Zombi 3 (1988)

Zombi 3: Directed by Lucio Fulci, Claudio Fragasso, Bruno Mattei. With Deran Sarafian, Beatrice Ring, Ottaviano Dell’Acqua, Massimo Vanni. When a terrorist’s body, infected with a stolen chemical, is cremated by the US military, a virus is unintentionally released into the atmosphere over a small island.

“Zombi 3 was doomed from the moment Lucio Fulci suffered a stroke during filming and was forced to stand aside as director. Fulci was replaced by Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso, who – while not in the same league as Fulci – certainly know their way around a horror film. Given the circumstances, itu0026#39;s not surprising that the film does not meet Fulciu0026#39;s usual high standards but it is shock that the finished product turned out to be such an awful and embarrassing mess.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFulciu0026#39;s u0026quot;Zombi 2u0026quot; was a brazen attempt to cash in on the Italian success of George A. Romerou0026#39;s u0026quot;Dawn of The Deadu0026quot; (released as u0026quot;Zombiu0026quot; in Italy). u0026quot;Zombi 2u0026quot; exceeded all expectations and became a horror classic in its own right, largely due to Fulciu0026#39;s sublime direction, sense of humour and more-is-more approach to gore. Sadly all of these qualities are sorely missing from Zombi 3. In fact, Zombi 3 has very little going for it at all. There are odd moments of competence and one moment of Fulci brilliance but as a whole, this film is a dogu0026#39;s breakfast. Even the most ardent fan of Italian horror will find this stinker painful to sit through.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt is hard to convey just how bad this movie is. Zombi 3 is abysmal in just about every regard. Perhaps the most grating aspect of the film is its complete and utter disregard for so called u0026quot;zombie-loreu0026quot;. Fulci took an original approach to zombie behaviour in u0026quot;Zombi 2u0026quot; (the underwater zombies being one of the many highlights of that great movie) but still remained within the basic zombie framework. The zombies in this turkey not only run around with great agility, they also talk and remember who they were. These creatures are not the living dead – just living mutants. The misunderstanding of the zombie concept is just one of the scriptu0026#39;s many flaws. The filmu0026#39;s basic premise of a zombie virus being released into the atmosphere is pretty lame but the fact that Zombi 3 requires announcements from an ecologically friendly, zombie DJ to pull the disjointed and confusing storyline together is simply unforgivable. The same could be said for the hilariously inept special effects. The scene in which an actor is attacked by obviously dead, stuffed birds would embarrass Ed Wood, while I hope the person who forgot to apply zombie make-up to the actorsu0026#39; hands and legs is hanging their head in shame somewhere.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAmongst all the incompetence there are a few moments that make the viewing experience bearable. One of them is the zombie in the fridge, which Fulci considered to be one the only respectable scare in the film. Another highlight is the zombie birth scene which was u0026quot;borrowedu0026quot; for the recent remake of u0026quot;Dawn Of The Deadu0026quot; and the clever twist of having the characters pursued not only by the undead but also by crazed army officials. It must be said that these few bright moments are probably reason enough for horror buffs and zombie aficionados to hunt the film down. Everyone else will be left scratching their heads in wonderment at the epic scale of the Zombi 3u0026#39;s incompetence.”