Zombie Holocaust

source: Zombie Holocaust

A mad scientist is in New York as he's taking some human parts from the hospital and graveyards and is part of a cannibal cult leaving police baffled. A group of explorers and researchers alike seek to find who is behind this mad raving scientist and cult by going to an island, while on the island the doctor conducts ghastly experiments to create zombies as he's really a mad scientist who has cannibal tribes to do his work for him. Entertaining and well made Italian horror flick that is both a zombie movie and a cannibal movie as well but without the animal cruelty like in most Italian cannibal flicks. Ian McCullough is just as great in his performance like in "Zombi 2" ( a.k.a. Zombie), the story is kind of mediocre but the nudity and gore make up for that in this gut-munching and enjoyable horror movie with memorable moments like the boat-motor zombie head death scene or the realistic operation scenes that isn't for the squeamish. Also recommended: "Zombi 2" ( a.k.a. Zombie), "Night of the Living Dead ( 1968 and 1990)", "Dawn of the Dead ( 1978)", "Day of the Dead", "Land of the Dead", "The Dead Next Door", "Jungle Holocaust", "Cannibal Ferox", "Mountain of the Cannibal God", "Hell of the Living Dead ( a.k.a. Night of the Zombies)", "Nightmare City ( a.k.a. City of the Walking Dead)", "The Toxic Avenger", "Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror", "City of the Living Dead ( a.k.a. Gates of Hell)", "Re-Animator", "Bride of Re-Animator", "Beyond Re-Animator", "The Return of the Living Dead series", "Flesh for Frankenstein", "Caligula", "Pieces", "Dawn of the Dead ( 2004)", "Zombi 3", "Man from Deep River", "Cannibal Apocalypse", " I Drink Your Blood", "Eaten Alive! ( 1980)", "Driller Killer", and "Cannibal Holocaust".

If, like me, you enjoy Italian zombie movies, but are also partial to the occasional cannibal flick, then Zombie Holocaust (AKA Dr. Butcher M.D.) is a real treat, for it not only features the walking dead, but a whole load of gut munching natives too. And for good measure, you also get a mad doctor! Director Marino Girolami hedges his bets somewhat with this mish-mash of genres, but the result is a fun-packed gore-fest that is guaranteed to put a smile on the face of any fan of trashy horror. Whilst it is true that the story makes little sense—a team from the New York Dept. of Health(!) travel to a remote island and encounter all manner of dangers—the high level of violence and the film's general technical shoddiness make Zombie Holocaust unmissable. Ian McCulloch plays Dr. Peter Chandler, the leader of the expedition to the mysterious island of Keto. It is here that he and his fellow travellers hope to discover the reasons behind a spate of recent cannibalistic attacks in the Big Apple. What they do find, however, is a bloodthirsty surgeon who is attempting all manner of dodgy operations on live victims, creating zombies in the process. Like I said, the story is complete hogwash, but great fun. Alexandra Delli Colli plays Lori, a yummy anthropologist who accompanies Peter on his trip. Also along for the ride is Susan, a journalist, her boyfriend George, their guide Molotto and some porters. Delli Colli provides the necessary T&A (she's a game girl and gets buck naked a few times), whilst the others are merely there to be eaten or operated on. Gore highlights include quite a few disembowellings, a nifty eye gouging, a messy zombie/propeller interface, some scalpings and an assortment of bloody corpses. The effects are bargain basement quality, but extremely bloody. Zombie Holocaust is great cheesy entertainment and should be a must see for all fans of 70s and 80s Italian horror (and look out for some unintentionally hilarious moments—check IMDb's goofs for details).

Zombi 2 saw Lucio Fulci deliver a film that took huge influence from George Romero's zombie masterpiece Dawn of the Dead (even though the great horror director claims to have been influenced by Jacques Tourneur), and Zombi Holocaust in turn takes influence from Fulci's Zombi 2. Zombi Holocaust is more than just a simple rip-off, however, as prolific director Marino Girolami finds time to implement other horror themes such as cannibal tribes and mad scientists into the plot. The film takes place in the same location as Fulci's zombie flick, and sees the undead eating people on a Caribbean island. This film very much fits into the Italian zombie sub-genre, with such treats as bad acting, worse dubbing, a rather absurd plot line and plenty of blood and guts making it into the finished product. The plot sees a mad scientist on a tropical island experimenting with life and death and ending up turning a number of the locals into zombies. We follow an expeditionary group who land on the island as they come face to face with the zombies and cannibals that live there. If you're a fan of blood and guts, you're in the right movie. The gore is mostly comical, but it works due to the fact that it's so massively over the top. Scenes that see a zombie have its face mashed by a propeller, numerous slit throats and several sequences that see the living being eaten offer a gory treat for the horror fan. The fact that this is so much like Zombi 2 put me off a little, however, as it really does feel like you're watching a follow up rather than a supposedly original zombie film. Saying that, this film would have made a far better follow up than Fulci's own Zombi sequel. The atmosphere is well done, as the setting gives the piece an element of mystery that comes part and parcel with a lot of the Italian cannibal films. The zombie make-up is suitably disgusting and a lot of the monsters really do look like they haven't been among the living for some time. Interestingly, the central roles are taken up by Fulci collaborators Ian McCulloch (Zombi 2) and Alexandra Delli Colli (The New York Ripper), which seems quite fitting. Overall, I can't say that this is one of my favourite zombie films; but its decent enough entertainment, and there's definitely something here for zombie fans.

A splatter classic, Marino Girolami's "Zombi Holocaust" of 1980 doesn't scant with blood and gore. A true B-movie and pure exploitation, this movie is probably not high art, however, I don't suppose that anybody who is about to watch a movie entitled "Zombie Holocaust" is gonna expect Citizen Kane. After several mutilations of corpses in the morgue of a New York hospital, and the appearance of a mysterious cannibal sign, a group of people, amongst them a beautiful female doctor and a bitchy journalist, decide to go on an expedition to a tropical island, where they expect to find out about the sign's origin. This is, of course, not a very good idea. Not only is the island inhabited by cannibals, but it is also haunted by the living dead. One of the classic Italian splatter flicks, "Zombi Holocaust", is a fun and entertaining, although not very thrilling movie, that mainly concentrates on the enormous amounts of blood and gore and on constant very graphical violence. The acting in this movie differs. As a huge fan of Spaghetti Westerns, I found it cool to see Donal O'Brien, who delivers a great performance as a mad scientist in this, in a non-western role. The Italian and English title is maybe not the best to describe the movie, since its the Cannibals, and not the Zombies who kill the most people. The German title "Zombies Unter Kannibalen" ("Zombies Amongst Cannibals") is probably better to describe the film's content. All things considered, "Zombie Holocaust" is a highly entertaining and very bloody Gorefest that fans of the Cannibal subgenre should not miss. Entertainment guaranteed!

I first saw this in the late 80s on a vhs. Revisited it recently. Found the film very shocking then due to the gore but aft revisiting it, found it to be boring cos almost for 34 mins nothing happens. We have lots of nudity by Alexandra Delli Colli, who in her short career is noted for the kinky female from New York Ripper. In this movie, there is nothing new except for the gore. Even the plot is stale - A team of scientists travel to a remote island aft witnessing cannibalism in various city hospitals by immigrants from a particular island. On the island, the team is shocked to come across cannibals n zombies. The make up effects of the zombies is lol. Jus plain human in torn, raggy clothes. Till now, i haven't been able to fathom how can u pierce someone's belly by a bamboo. In this movie, a female falls into a trapping pit laden with pointed sticks but survives.

Dr. Obrero (Dan O' Brien) is experimenting on corpses on a remote Island. Well, an expedition team (which includes Zombi 2's Ian McCulloch) ends up on the island-and runs into the Docotor, who has some plans-as well as cannibals and zombies-in store for them. Titled "Dr Butcher M.D." when it came to video in the 80's, "Zombie Holocaust" is an interesting-and fun-blend of two different kinds of Italian Gore flicks: The Italian Zombie movie, and the Italian Cannibal movie-only without any of the animal torture and mutilation of the later. The movie has some nice gore (surgical and otherwise-including an awesome motorboat engine to the head death) and nudity to liven things up, as well as a fun score and tons of camp. Also, unlike other Italian gore flicks of the time, the movie features a little intentional humor to go with it ("The patients screaming disturbed me, performed removal of vocal chords"-that line always gets me), which after the downbeat feeling of Fulci's zombie movies, is something of a breath of undead air. It's nice to see an Italian gore flick that doesn't take itself too seriously for a change. If there is any problem, it's that the zombie aspect feels rather underplayed, as they aren't used for much. Sure, there's that aforementioned death by boat motor, but they don't do a whole lot to threaten the team, as the cannibals are more of a threat. Still, "Zombie Holocaust" is a blast of exploitation that fans of over the top Italian Horror might enjoy. I know I did.

Another film known by many names (eight, to be precise, that IMDB has been able to track down), Zombi Holocaust is probably best known by American cult-film devotees as Dr. Butcher, MD. I ended up picking this one up because there are a rather large number of crossovers with Lucio Fulci's brilliant splatterfest Zombie-- writer Fabrizio DeAngelis was one of the producers of Fulci's film, male lead Ian McCulloch was the lead in Zombie, character actor Dakkar plays a native guide in both, etc. (Most interesting, one of the film's actors, Walter Patriarca, was Zombie's costume designer. Go figger.) Simple plot, which should sound familiar to anyone who's seen Fulci's film; a number of deaths occur in New York City, and Ian McCollouch, a beautiful sidekick, and two of their pals end up going to a remote Caribbean island where there's an English-speaking doctor who treats the natives. Sound familiar? For about the first forty-five minutes of this film, I was too busy thinking that it was exactly like Zombie to be impressed. (No one, these days, is sure which film came out first, and most people also draw parallels to another classic of the genre that came out the same year, Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust.) Then Ian McCollouch disposes of a zombie with a motorboat motor, and suddenly things started getting a whole lot more fun. Rather like The Evil Dead, this is a film where there's a whole lot of setup (though Raimi pulled it off miles better), but when the gore starts, the director lays it on thick, fast, and ugly. And while death-by-propeller is probably the funniest and nastiest scene in the film, there's certainly more than enough blood flowing/spraying/dripping/being drunk/etc. to please most fans of hardcore horror. Pound for pound, though, in comparison to Zombie, the latter stands up as the better film. As one reviewer put it, "Fulci... might have had the sauce, but [he] passed on the cheese." Fulci's obsessive attention to detail, better scriptwriting, and stunning score give Fulci the edge over Girolami. But man, it's fun to be the judge. ***

Zombi Holocaust is one of the biggest pleasant surprises I purchased in a long time. And that's a really positive thing to say because you probably know this kind of horror films...Fully made and produced in Italy in the early 80's, these movies have like a dozen alternate titles and versions. Tons of similar movies like this were made during this decade but most of them only seem promising but disappoint in the end. Zombi Holocaust doesn't !! This movie is an extremely enjoyable mixture of all kind of interesting and nasty horror topics. Okay, the movie is called "Zombi" Holocaust and there ARE a few zombies to detect, but Zombie Holocaust is sooooo much more than that !! Actually, the plot of Zombie Holocaust is about a mad scientist / doctor who uses a tribe of cannibals to perform medical experiments on. Due to those experiments, the aborigines become zombies. Now, in that simple plot summary, we've had ZOMBIES, CANNIBALS and freakin' MAD DOCTORS !!! I don't know about you, but to me that already sounds like every fan's dream. And I can assure you that - if you have the privilege to watch the fully uncut version like I did - you'll have a true gorefest !! The level of sickness and utterly nasty scenes is very extreme and it even surpasses the work of undeniable masters in the field like Lucio Fulci and Ruggero Deodato in certain sequences. Zombie Holocaust contains a gruesome autopsy, many throats are being slit, faces and guts are being ripped off/out etc etc...the gore highlights really are numberless. If I have to pick one, I'd say the scene where a zombi is hacked up for barbeque by a propeller !! Classic need-to-see stuff for horror fans !!! Furthermore, the plot contains many, many holes and the acting is abominable. Even though O'Brien shows a lot of potential as the freaky doctor, he's given too less screentime to impress you enough. And even though Alexandra Delli Colli has a gorgeous body, ( and she proves that multiple times by showing it ) she isn't much of a talented actress. But seriously...who cares about all these things ? Besides, bad acting is necessary for this kind of early 80's horror...it adds a lot more charm to the production. Zombi Holocaust is just a magnificent splatter movie that comes with my highest possible recommendation. I've only got to known this movie recently because of all the confusing aka's. It was listed as "Zombie3" in my local videostore and as "Zombie Holocaust" in another. But there are just way to many Italian movies called like that to let it bother you. Seek this one and enjoy it !!

How bad was it? Well, for starters, there are only a couple of zombies in the movie, and they're entirely incidental. They could just as well have not been in there at all. For the most part, the story is about some people on an island where there's a tribe of cannibal natives who aren't actually cannibals, since their diet is composed mostly of badly-molded wax dummies filled with pork parts. Sort of somehow leading them is a mad scientist who never took acting lessons. How bad was it? Well, how about a guy who has been slain and mutilated but can still blink? Or a dead guy missing almost all of his chest cavity that still finds it necessary to breathe? Or a dude who falls out of a 20th-story window and has his arm fly off, but in the next scene has the arm back again? Or the reflection of the entire crew in someone's binoculars in detailed close-up? If your apartment had been burglarized and ransacked, you'd report it to the police, wouldn't you? How about if your friend the cop showed up (coincidentally) and ran around the place looking for the burglar whose footsteps you just heard... surely the cop would report the crime and call for back-up, or at least draw his gun, right? Well, not in this movie. The burglary was simply forgotten right after it happened and is never mentioned again, nor is the reason for it ever worked into the rest of the film. Or hey, how about this... if you found a maggot-ridden head on your bed, right next to an arcane symbol of evil scrawled on your sheets in blood, you'd be upset for at least a few minutes, right? Nah, not in this movie. Again, it's forgotten within a couple of minutes by all of the characters and has nothing to do with anything else in the movie. Maybe on a cannibal island, leaving a decomposed head on your bed is customary in the way that a good hotel in the US leaves a chocolate on your pillow. Nothing in this film makes sense, including the ending, wherein the cannibal natives suddenly decide to turn on the mad scientist for no apparent reason. I guess they were just in a bad mood that afternoon. The worst part of this flick, though, is its none-too-subtle racist overtones. We can start with the black boat captain whose name is Mulatto (no, really, that's his name). Or we can look at the swarthy natives who are ruled by the one white person on the island, or the fact that the only person they don't kill and eat is a tall, blond, blue-eyed woman. Instead of eating her, they paint flowers on her naked body and worship her as a goddess. Or the dark-skinned cannibal medical student. It goes on and on. Rule of thumb for Zombi Holocaust: the darker your skin tone, the more evil and devious you are. And you still won't be able to act. Now, I love cheesy horror flicks, but this was the wrong kind of cheese. Natives of Brooklyn may understand when I say that this is pure frummunda cheese. I won't explain that, so don't ask.