Cover Art

Credits

Director: Vincent Dawn (Bruno Mattei) Starring: Margrit Evelyn Newton, Franco Giraldi, Selan Karay, Robert O'Neil, Gaby Renom, Josep Lluís Fonoll, Piero Fumelli, Bruno Boni, Patrizia Costa, Cesare Di Vito, Sergio Pislar Screenplay: J.M. Cunilles, Claudio Fragasso Music: Goblin Country: Italy Year: 1981 AKA: Night of the Zombies, Zombie Creeping Flesh, Virus, Zombie Inferno, Cannibal Virus

So you don't think that Mattei is a genius, huh? You cannot recognise that he is a master of his craft? Given the appalling script and ultra-low budget - you tell me who else could have pulled this off and made this movie even half as entertaining? No one! Only Mattei was capable of such ingenuity. For that fact alone he is to be applauded and venerated. All hail Mattei! God of the B Movie!

So what's all the fuss about? Zombies, zombies and more zombies - that's what all the fuss is about! Mattei presents us with the undead in spades. He is unsparing in his living dead-ness. And the plot? Well, the plot is paper-thin (who cares?) and tells of a chemical leak in a Third World country and the natives have become the walking dead. A SWAT team is dispatched to solve the problem and along the way pick up a female anthropologist who delights in stripping off at every opportunity - not that we're complaining. They arrive at the source of the leakage and discover the truth; the chemical is designed for population control - to literally let the people consume each other and thus reducing the populace. What an ingenuous twist! We bow to your superior mind, Bruno..

The film is full of classic sequences. We see an empty corridor..the pounding music kicks in...we expect something BIG to happen..2 SWAT members.(yes a mere 2 SWAT members) not so much burst through the door as casually stroll in trying to look as if they're bursting in. Bit of an anti-climax really. And when our intrepid travellers happen across a native tribe there is only one way to deal with them - yes, our heroine must strip naked and prance about amongst the stock footage trying to look non-threatening. The film is full of memorable moments like this..

This film has everything you could ask for; appallingly bad dialogue; outrageous gore; gratuitous nudity; tribal rituals; National Geographic stock footage and zombies by the truckload. A classic! Not to be missed!

Once again I urge you to put down that Hollywood Blockbuster and purge yourself of its evil by renting/buying this instead. You may be disappointed, but the effects of a Mattei can take up to a year later to be felt. It's a slow acting delirium - but it will get you in the end.

Anchor Bay have presented a gem on DVD for us here in an unrivalled high quality transfer. Absolutely faultless in every respect.