The Italian Zombie Movie Pts. 1 & 2 (2010)

Review by Mari Lynne Rupp



The Italian Zombie movie Pt. 1 - Zombie Abomination
This movie offering produced, written and directed by Thomas Bedinski, starts out with an eye-grabbing (literally) gory death by what we presume is a zombie. Whatever it is, it's the creepiest looking undead since the tar-zombie from "Return of the Living Dead." Welcome back to my zombie nightmares of childhood. Thanks Thomas. The main premise of the movie is during Desert Storm, the US hired a controversial italian scientist to creat an antitoxin to fight any chemical warfare by the enemy. Unfortunately the side effects were intestine-chomping zombies, so "any evidence was buried. Again and Again".

The opening write-up sets it up nicely, and we are treated to a few gory deaths right off. It gives us the feel of a well-done early Argento or Bava film, and I feel it starts as a nice tip-of-the-hat. It is independant low-budget, which means don't expect Redgrave-style acting. I do have to give props to the special effects and make up. They also did not over use the CGI effects and used them pretty creatively. One criticism I will put out there is the script...It needs to be tightened. Too many subplots were confusing and too many secondary characters kept my head spinning. The writers DID keep it focused on a mysterious Dr. Falluci (Fulci, get it?) who seemed to know almost every character in the movie, and have some sort of dealing with them. The ending was a cliff-hanger, with zombies closing on the fatalistic couple, Maria(Laurie Beckeman) and Ruggarro(Daniel Grams) and the army troup led by the mysterious Colonel. 5/10

The Italian Zombie pt. 2 - Zombie Atrocity
After the cliffhanger ending of Pt I, we find the zombies coming in at all sides, Maria and Ruggerro are still bickering, and a wonderfully squicky moment when Ruggerro is picking worms out of his zombie bite. (Maria's fault of course!) In my (admittedly uneducated) opinion, the writer should've concentrated on the relationship between Ruggerro and Maria rather than stretching his resources with so many sublots ( I think there was a women's lib message in there somewhere with the Queen of the Zombies...Wonderfully played by Bambi Price) as it gives us one of the films most memorable quotes....Maria has just discovered Ruggerro's gun, and whoops, "Save me a bullet!" with the response "Oh, believe me....there's a bullet with your name on it" After wading through government cover-ups, alien conspiracies and a vengeful plot to kill all the main characters, we finally end up with the satisfying conclusion. It's good to know Thomas Bedinski remembers the proper ending to all things italian be it operas or zombie movies...Rocks fall, everyone dies! Not since "Repo! The genetic Opera" has anyone gotten it so completely. I would only give this movie 4/10, but I must insist all zombie fans turn to these two films when pulling an all-nighter. There's just enough for everyone to get.