Zombie III
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Zombie III |
| Original title | Zombie 3 |
| Country of production | Italy |
| original language | Italian |
| Publishing year | 1988 |
| length | 88 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK unchecked, indexed and confiscated nationwide |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Lucio Fulci Bruno Mattei Claudio Fragasso |
| script | Claudio Fragasso Rossella Drudi |
| production | Franco Gaudenzi |
| music | Stefano Mainetti |
| camera |
Richard Grassetti (as Riccardo Grassetti ) |
| cut | Alberto Moriani |
| occupation | |
| |
Zombie III (original title: Zombi 3 , German alternative title: Zombie 3 - A New Beginning ) is an Italian horror film from 1988. Lucio Fulci first directed the film before Bruno Mattei completed the production. The zombie film is based on a story by Claudio Fragasso and his wife Rossella Drudi , who also wrote the script together.
The film title is a little misleading, as this production is not the third part of a possible film series, but rather a loose sequel to Zombi 2 , an unofficial straggler to George A. Romero's Zombie, directed by Fulci in 1979 .
Zombie III is the fourth full-length zombie film by Lucio Fulcis, which, however, has only rudimentary references to the other productions.
action
The scientific director of a secret research institute in the Philippines , Professor Dr. Holder, succeeds in analyzing an as yet unknown, colorless gas on behalf of the government and preparing a risk assessment for the military. The toxic substance, a new type of bacteriological warfare agent called "Death One", leads to the death of a test person upon physical contact. Air transmission is also possible. At the same time, a dangerous mutation is triggered, which ultimately turns the person affected into an aggressive zombie . After completing the secret research series, the volatile substance is stolen along with explosive records in a terrorist attack. The reactionary US troops under the command of General Morton kill most of the attackers, but an armed terrorist manages to escape first. The fleeing stranger becomes infected with the death-one gas; a transformation into a living, instinctive undead is imminent. General Morton now intervenes personally and orders the capture of the infected, as well as the elimination and evacuation of the entire area, without notifying the scientists. The fugitive is soon killed and cremated in the local crematorium on the command of the commandant . Unknowingly, one conjures up such a catastrophe of unimagined proportions, when fine highly contagious combustion residue particles pass the chimney unhindered and as fine ash rain contaminate a passing flock of birds, which thus becomes the host and carrier of the zombie plague.
The birds of the area degenerate into bloodthirsty monsters that fall upon passers-by in rows and transmit the deadly epidemic. A wave of unimaginable atrocities is sweeping the country, accompanied by inexplicable murders and cannibalism . Unsuspecting people mutate into bloodthirsty zombies who in turn attack their neighbor. Against this background, at some point a minibus with seven illustrious young US tourists is attacked by an aggressive flock of birds. Suzanna is easily injured. Three drive-controlled soldiers from a US military base rush to the aid of the young people. They recover the wounded and lead them to a nearby, deserted hotel. The attractive Patricia experienced a similar incident when she and her boyfriend Glenn were traveling through rural provinces in a convertible. Your friend is critically injured and killed; later he turns into a living dead.
Meanwhile, the horror reports reach the military, which is forced to act. The plague threatens all of humanity. General Morton tries to control the plague and declares a state of emergency . His clean-up teams, equipped with protective suits, are supposed to take over the removal of the problem and, as a precaution, destroy all living beings in the restricted area. In parallel, the scientists are working on an immune serum .
Meanwhile, the group of travelers is investigating the abandoned hotel. Since there are no means of communication, the uniformed Bo is sent off with a female escort to fetch a doctor for the injured person. Bo and his companion are ambushed by the zombies and die. The other hotel guests, above all the two soldiers Ken and Roger, hide in the empty building, where they soon find a box full of working weapons. A little later, the confused Patricia joins the group. She warns those present of approaching creatures. The two soldiers organize the defense, but are soon faced with an outnumbered horde of undead who cause them to flee. On their odyssey across the wilderness, the group fights for bare survival. They not only have to assert themselves against the omnipresent zombies, but also defend themselves against the trigger-happy anti-epidemic units of the general. As a result, the number of survivors is rapidly decreasing.
At the end of the film, the four survivors Kenny, Roger, Nancy and Patricia arrive at an abandoned hospital, where they are once again captured and decimated by zombies and assassinating purge squads. In the back yard of the area they flee to a rescue helicopter that only Patricia and pilot Kenny can reach alive. The duo flies out of the danger zone. On the helicopter radio, the two listen to the apocalyptic message of the radio presenter "Blue Heart", who announces a gloomy scenario of the world domination of the undead.
backgrounds
Most of the outdoor shots for the film took place in the Philippine community of Los Baños , in the Laguna province not far from the capital Manila .
The circumstances why Fulci didn't finish the film are still debatable to this day. According to Frank Trebbin's horror dictionary and Christian Keßler's book Das Wilde Auge , Fulci had to break off the chaotic production conditions in the Philippines due to illness . Other sources claim that the original, lengthy version disliked the producer Franco Gaudenzi . After viewing and removing the superfluous material, there were once 50 minutes of film material left - too little for a full-length feature film, so Gaudenzi asked Fulci to re-shoot. He refused to work on the production and Gaudenzi contacted his friend Mattei to end the shooting of the disgraced Fulcis, which he did. What part Fulci has in the end product can hardly be determined with absolute certainty. Sometimes there is talk of a quarter of an hour, other sources even speak of up to 70 minutes.
The work was released in Italian cinemas on July 29, 1988. The first German evaluation on video followed on April 18, 1989, but only in a drastically censored version. Although the film often only found its way into living rooms abroad, i.e. was only included in the video exploitation, the film advanced to a considerable commercial success. Producer Franco Gaudenzi took advantage of the small revival of the zombie wave and commissioned Claudio Fragasso and his wife Rossella Drudi to stage a scenario for another zombie film, Evil is back better known as Zombie IV . Drudi wrote the script, while her partner under the pseudonym "Clyde Anderson" took over the direction.
Reviews
The lexicon of international films wrote that the film was a "bloody zombie film that exaggerated and pointed elements of horror" . At the same time, the strip is "a biliously ironic commentary on environmental destruction with its real catastrophic consequences."
Frank Trebbin wrote in his horror film lexicon Die Angst sits next to you that the film is a "completely unnecessary zombie infusion" . His conclusion: "Horror movies to get used to."
DVD releases in Germany
- Label: Laser Paradise, July 2, 2001, Red Edition
- Label: Laser Paradise, December 31, 2003, collection box in a cardboard slipcase from the "Lucio Fulci Collection"
Web links
- Zombie III in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Zombie III in the online film database
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. http://german.imdb.com/title/tt0096511/locations
- ↑ a b cf. Frank Trebbin in The Fear Sitting Next to You , self-published 1998, ISBN 978-3929234039
- ↑ cf. http://german.imdb.com/title/tt0096511/releaseinfo
- ↑ a b Zombie III in the Lexicon of International Films