorhome and two randy soldiers. And as the film unfolds we get Zombie birds, folks with popping & bubbling skin, flying zombie heads(!), limbs been pulled off, badly staged action, and of course lots of lumbering zombies- often back-lit with unexplained color lighting.
Going onto discuss the picture quality on this new reissue- Severin has done a really nice job, really enhancing the gooey gore & later color-flilted backlighting. Extras wise on the disc we get a fair batch of stuff- first off we get an audio commentary for the film- this is from two of the films stars Deran Sarafian and Beatrice Ring- the track is very chatty, at times rather silly, and to be honest not great. I do enjoy it when there is a little humor/ fun in a track, but there has to be interesting observations or facts too- and I’m afraid these are rather thin on the ground here. Other extras include- The Last Zombies- which is an 18-minute interview with Co-Director/Co-Writer Claudio Fragasso and Co-Writer Rossella Drudi- this is most rewarding, as the pair discuss the films many production issues and interesting titbits about Fulci. Next, we get a four featurettes- these each run around the eight-to-fifteen minute mark, and all are stand-alone interviews with stuntman/actor, replacement director Bruno Mattei, effects artists, and one of the film's actresses- each of these is worthy, and again add interesting background about the production.
The second disc here is, of course, the soundtrack- this takes in fifteen tracks, and forty-three minutes of music. Sadly there’s no track listing for the disc, but I’m guessing it’s basically a reissue of the Beat Records CD release from 1996. The scores by Stefano Mainetti- who seemingly did a slew of trashy action & horror film scores in the late 80’s. It’s a pleasingly campy & varied enough score- with the cues going from the funky synth, goth organ, and sampled choir dramatics of the title track. Moving spinningly moody guitar synth waverings- which sound like low-grade Goblin. Though to more 80’s darkly ambient drifts- with added creepy effects, and moans. Onto to tick-tocking gothic electronica. Through to brighter punchy euro soul-pop, and campy fist-banging synth heavy 80’s lite metal/ rock.
It’s great to see Severin digging up trashy euro-horror gems like Zombie 3, and giving them such a thorough & neat reissue. I really like the way they present the Blu Ray alongside the CD soundtrack here, and I hope we get more similar double disc issues of films in the future from the company.