Review of Night of the Zombies (1980) by Justin L — 23 Sep 2007

Hope Center 1, a secret laboratory on a secluded island working on a new form for population control, instead accidentally release a toxic green gas into the air that cause the dead to rise from their graves. The zombies, just like in almost every other post-Romero movie, feast on human flesh and are killed by smashing the brain.

After an extremely blatant rip-off of the tenement scenes in DAWN OF THE DEAD (complete with soldiers in blue uniforms versus unlawful citizens with guns against the same exact Goblin score used in DAWN!), four television reporters show up in a deserted town in New Guinea. One of the guys is eaten by a zombie kid and a woman is killed and strung up. Only Max (Selan Karay) and Lia (Margit Evelyn Newton) survive. They are joined by four of the blue garbed infantrymen and venture off toward Hope Center 1 to find out what's going on. On the way, they come across a primitive tribe and Lea (who has formal native training) opens her top, paints her body and goes undercover to investigate. This is when we get mondo footage of real dead bodies (scenes were snagged from the documentary DES MORTS/OF THE DEAD), a real alligator gutting and real maggot eating (it's brief, dark and hard to see). Yum!

We also get nonstop nature footage of monkeys, lots of birds and other animals doing their thang in slow motion to pad out the running time. After lots of close calls, the group (who behave like morons the entire time) finally make it to their destination only to be slaughtered by zombie lab technicians. Serves 'em right.