Video Nasty #20- Toxic Zombies

By the time The House By The Cemetery ended, everyone else in my crew had fallen asleep. But I was determined to make it to the end, so I made one last trip to the snack bar and settled in to watch the final film of the weekend.

(1980)
Director: Charles McCrann
Writer: Charles McCrann

In Toxic Zombies (also known as Bloodeaters and Forest Of Fear), a group of hippie pot farmers, suspecting that the feds are onto them, decide to gather up what remains of their crop and make their escape. Unfortunately for them, a group of federal agents decide to have the remote area of Pennsylvania that the hippies call home to their operation crop dusted with an experimental new herbicide which turns them all into bloodthirsty maniacs. Forest ranger Tom Cole isn't deterred by the government's warnings to stay away from the area due to "severe flooding", and takes his annual fishing trip anyway, along with his wife and brother. While there they run into Amy and Jimmy, a brother and sister whose parents were slaughtered by the toxic zombies. Soon, the maniacal hippies descend upon them and they desperately try to escape back to civilization.

When the star of your film is also it's writer, director, and producer, it's a pretty safe bet that you're in for a stinker. Add to that some other terrible performances, not the least of which is the mentally challenged Jimmy played by an actor dressed like Simple Jack that goes "full retard". You never go full retard. There's also an actor that plays one of the zombies that looks remarkably like Tom Petty and it cracks me up every time.

I suppose this film fell onto the nasties list because of the gore in it, which is strange because it's not particularly good. In fact, it seems like the kind of movie that no one would pay any attention to if it weren't on the list. Except maybe for the kickass poster. The plot is stupid, the actors are terrible, and the effects are pretty awful. And that's kind of what makes Toxic Zombies worth watching. I give it 4 1/2 out of 6 beers.

And with that, the April Ghoul's Drive-In Monster-Rama was over. As The Spaniels' "Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite" played over the radio and I climbed into my tent for a few hours of sleep, I could hardly wait to come back in the fall and enjoy another two nights of good times, great snacks, and awesome horror flicks.

Video Nasty #19- The House By The Cemetery

The last two movies of the night were ones I hadn't seen before, so I loaded up on coffee and snacks and prepared myself. Next on the agenda was another Lucio Fulci film, The House By The Cemetery.

(1981)
Director: Lucio Fulci
Writers: Elisa Briganti, Lucio Fulci, Giorgio Mariuzzo, Dardano Sacchetti

The House By The Cemetery is very strange movie and I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it. It follows a family that is moving into an old mansion in New England. The son, Bob, has some kind of telepathic communication with a little girl who keeps warning him not to come to the house. Soon after moving in, it becomes apparent that something strange is going on in the basement which is nailed shut.

House By The Cemetery has some pretty gruesome kills in it and that likely the reason it was on the "Nasty" list. Most notable is the "bat attack" scene which becomes so bloody it actually starts to seem comical. My guess as to the real reason House By The Cemetery was banned though, is Bob. Bob is quite possibly the most annoying character put to screen. His voice makes me angry, his face makes me angry. He is the Jar-Jar Binks of Italian horror.

Despite Bob however, The House By The Cemetery is a pretty engaging piece of Fulci madness. I was never quite sure where it was going to go and was enthralled by oddness of it all. The House By The Cemetery gets 4 out of 6 beers.

Video Nasty #18- Zombie

After The Evil Dead came Night Of The Demons, which was a blast. Night Of The Demons is a favorite of mine. It's just a good, fun eighties horror flick. And it also has Linnea Quigley in it which doesn't hurt. Unfortunately, I had to tap out for Lamberto Bava's Demons which was the last feature of the night. I love Demons, but it was just too late and I was too tired. The next day, after a visit to the nearby Monroeville Mall where George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead was shot, we settled back in for another night of great horror flicks starting with Dawn Of The Dead itself. Although I've seen it countless times before, it was a pleasure to finally see this classic at a drive-in. The second film of the night was one that I've also seen many times before but was very excited to see on the big screen-

(1979)
Director: Lucio Fulci
Writers: Elisa Briganti, Dardano Sacchetti

Zombie (aka Zombi 2, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Woodoo) follows a woman who, along with a reporter, is trying to track down her missing father. Her father, Dr. Menard, is a physician who is investigating the secrets of the island of Matool where the dead have begun to rise. Although Zombie started production before Dawn Of The Dead (which was known in Europe as Zombi), when the George Romero film became a hit, the producers of Zombie added scenes to the beginning and end to try to tie it into the franchise.

As with many Fulci films, Zombie (Zombie Flesh Eaters) is very gory and that's certainly the reason it was banned by the British Film Board. Surprisingly, Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 and 3 were not banned by the BBFC.

I've watched Zombie many times, and not only because it tricked me by being released in the U.S. as both Zombie AND Zombie 2. To me, the plot of Zombie is not particularly enthralling, instead it's the horror setpieces that turn the film from just your average zombie flick into a truly great one. Once you've seen the "zombie vs. shark" scene (in which an actual actor dressed as a zombie interacts with a real shark) or the tense scene in which a woman's eyeball is slowly impaled on a splinter of wood, you will never forget them as long as you live. The haunting progressive soundtrack by Fabio Frizzi also elevates the film to another level. Essentially, Zombie is a dumb horror movie that has enough great elements that, in the end, it becomes a classic. And how can you resist that poster of the maggot-infested zombie proclaiming "WE ARE GOING TO EAT YOU!"? That's genius marketing right there. Zombie gets 4 1/2 out of 6 beers.