Grindhouse - Italian Zombie Horror

Yes, I must admit that I have more then a few movie stories to share and I'm gonna share 'em! Right now it's all about the Grindhouse Film Festival presentation of some Italian Horror fare.

I got to the New Beverly just after 6:45 p.m., there were people milling about and the line wasn't too organized yet. Slowly the line grew, and once inside there was a very big crowd in attendance (especially without a guest announced). It seems the L.A. Grindhouse fans had been waiting to come out for some Italian Horror on the big screen. It really had been a while since a double like this had been featured.

Brian and Eric came on down to the front, made their announcements and held the raffle. My number was called and I was awarded with a few DVD screeners of porn which Eric picked up at the Adult Entertainment Expo that was just in Vegas the other weekend. Aren't I lucky?

There were some special trailers before each movie, now I didn't scribble them down, but they were all part of SHOCK FESTIVAL, a DVD of exploitation trailers, trailers for fake films. I was most fond of the one about a girl in love with the ghost of Edgar Allen Poe.

Now onto the ZOMBIE movies! And remember folks these are shown in 35mm!! When it comes to Italian Horror, I've seen my fair share and have been lucky to see a bunch on a big screen with a crowd. Honestly, Italian horror with a crowd is how it should be seen. The audience reactions to the ridiculous people acting dumb against zombies makes these bad movies good.

First there was CITY OF THE WALKING DEAD (1980) as directed by Umberto Lenzi. A reporter is at the airport waiting to interview a scientist. A mysterious plane lands on the runway, the doctor comes out and so do a bunch of zombie-fied folks! These zombies move fast and they can get around in planes and cars and they use weapons to kill, slice and dice and then they drink blood or chomp on the flesh.

Mr. Reporter tries to notify the world but the Army folk stop him saying they need to keep things quiet and under control. Well the zombies make their way South (I think it was South) and soon the city is surrounded and overrun! Following few different characters, the reporter and his doctor wife, the Army Commander, another Army dude with an artist girlfriend Sheila and a lot of zombies. These gross looking zombies are running rampant, biting, killing, chasing and of course no one is safe.

I was most amused when the reporter and his wife are at a gas station, they get trapped inside and the zombies try to take their car! I swear that's totally true! Thanks to a well thrown molotov cocktail the couple ran away!

The ending of the film (which I won't spoil) got everyone pretty riled up! I think the whole theater actually groaned!

NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES (1980), directed by Bruno Mattei, is ridiculous, seriously ridiculous and BAD, but I really had fun watching it. There seemed to be a few different movies going on as things didn't make much sense. A great deal of stock footage was used throughout to pad things out.

It all starts at a chemical factory, there's a leak and the main scientist records a message apologizing for his error of Sweet Death. Then we get introduced to our hero soldier team, 5 gun wielding guys who take out a gang of terrorists and then make their way to an island jungle. On that island there's some reporters looking into strange events with the local tribes.

The reporter lady and her camera guy meet up with zombies and then the soldiers. A soldier discovers head shots are the only way to take out the "monsters" and then of course when they meet up with more "monsters" later they seem to forget the head shot rule and waste a lot of bullets. No one is smart in this movie. Zombies are everywhere, between the shots of wildlife and tribal rituals.

Oh look, a monkey jumping in a tree! Group driving in the car! Oh look, tribe folks boating down the river and then we go back to the car on the road. It's a new morning, see the elephants? Oooh, see the bats flying in the sky! Whatever the mission is, where ever the group stop zombies attack. One of the most insane things was the tribal footage and the realization that the reporter lady had spent a year with the tribe, so to make contact she strips, paints herself and goes to talk to the tribe people to figure out what's going on! Cue more tribe stock footage: dancing, funeral ceremony, dancing, dead bodies...WEIRD!

(Sitting next to Clu we each made a few comments here and there about the film. It was nice to know he was just as confused as I was.)

It was all extremely laughable and WTF!?!? All in all, it sure was an entertaining Grindhouse night, yup.

If you want a taste of NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES watch this, a dumb solider plays dress up instead of searching for zombies and some other randomness:



The next GRINDHOUSE night is a tribute to Dan O'Bannon on February 7th with Lifeforce and Return of the Living Dead.

I'm going to be at the Beverly this Wednesday (1/20/10) night for the director's cut of Amadeus and Stuart Gordon is scheduled to appear and introduce the film at 8 p.m.. Come on out if you can! If you find me I'll tell you more about the insane stuff that went on in the zombie films! yup!