Cannibals With Extra Cheese (Zombi Holocaust [Zombie Holocaust] (DVD))

Member Name: robomit

Product:	Zombi Holocaust [Zombie Holocaust] (DVD)
Date:	12/01/04 (198 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Gore Effects

Disadvantages: Extra Cheesy!

Zombi Holocaust takes place in New York City and starts off with a guy stepping into a room where corpses are kept at a local hospital and crudely removing a piece of the corpse for himself and then leaving. This is noticed the next day when the body is to be used in a class for some medical students. After the doctor/professor uncovers the body in front of the students they all notice a piece of the body is missing, the professor tries to play it off acting as though he isn't surprised the corpse is missing a piece. The students start snickering and joking about it and the professor decides to dismiss class early. After the class has exited the doctor talks a bit with a nurse, apparently this has happened before and they discuss possible solutions. Sometime later on a guy is caught taking body parts from a corpse and is apprehended by hospital staff, that doesn't last too long as he makes his hilarious escape.

A day or so later there is a meeting someplace between authorities and staff from the hospital, authorities show the employees pictures of the body part thief they encountered and also some other related pictures, such as of another body part thief from somewhere else. The nurse makes a revelation about how the thieves all share the same tattoo, she says it has something to do with cannibalistic rituals and that she just so happens to have grown up on the island that the tribe calls home. Authorities enjoy this bit of information and feel more could be learned if they sent a member of the media, a nurse, a doctor, and some other goof to investigate the island for them. Stationed on a nearby island doing research is a doctor who is related to the hospital, the group can be set there to meet up with him first, rest, and then check out the nearby cannibal island for clues.

Things on the first island are a bit slow with the characters talking to the doctor and his crew , the viewer is treated to a hilarious scene where a decapitated he
ad is found and all the doctor stationed on the island can say is something to the effect of, "What? That's what you're screaming about? If the natives wanted to have killed you they would have, you've got nothing to worry about". Eventually the group is on their way to the island but have to stop at another nearby island due to the boat's engine overheating. Soon after arriving and setting up camp things start going wrong, cannibals are also on this island and they start picking off members of the crew, some of which is rather hilarious and gory. Later on zombies appear and add themselves to the mix, you can definitely tell this films influences right away. Eventually one learns what's going on and the remaining people make their escape with an ending that is very similar to Lucio Fulci's Zombie.

This film's plot is so silly that it may take a second viewing to truly appreciate it. There are a few loose ends in this movie but it's no big deal. The gore effects are great, they look good and are executed nicely, some of the most notable were the eyeball gouge scene and this swinging spike trap the cannibals have set up. One bad special effects scene is where a character is supposed to make a long fall and when the dummy lands you can make out it's arm falling off. It's hilarious stuff, I guess the dummy couldn't stand a second take, who knows. The zombies look alright and their origin was something that reminded me of Re-animator in a way. This film is a trip, you can definitely see the influences of both Lucio Fulci's Zombie and the various Cannibal films in terms of the effects and plot in this film. Ian McCulloch who starred in Lucio Fulci's Zombie is one of the lead characters in this film as well. I suggest not going into this film expecting too much as it is rather cheesy, however if you have an appreciation for cheesy movies and Italian zombie and cannibal films you should have yourself a
good time as it's easy to gather what this movie's influences were.

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