Zombies in film: Zombi 2

"The dead are among us."



Film: Zombi 2
Directed by Lucio Fulci
Written by Elisa Briganti
Produced by Variety Film Production
Year: 1979

Story: A group of four travel to an island where one of the group's father has gone missing (also the owner of the island.) On the way the group takes a little pit stop to do some shark spotting. They make it to the island and slowly members of the group begin to meet grisly ends as they meet up with a doctor who is trying to find out what the cause of the pandemic is an how to cure it. All the while the radio depicts how all of the USA is falling to the zombies. The final stand of the group has a lot to be learned involving setting up layers and layers of barricades to hold the zombies every few feet. Fire is also used to great effect in this last stand, it also shows the disregard that must sometimes be given to material things, even to the extent of your own safehouse. Finally the escape from the burning shelter was performed quick well until one character makes the fatal flaw of so many in the world of the undead.

Zombies: These zombies are what I compare zombies against. No idea how they came to be. They are slow and nearly indestructible. They have unbelievable (but not superhuman) strength. It is kind of a constant surprise through out this movie however when someone actually gets killed by one of these zombies.

Survival Lessons:

• Change your name to West.
• Body shots do nothing, even if you really want them too.
• Don't put your head against obviously weak boarding to listen for zombies.
• Don't pause for even an instant when you inevitably face a turned loved one.
• Headtshots! Come on!
• Wearing less clothing makes it easier to slip out of a zombie's grasp.
• Zombies beat sharks.
• Don't go looking for sharks if you don't want to find sharks.
• Fire is your friend.
• Sometimes you have to sacrifice your safehouse, if it's been overrun it's no good to you anyway.
• You can NEVER have enough barricades.

Warnings: It's a scary film. There are sharks.


In the end this movie showed me many things. But first can I just point out how many people named "West" survive zombies. Peter West, Herbert West, Frank West, I'm sure there will be more now that I've caught onto this trend. Ok, seriously this movie is a classic and for good reason. It was right there with Night of the Living Dead as one of the first zombie movies and has one of the greatest zombie fights known around the world, the shark vs. zombie also one of the most gruesome deaths of any horror movie even to date. It is one of the zombie movies which set the stage for everything we know today: the BJC, the safehouse, the group of survivors, and of course, the slow but inevitable hordes of walking dead.


If you'd like to have this movie for yourself click here.

Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.