Zombie Holocaust
| Zombie Holocaust | |
|---|---|
 Italian theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Marino Girolami |
| Screenplay by | Romano Scandariato[1] |
| Story by | Fabrizio De Angelis[1] |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Fausto Zuccoli[1] |
| Edited by | Alberto Moriani[1] |
| Music by | Nico Fidenco[1] |
Production companies |
|
| Distributed by | Flora Film[1] |
| Country | Italy |
Zombie Holocaust (Template:Lang-it) is an Italian horror film directed by Marino Girolami.[1] The film is about a team of scientists who follow a trail of corpses to a pacific island where they meet a mad doctor (Donald O'Brien) who performs experiments on both the living and dead in his laboratory. The team begins to become victims of the doctor and his zombie horde while trying to escape from cannibals as well. The film was released theatrically in 1983 in the United States which featured extra footage from an unreleased American film.
Plot
In New York City a hospital worker is found to have been devouring bodies in the morgue. Morgue assistant and anthropology expert Lori (Alexandra Delli Colli) discovers he was from the Asian Molucca islands where she grew up. Dr. Peter Chandler (Ian McCulloch) investigates, and he and Lori discover that similar corpse mutilations have occurred in other city hospitals, where immigrants from this region are working.
Peter leads an expedition to the islands to investigate, where he liaises with Doctor Obrero (Donald O'Brien). Included are his assistant George, George's eager journalist girlfriend Susan, Lori, local boatsman Molotto assigned by Obrero, and three guides. The crew are hunted by cannibals and zombies, the latter created by the sinister Doctor Obrero who is experimenting with corpses.
Lori is accepted as queen of the cannibals, and sends them off against the mad scientist and his zombie army.
Cast
- Ian McCulloch as Dr. Peter Chandler
- Alexandra Delli Colli as Lori Ridgeway
- Sherry Buchanan as Susan Kelly
- Peter O'Neal as George Harper
- Donald O'Brien as Dr. Obrero/Dr. Butcher (US version)
- Dakar as Molotto
- Walter Patriarca as Dr. Dreylock
Release
On its release in Italy, the film grossed a total of 300 million Italian lira.[2] Zombie Holocaust was released in the United States in 1982 in a heavily edited form under the title Dr. Butcher, M.D.[2] This version incorporated footage from an unreleased film shot by director Roy Frumkes.[2] The film has since been released under various English titles, including Zombie Holocaust, Island of the Last Zombies, Queen of the Cannibals and Zombi 3.[2]
The DVD was released on May 21, 2002, by Shriek Show. It can be purchased separately or in a triple feature package. The Zombie Pack Vol. 2 contains Zombie Holocaust, Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror, and Flesheater.[3] It was released on Blu-ray for the first time by Shriek Show on June 28, 2011, in the U.S.[4][better source needed]
Reception
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In The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, academic Peter Dendle wrote, "Some of the gore effects are quite good, but other than that the movie is a stock accumulation of familiar motifs."[5] Bloody Disgusting rated it 5/5 stars and recommended it to fans of Italian gore films.[6] Author Glenn Kay of Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide referred to it as "a bad movie; for Italian zombie gore fans only."[2] Danny Shipka, author of a book on European exploitation films, noted that Zombie Holocaust showed how quickly the zombie "subgenre degenerated into stupidity" and that the film "fuses the cannibal genre and the zombie film into an incoherent mess"[7]
See also
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Zombi Holocaust (1980)" (in Italian). Archivio del cinema Italiano. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- ^ a b c d e Kay 2012, p. 113.
- ^ The Movies Made Me Do It - FleshEater
- ^ Zombie Holocaust Blu-ray
- ^ Dendle, Peter (2001). The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia. McFarland & Company. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-7864-9288-6.
- ^ "Dr Butcher MD (aka Zombie Holocaust)". Bloody Disgusting. 2004-10-22. Retrieved 2015-02-18.
- ^ Shipka 2011, p. 139.
References
- Kay, Glenn (2012). Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 1613744250.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - Shipka, Danny. Perverse Titillation: The Exploitation Cinema of Italy, Spain and France, 1960–1980. McFarland. ISBN 0786486090.
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