Zombi 2

Zombi 2 (1979) is a zombie horror film directed by Lucio Fulci, which made Fulci a horror icon. Despite the fact that it purports to be a sequel to Dawn of the Dead (whose Italian title was Zombi), the two films are unrelated.

Officials investigating a derelict yacht drifting into New York Harbor are attacked by a rotting man, who kills one of them by biting out his throat. The owner of the yacht is nowhere to be found, so police question the man's daughter Ann. She knows only that he had gone to a tropical island to conduct research. She meets Peter West, a reporter who has been assigned the story, and together -- with another seafaring couple, Brian and Susan -- they go to find the island Matool.

Problem: Matool is a cursed place, where the dead rise to attack the living. Dr. Menard is on the island to investigate why. His high-strung wife Paola wants to leave for fear of being attacked. But hey, they're only dead dudes... what could they possibly do?

Then our intrepid investigators arrive...

This was followed in 1988 by Zombi 3.

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Tropes used in Zombi 2 include:

• Artifact of Doom: Death One, the virus that infects virtually an entire island in Zombi 3.
• Bolivian Army Ending: The only survivors from the island are en route to New York only to learn via radio that the entire city has been taken by an uncontrollable horde of zombies.

Reporter: I've just been informed that zombies have entered the building. They're at the door... they're coming in! YI-YAGH! ROOOWWAARRRRGGHHHHHH!

• Brick Joke: The ending is a particularly grisly one. This would've applied more had the scene where the boat zombie emerges onto the New York shore been left in.
• BST: Ann and Peter fake it to avoid being arrested for trespassing on Dr. Bolt's boat. The officer that finds them having sex on the boat buys their act and simply shoos them off the boat.
• Cassandra Truth: The military in Zombi 3 doesn't seem to listen to a nearby scientist when he warns them that burning the Death One victim that contaminated the hotel could have serious consequences for the island's air quality and its population.

Scientist: Don't you think that once the ash is in the air, it will fall to the ground, and contaminate everything?
General Morton: Now you're talking Science Fiction.

• Coincidental Broadcast: When they turn on the radio.
• Completely Different Title
• Due to the Dead: Anyone doomed to become a zombie gets a summary funeral consisting of a headshot followed by burial in a mass grave, including Dr. Bolt. This is done to prevent the corpse from running rampant on the island.
• Everything's Deader with Zombies
• Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: The well-known "zombie vs. shark" scene.
• Exploitation Film
• Eye Scream: OH GOD THAT SLOW PULL ONTO THE WOOD SPLINTER...
• Flat Earth Atheist: General Morton in Zombi 3.
• Follow the Leader: Started the wave of zombie movies while cashing in on George A. Romero's films. Production started before Dawn of the Dead was released, though.
• Foreshadowing: See those eyes the camera is zooming toward? They're about to go SPLAT! later on courtesy of a wood splinter.
• Genre Blind: The general in Zombi 3 who orders an infected body burned over warnings from the scientists and constantly accuses said scientists of watching too much Science Fiction films. Little does he know that he is in a Science Fiction film at the moment.
• Gorn
• Killed Off for Real: Paola and Dr. Menard are both killed in ways that would make it impossible for them to come back as zombies; Dr. Menard was bitten in the face twice, but Paola flat-out becomes an item on the zombies' menu.
• Kill It with Fire: The military takes this approach toward the zombies in Zombi 3, as seen early on when a corpse infected with Death One is burned and in a later scene where the military throws dead zombies onto a massive funeral pyre.
• Large Ham Radio: "I'll dedicate my next number to all the undead around the world."
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: Averted. Not only are men and women killed by the zombies in equal numbers, but the most gruesome death in the entire film goes to Paola, who gets her eye gouged out and then the rest of her ripped to shreds.
• Neutral Female: Played straight for the most part. The women in this movie have an annoying tendency to stand still and scream as zombies bear down on them.
• Numbered Sequels: Spiritually, Zombi 2 is meant to follow Dawn of the Dead, which Dario Argento re-edited into what amounted to a different movie, called Zombi, to which various people made five sequels, called Zombi 2, Zombi 3, and so forth. To make this even more confusing, Zombi 2 was retitled Zombie for its North American release (see the page image), but later sequels followed the numbering pattern on both sides of the pond. Therefore, you can rent Zombie, Zombie 3, and Zombie 4, but not Zombie 2 (except via the 1992 Edde Entertainment VHS or the 2004 Media Blasters DVD). Confused yet?
  • It's also called Zombie Flesh Eaters in the UK and Australia.
  • There's around a dozen movies claiming to be Zombi 3-6 in some markets, such as Anthropophagus and Killing Birds, and at least one Zombi 7.
  • There's only one official sequel, and it was directed by the Godfather of Gore himself with later assistance from schlockmeisters Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso (both of who make cameos in that film as soldiers that burn an infected corpse).
• Only Sane Man: Dr. Menard's wife Paola was fighting with her husband for refusing to drop his Mad Scientist tendencies and flee the island while they still had a chance.
• Sequel First: We're not diagramming that again...
• Third Is 3D: Technically; as Zombi 2 is basically a fanmade sequel to Dawn of the Dead, Zombi 3 should count, as it was originally filmed in 3D.
• 3D Movie: Zombi 3 (the official one).
• Token Good Teammate: Invoked with the shark-fighting zombie by supplementary materials; at least one home video release actually mentions that said zombie saved Susan from the approaching shark.
• Too Dumb to Live: The survivors actually had a pretty decent chance of holding out against the horde in the hospital near the end of the film...if only Dr. Menard had remembered to shoot the corpses already inside the building. You, know, like he'd been doing the entire movie already.
  • Then finally Brian comes across a zombiefied Susan as the survivors are fleeing the hospital. Considering he saw her get killed by a zombie only a short while ago, and he's spent most of the day killing zombies, you would think he'd realize what's happened and shoot her or at least get the hell away from her. But instead he just stares at her, lets her get close, and then actually seems surprised when she bites him.
  • And how did Susan die? By just standing there for a good minute or so as a zombie slowly crawled out of the ground in front of her. The fight or flight reflex apparently just passed her over.
  • The soldiers in Zombi 3 burn a corpse tainted with a virus that could be let loose in the process, and the soldiers (particularly General Morton) never bothered to listen to a scientist's warnings. This turns out to be the Inciting Incident of the film as the ashes infect the air and a flock of birds catch it, accosting a bus some time later.
• Video Nasties
• Xanatos Gambit: The terrorists at the start of Zombi 3 steal the Death One serum and get offed except for one who soon gets infected. As they intended in case this happened, his body is discovered and then burned by some of the soldiers (including two played by Bruno Mattei and screenwriter Claudio Fragasso), thus unleashing the virus. Then the dead rise from the grave...
• Zombie Apocalypse: Why it would suck if zombies got anywhere near New York City...
• Zombie Gait: And how. The ones in "Zombi 2" are even slower at trudging along than George Romero's zombies.