Review of Night of the Zombies (1980) by Frazer C — 17 Jun 2008

Ok yes even the cheesy zombie horror deserve a review. I have this film under a different name but still uncut. I have Zombie Creeping Flesh which is what this film was called in UK (why it was called that I'll never know) but since this one was banned many years ago, I had to track it down. The original version I watched was an old vhs cut copy which was ok. Then them loving artists Vipco and the BBFC granted this film to be released UNCUT. I immediatly got the copy on dvd and I must say I enjoyed it. Plenty here for the gorehounds and when I say plenty I MEAN plenty.

Yes I know it's cheesy but most horror from Italy was in the day of the 70's/80's but it does have a redeeming feature: THE GORE. personally I can't understand why this film was labelled a video nasty. Yes the acting is cheesy and yes one of the characters starts to look like a patient at a mental hospital but hey what did you expect from a italian horror (and don't say Fulci).

Zombie Creeping Flesh isn't a throwaway movie, no far from it. I feel that this film deserves much more consideration for it. For zombie fans it's one of the best cheesy zombie horrors outthere and it even puts to shame most pretenders that are on the market nowadays. the plot is simple a muck up at a factory sends chemicals in the air that turn anyone into a flesh hungry zombie (resident evil the movie take note) and I mean a PROPER flesh eating zombie. A SWAT team try to bunk off work and escape to an island but like most stupid italian flicks they wander right into the middle of the zombie crisis.

Like I said the flesh eating is on screen quite a bit of the time. Thats why I like this film the most because of the gore. Yes the soundtrack does borrow from Dawn of the Dead thats because Goblin did both the soundtrack for Dawn and Zombie Creeping flesh. There is even a piece of music from Contamination (another good italian horror movie) during the opening credits. However people found this a rip-off, I found the music added to the eerieness of the movie. No this film will not be winning any awards (apart from the Razzies) but that don't matter. Stop slagging off the film and just enjoy it for what it is pure adult blood n guts gorefest cheesy horror.