ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS (ZOMBI 2)
Zombie vs. Shark
Spoilers for Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979)
Lucio Fulci’s 1979 splatter film has rightfully taken its place within the zombie canon. Known either as Zombi 2, to designate its position as an unofficial sequel, or prequel based on the opening and closing moments, to George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978), or as Zombie Flesh Eaters which is very on the nose.
Written by Elisa Briganti, based on an original screenplay by Dardano Sacchetti, the film has many of the flaws that came with Italian genre pieces of the time. Its plot is almost secondary to the gory set pieces; scenes which still maintain their power due to some timeless practical effects from Giovanni Corridori, Giannetto De Rossi, Gino De Rossi and Roberto Pace.
The performances too, leave a little to be desired, not helped by the obligatory dubbing that was meant to make it appeal more to English-speaking audiences, but now acts as something of a distraction.
None of this is to say that the film is bad, however. Zombie Flesh Eaters is a movie made by people who understood exactly what their audience wanted. Those set pieces stand amongst some of the most lauded in horror history. The scene of Paola Menard (Olga Karlatos) having her face slowly pulled towards a broken splinter of wood is a masterclass in tension; the camera never wavers, emphasising how close her eyeball is to being impaled.
Even now, we’re programmed to believe that the camera will pull away, even when we know the character is done for. Fulci doesn’t. Working with cinematographer Sergio Salvati and the effects team, we’re forced to watch as Paola’s eye is pulled onto the splinter, mixed with some suitably gooey sound effects.
Later in the film, we see the zombies emerge from under the sand. The make-up here is truly incredible. The sand sticks to the gory visages, fully in keeping with the film’s various nods to the early cinematic history of zombies, where these undead creatures were the result of voodoo on far-flung tropical islands, rather than nuclear experiments or infections.
What’s funny is that its most iconic scene wasn’t even supposed to happen. Before the primary cast reaches the island of Matul, Susan Barrett (Auretta Gay) decides to do some scuba diving around the boat. While underwater, she finds herself accosted not only by a tiger shark but also by one of the hordes of the undead.
After she barely escapes, the camera stays with the zombie, which squares up to the shark, leading to an incredible sequence where the zombie loses an arm, but manages to bite the shark – unfortunately, this would not lead to an end credits sequence of an undead shark dragging swimmers under the water. It’s an unbelievable scene, one that not only acts as a talking point for the film but also highlights some of the wider mythology of the zombie.
Zombies are impervious to pain. We know this from their relentless approach, regardless of gunshots and limb loss. We also know this on a base level because of how they attack. As humans, we instinctively stop ourselves from doing something that could cause us harm. We have the jaw strength to bite through flesh, but we don’t, because of the damage it could do to the victim and ourselves. We likely have the strength to rip through flesh with our bare hands but again, we’re stopped because our brain recognises that it would cause us a huge amount of pain because of the pressure on our fingers and hands.
Every zombie film features variations of these moments, but by putting one of the undead against a shark, Zombie Flesh Eaters adds an interesting wrinkle to this. Humans sit at the top of the food chain, not because of any natural physical advantages but because we have mentally evolved to the point where we can produce advanced weapons. If we look at a zombie as a predator, it should naturally attack animals which it can easily kill. Humans are an obvious choice. We’re relatively slow compared to other prey and when unarmed, we are less dangerous than a zombie.
A shark should not come into the equation, and you can look at this in two ways. It could be that the zombie has devolved to the point where it is no longer aware of what a shark is. The tiger shark is therefore something new that the zombie can attempt to kill. Another way of looking at this is that the zombie has retained some instinctive awareness of man’s place in the food chain, and therefore sees everything as prey.
Admittedly, this is all meaning that is retrospectively added to the scene. It was devised by producer Ugo Tucci because he believed it would be a cool scene. Fulci disagreed – in fact, he thought it would be stupid - and refused to shoot it, so Tucci brought in the special effects artist Giannetto De Rossi to direct the scene, using a heavily tranquilised tiger shark and a trained handler in the zombie makeup.
Would the film be worse without the scene? Possibly not but in a genre that was already becoming saturated, the shark attack certainly made Zombie Flesh Eaters stand out. The other set pieces, while incredibly done, are like other films of the time.
Director: Lucio Fulci
Writters: Elisa Briganti, Dardano Sacchetti
Starring: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver, Auretta Gay, Stefania D'Amario, Olga Karlatos
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