Zombie Flesh Eaters

[Susan Foreman]

It's probably good enough to cover Auretta Gay's breasts when she goes swimming tho!

[SilverSurfer]

Originally Posted by Susan Foreman

It's probably good enough to cover Auretta Gay's breasts when she goes swimming tho!

That defeats the object or in her case 2 objects.

[nosferatu42]

Originally Posted by Susan Foreman

It's probably good enough to cover Auretta Gay's breasts when she goes swimming tho!

Yep, but where's the fun in that??

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Beyond72

Tbf, no one has come close to summing up the Fabio Frizzi score so well as Kermode once did, when it aired (cut) on C4 many years back.

Mark Kermode's introduction to 'Zombie Flesh Eaters', when it was broadcast as part of the 'Censored Season' in February 1999

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Back in the day when MK didn't talk a pile of pretentious shite.

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by The Reaper Man@Cult Labs

Back in the day when MK didn't talk a pile of pretentious shite.

A man that can talk a glass eye to sleep

[Susan Foreman]

July 18th, 1980 - 41 years ago today, Lucio Fulci's 'Zombi 2' was released to American cinemas

Some facts and figures:

Despite being called 'Zombi 2', the film is not a sequel to anything. When 'Dawn of the Dead' (1978) was released under the title 'Zombi' in Italy, this film was retitled 'Zombi 2' to cash in on the success of Romero / Argento's film. As Italian copyright law allows any film to be marketed as a sequel to another work, the film was quickly greenlit and financed by producer Fabrizio De Angelis. Enzo G. Castellari was offered to direct 'Zombi 2', but turned it down as he didn't feel he would be the right director for a horror film. Director Lucio Fulci was De Angelis' second choice for the project, and was hired based on his handling of violent scenes in his previous films Sette note in nero and Non si sevizia un paperino. The opening and closing scenes (which take place in New York) were added to the script later when the producers wanted to cash-in on the success of Dawn. Dardano Sacchetti based his script to 'Zombi' on 'I Walked with a Zombie', 'Voodoo Island' and 'The Walking Dead', stating that he wanted to bring the zombie genre back to its Caribbean and Voodoo roots

Dardano chose to take his name off the credits due to his father's death during preproduction. As a result of his loss, Sacchetti felt uncomfortable about being connected with a movie about the dead returning to a semblance of life and then being destroyed

Lead star McCulloch was cast primarily on the success in Italy of the 1975 BBC television series Survivors, which had impressed producer Ugo Tucci

Like many Italian horror films of the time, half the cast spoke only English and the other half only Italian. Many Italian films produced for international distribution filmed without sound and recorded several dialog tracks in different languages in the studio for later overdubbing

Because the actors are speaking a number of different languages (or some are speaking a non-native language phonetically), the dubbing in all versions of the film is not 100% synchronized. Ian McCulloch, Tisa Farrow, Olga Karlatos, and Stefania D'Amario were of the main English speaking cast, while Al Cliver, Auretta Gay, and Dakar were of the main Italian-speaking cast

Production occurred during June and July 1979. Filming took place in Latina, Italy, as well as in New York City and Santo Domingo. Several of the actors' contracts had specified being provided with trailers for the duration of production; however, none were present when filming started and only Johnson was able to convince the producers to provide one. McCulloch and Johnson had known each other for many years by the time they collaborated on Zombi 2, having first met while they were members of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1962, with the younger McCulloch coming to idolise Johnson's work

René Cardona Jr. was originally cast to play the Underwater Zombie, however he got sick at the last minute and had to be replaced by Ramón Bravo, the shark's trainer

While shooting on location in New York City, Captain Haggerty, who plays the large bald zombie who attacks the harbor patrol at the beginning of the film, walked into CBGB's (a tiny Bowery bar which was a flourishing punk rock venue at the time) in full zombie makeup complete with splattered fake blood and mud caked all over his face and body. Due to the outrageous punk styles in those days of the other bar patrons, he was barely noticed. Even the bartender never looked twice at him

Hordes of the living dead stumble across the Brooklyn Bridge at the end of the film. Although a national state of emergency had been declared and the local radio station had been overrun by zombies, the traffic below still flows freely. This was due to budgetary constraints - there was not enough money to stop traffic on the bridge

When the final scene of the zombies walking across the Brooklyn Bridge was filmed, it was cold drizzling rain that day and the extras playing the zombies had to keep themselves from shivering. Also, the fake blood had some ammonia in it to stop it from changing color. When it dripped into the actors mouths, they would spit it out when the cameras stopped rolling. All of the extras playing zombies in the New York scenes were paid $40 per day in two $20 banknotes which had a single staple through them so as not to overpay anyone. The director Lucio Fulci, spoke very little English, his only direction for the zombie extras had was "like... ah... this!"

The score to Zombi 2 was composed by Fabio Frizzi, who frequently scored Fulci's works, including Sette note in nero, I quattro dell'apocalisse and Sella d'argento previously. Zombi 2 marked the first time the two had worked together on a straight horror movie as opposed to their previous spaghetti western and giallo thriller work; Frizzi would go on to compose for many more horror films with and without Fulci

Frizzi's work on Zombi 2—particularly "Seq. 6", the sequence composed for the eye-gouging scene—was inspired by the melody of The Beatles' 1967 song "A Day in the Life". Elsewhere in the score, Frizzi included Caribbean musical cues, which he noted were intended to "pleasantly deceive" the audience. A medley of the score was later included as part of Frizzi's 2013 Fulci 2 Frizzi live tour, including the 2014 live album release Fulci 2 Frizzi: Live at Union Chapel

Zombi 2 was first released in September 1979 in Italy, before being released in English-speaking markets in 1980. The film would go on to gross over ₤3,000,000,000 worldwide, significantly higher than its ₤410,000,000 budget. Zombi 2 has also been released under the titles Sanguella, The Island of the Living Dead, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Zombie, Zombie The Dead Walk Among Us, Gli Ultimi Zombi,[17] Woodoo, L'Enfer de Zombies, Zombie 2: The Dead Are Among Us and Nightmare Island

Upon its release in the United Kingdom on 2 January 1980, the British Board of Film Classification required a total of one minute and forty-six seconds of material to be cut in order to obtain an X rating; However, the 1980 release found itself classified as a "video nasty", having been considered a breach of the Obscene Publications Act. This classification, and the de facto "ban" it involved, has subsequently been used for publicity when advertising future home releases

Zombi 2 grossed higher in the domestic Italian box office than its predecessor, leading to future sequels—Fulci began directed Zombi 3 before illness forced him to hand over the reigns to Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso, the latter of whom would also direct Zombi 4.

[Dave Boy]

My press stills..

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