Night of the Zombies . Weekly Alibi . 08-04-97

Night of the Zombies

DIRECTED BY: Joel M. Reed

REVIEWED: 08-04-97

God bless our Italian brothers. Directed by "Vincent Dawn" (Bruno Mattei), Night opens with a couple guys inspecting a chemical plant in New Guinea. One of them finds a dead rat, which suddenly leaps for his throat. The guy accidentally releases a cloud of toxic gas (as one might do when attacked by a zombie rat), and before long, it's lunchtime for the living dead. A "special SWAT from InterPol" is sent to deal with the problem, crossing paths with a lovely TV reporter (Margit Evelyn Newton) and her cameraman (who looks like Carlos Santana). Margit and Carlos join the SWAT boys, and after some stock footage of animals (including kangaroos, which I guess are pretty common in New Guinea), Margit gets naked and paints herself up in order to communicate properly with a bunch of natives (actually more stock footage). That night, zombies attack stock footage of the village and our heroes beat feet (one SWATster screams, "Die! Die! You scumbags!" while blasting zombies). After making their way through more stock footage, they stop to rest in a seemingly abandoned house. While one of the commandos dons a tutu for a little musical number, his boss finds a zombie granny with a live cat in her stomach. Soon, a massive battle with the living dead is raging, and a commando wades into a group of walking corpses, viciously taunting them ("Don't let it worry you, I think we'll meet again--in hell!"). As flesh is devoured in greedy gulps, the survivors race toward the film's meaningful conclusion in a somewhat leisurely manner but still manage to make it entertaining. Just don't believe that "music by Goblin" credit--what they don't say is that they simply lifted the score from Dawn of the Dead! (Vestron)

--Scott Phillips

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