Zombie Flesh Eaters aka Zombie (UK Import) (4K UHD Review)
- Review Date: Aug 15, 2025
- Format: 4K Ultra HD
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Director
Lucio FulciRelease Date(s)
1979 (July 28, 2025)Studio(s)
Variety Film (Arrow Video)- Film/Program Grade: A-
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A-
- Extras Grade: A
Review
[Editor's Note: This is a Region-Free British 4K Ultra HD import. Also, as this Limited Edition is essentially sold out, we've included links for the upcoming Standard Edition.]
When George A. Romero set out to make Night of the Living Dead in 1968, he couldn’t possibly have guessed the profound influence that he would have on generations of moviegoers and filmmakers alike. While zombies were already a common cinematic trope at that point, Romero’s flesh-eating ghouls ended up dominating the popular consciousness to such an extent that zombies became more associated with his ghastly variation than with anything from traditional voodoo folklore (which is ironic considering that the word “zombie” is never even uttered once in Night of the Living Dead). Yet Romero didn’t just change broad cultural perceptions; he also changed other people’s careers. Enter Lucio Fulci and the convoluted saga of Zombi 2 (aka Zombie and Zombie Flesh Eaters).
While Fulci is generally associated with horror these days, that wasn’t the case in 1979. He had dabbled in a variety of genres from slapstick comedies to spaghetti Westerns, although he did gain notoriety for extremely nihilistic gialli like Don’t Torture a Duckling. So, it’s not necessarily surprising that producers Ugo Tucci and Fabrizio De Angelis invited him to direct a sequel that wasn’t really a sequel, to a sequel that wasn’t really the sequel that its original maker had intended in the first place. (Nor, for that matter, was any of this what screenwriters Elisa Briganti and an uncredited Dardano Sacchetti had intended, either.) And yes, Romero ended up being a part of that chain of disconnected links in ways that he never could have anticipated, so he’s still indirectly responsible for changing the course of Fulci’s career.
When Romero’s Night of the Living Dead sequel Dawn of the Dead was released in Europe, it played in a drastically re-edited version that had been overseen by Dario Argento. Under the new title Zombi, it had proven to be a substantial hit. While it would be a few years before Romero would make another sequel of his own, thanks to relatively lax Italian copyright laws, making a sequel to Zombi was as simple as adding the title to—well, pretty much anything. Thus, an unrelated script featuring zombies ended up becoming Zombi 2 (which is the main reason why the film was retitled for other markets where there had never been a Zombi in the first place).
The script was actually written under the title Nightmare Island and/or Island of the Living Dead, and as that title indicates, the story was an attempt to return Romero’s ghouls to their voodoo roots. When an abandoned boat floats into New York Harbor, two harbor patrol officers find out to their dismay that there’s one occupant left on board: a hungry zombie. Anne Bowles (Tisa Farrow), the daughter of the boat’s owner, ends up teaming with journalist Peter West (Ian McCulloch) to uncover what happened. Their investigation leads to a mysterious Caribbean island near the Dominican Republic, and in order to reach that destination, they hook up with vacationing boaters Brian Hull (Al Cliver) and Susan Barrett (Auretta Gay). After an encounter with a hungry tiger shark and an even hungrier underwater zombie (Ramon Bravo!), they reach Matool Island, where they discover a compound run by Dr. Menard (Richard Johnson). Menard was friends with Anne’s father, and he’s been trying to unravel the source of a disease that’s turning the residents of the island into zombies. Of course, what man proposes, the gods dispose of, and soon everyone is fighting for their lives. Zombie also stars Olga Karlatos and Stefania D’Amario (and yes, Fulci has a cameo).
Fulci may have essentially been a director-for-hire on Zombie, but he threw himself into the assignment with obvious relish. Fulci had an uncanny gift for atmosphere, and the island setting provided plenty of opportunity to create hazy dreamscapes that become a walking nightmare for the protagonists of the story. While Briganti and Sacchetti had intended to bridge the gap between Romero’s ghouls and voodoo folklore, the film ended up becoming a bridge between the more grounded horrors of Fucli’s previous gialli and the fully supernatural horrors that he pursued later in his so-called “Gates of Hell” trilogy: City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, and The House by the Cemetery. Those films all featured zombie-esque monsters, but ones that were completely divorced from any rational context or even from rationality itself. His uncanny gift for atmosphere became an atmospheric gift for the uncanny, and with rare exceptions like the fantasy adventure Conquest, he never looked back.
Yet Fulci had another gift that’s arguably underappreciated, or at least not properly understood. His name has long been associated with gory makeup effects (and Zombie doesn’t disappoint in that regard), but it isn’t always the money shots themselves that are so memorable in his films, but rather the ways in which he set them up. The horror genre is sometimes differentiated from thrillers by drawing a contrast between the terrors of the former with the suspense of the latter (although there’s usually some overlap). Yet there’s a third mode that bridges the gap between suspense and pure terror, and Fulci was the absolute master of it: namely, dread. If suspense is a sense of anticipation fueled by uncertainty, then dread is anticipation with no uncertainty whatsoever. Viewers feel suspense when something might happen but they hope it doesn’t, but they feel dread when they know that something is going to happen and there’s nothing that they can do to stop it.
Enter the most notorious sequence in Zombie (well, aside from the zombie vs. shark scene, anyway): the way that Olga Karlatos meets her fate. Fulci had an obsession with human vision and especially the human eye, and eyeballs were frequently the unfortunate subjects of his gruesome imagination. Yet in Zombie, it’s not just the actual damage that’s done to one, but rather the fact that there’s no question what’s going to happen to it. Even on a first viewing, the audience is never given the slightest hope that Karlatos will be able to escape what’s in store for her. Fulci was well aware of the fact that nearly everyone is squeamish about eyeballs, so he drew the moment out as long as possible, forcing viewers to imagine what was going to happen before it actually did—which makes the gore effects even more, well, effective. The whole scene is the ne plus ultra of dread in horror cinema.
In many ways, Zombie is also the ne plus ultra of the zombie subgenre. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the best zombie film ever made, but rather that it encompasses the entire breadth of what the genre represents, from Victor Halperin to George A. Romero and all points in between. It’s something old and something new, blended together into a beautifully atmospheric whole. There are moments in Zombie that will linger in your mind’s eye (the one eye that Fulci couldn’t desecrate) for years to come, and not just the most gruesome moments, either. If Jacques Tourneur’s I Walked with a Zombie is still the most poetic of zombie films, then Zombie is the most transcendent. As with much of Fulci’s best work, it’s the sound of one hand clapping.
Cinematographer Sergio Salvati shot Zombie Flesh Eaters on 35mm film in 2-perf Techniscope using spherical lenses. The resulting flat negative was blown up optically for anamorphic release prints that were framed at 2.39:1. This version is the same basic 4K master that Blue Underground created for their own 2020 UHD, which was based on 16-bit scans of the original camera negative, graded for High Dynamic Range in Dolby Vision and HDR10. The difference this time is a flawless encode by David Mackenzie at Fidelity in Motion, and Arrow has also sourced scans of the elements for the different opening and closing titles. You can select either the U.K. Zombie Flesh Eaters, the U.S. Zombie, or the Italian Zombi 2 credits (note that opting for the Italian version also changes the audio selections to Italian only). Blue Underground’s UHD had generated new Zombie titles digitally, and they also partially stabilized the handheld shot during the closing credits, but Arrow has restored the original instability to it. As a result of all that, the seamlessly branched titles have some slight variances in quality between them, but the body of the film is the same no matter which one that you choose.
Which is good, because this is still an outstanding 4K presentation of Zombie Flesh Eaters. The image is nearly pristine, with only a few faint scratches, some hairs at the bottom edge of the frame, and a bit of staining in underwater shark footage to mar it. Thanks to the FiM encode, the original grain is reproduced perfectly, even against challenging material like smoke, fog, and cloudy skies. The colors can be almost startling at times (the Caribbean waters can be really blue, and the bloody effects can be really red), but nothing looks exaggerated or oversaturated. There’s just more breadth to the colors in HDR than there was on Blue Underground’s original 2018 Blu-ray that was based on the same digital restoration. There’s also more visual information within the contrast range, from deep blacks that don’t crush detail to blinding tropical skies. Atmosphere is everything with Lucio Fulci’s supernatural horror movies, but even a preternatural one like Zombie Flesh Eaters benefits from the visual improvements in 4K with HDR.
Audio for Zombie Flesh Eaters and Zombie is offered in English 2.0 mono LPCM and Dolby Atmos, with optional English SDH subtitles. Audio for Zombi 2 is offered in Italian 2.0 mono LPCM and 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, with removable English subtitles. The Atmos mix is the same one that Blue Underground first unveiled for their 2020 UHD, and it’s a definite improvement over the previous 5.1 and 7.1 mixes. While it may have added a few new sound effects, for the most part it just steers the original mono effects to expand the soundstage. And it works, too, although the steering does sound a little forced in a few places. On the other hand, Fabio Frizzi’s score really benefits from the added presence in multichannel. While I do sometimes lean towards remixes just for the benefits to the music alone, after switching back and forth several times between Atmos and mono, in this case I ultimately preferred the mono. Your own mileage may vary.
Arrow’s Region-Free Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD release of Zombie Flesh Eaters is UHD only—there’s no Blu-ray included in the package. The insert is reversible, with new artwork by Colin Murdoch on one side and the Italian theatrical artwork on the other. There’s a two-sided foldout poster featuring the same two designs, as well as six different art cards and a 40-page booklet with essays by Willow Maclay, Jack Sargeant, Heather Wixson, and Matt Rogerson. There’s also an Arte Originale slipcover featuring the U.K. art and a rigid slipcase with new artwork. While this Limited Edition version appears to be sold out at this point, Arrow is already taking pre-orders for a standard version that omits the swag, the slipcover, and the slipcase. The following extras are included:
- Audio Commentaries:
- Eugenio Ercolani, Troy Howarth, & Nathaniel Thompson
- Stephen Thrower & Alan Jones
- Elisa Briganti & Calum Waddell
- Introduction by Ian McCulloch (HD – 1:31)
- Sound and Fury: Listening to Zombie Flesh Eaters (HD – 15:02)
- Repellant: Memories of Zombie Flesh Eaters (HD – 13:16)
- Archival Extras:
- From Romero to Rome: The Rise and Fall of the Italian Zombie Film (HD – 59:35)
- Aliens, Cannibals and Zombies: A Trilogy of Italian Terror (HD – 45:50)
- The Meat-Munching Movies of Gino de Rossi (HD & Upscaled SD – 26:32)
- Zombie Flesh Eaters: From Script to Screen (HD – 3:18)
- Music for a Flesh-Feast (HD – 29:23)
- Original Screenplay (UHD, 156 pages in all)
- Trailers:
- U.S. Trailer (HD – 1:23)
- Vipco Trailer (Upscaled SD – 2:35)
- TV Spot 1 (HD – :31)
- TV Spot 2 (HD – :31)
- Radio Spots (HD – 2:07, 4 in all)
Arrow has added a few new extras for this release. The first is a group commentary with extras producer Eugenio Ercolani, Mondo Digital’s Nathaniel Thompson, and Troy Howarth, author of Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulci and His Films. They describe Zombie as being a gateway Fulci film, a grab bag of elements that’s framed as a mystery—with zombies, of course. They examine the structure of the film, explore where it fits into Fulci’s filmography, and tell plenty of stories about its making, including details about the cast and crew. They also look at where it fits into the zombie genre, and its connections (or lack thereof) to George A. Romero and Dario Argento. It’s a good introduction to the world(s) of Lucio Fulci and Zombie for anyone who wants to get up to speed quickly.
The other new extras include the complete original English language script for Nightmare Island (mastered in 4K, which is a nice touch) and two visual essays. Sound and Fury: Listening to Zombie Flesh Eaters is by author Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, who analyzes the sound design in the film from the complex layers of sound effects in the eyeball scene to the score by Fabio Frizzi. She feels that the soundtrack does almost as much heavy lifting as the visuals do. Repellant: Memories of Zombie Flesh Eaters is by author Chris Alexander, who recalls his own first experiences with the film while he was exploring the horror genre as a young person. Leonard Maltin’s TV Movies guide ended up being his ironic bible, because he knew that any horror movie with a “bomb” rating was bound to be something special, and Zombie didn’t disappoint in that regard.
The archival extras were all originally produced for Arrow’s 2012 Blu-ray. There are two different commentaries, one with Lucio Fulci biographer Stephen Thrower and horror buff Alan Jones, the other with screenwriter Elisa Briganti (moderated by Calum Waddell). The former is akin to the new commentary, detailing the making of Zombie while breaking down its style and themes. The latter is really an extended interview with Briganti conducted by Waddell, not so much a screen-specific commentary, but her memories are invaluable.
The rest of the archival extras consist of featurettes and interviews. From Romero to Rome: The Rise and Fall of the Italian Zombie Film is a look at the entire Italian zombie cycle from its origins to its aftermath. Directed by Waddell, it includes interviews with Luigi Cozzi, Ruggero Deodato, Russ Streiner, Dardano Sacchetti, Antonio Tentori, Kim Newman, David McGillivray, Darren Ward, Alex Chandon, James Moran, and Shelag Rowan-Legg. Zombie Flesh Eaters: From Script to Screen features Sacchetti showing off an English-language copy of his original Island of the Living Dead script (already retitled Nightmare Island in English, so the title games were afoot long before the film even went into production).
Aliens, Cannibals and Zombies: A Trilogy of Italian Terror is an extended interview with Ian McCulloch, covering his background as an actor, the making of Zombie (including its “Video Nasty” aftermath), and his work on Marino Girolami’s Zombi Holocaust and Luigi Cozzi’s Contamination. (Note that the Introduction with McCulloch was taken from this same interview session.) The Meat-Munching Movies of Gino de Rossi features with the legendary makeup effects artist, who discusses his work on Zombie, other Fulci films, and a few other films like Burial Ground and Cannibal Ferox. He also shows off some of the surviving props from his collection (and yes, he’s still got the hooks from Cannibal Ferox). Finally, Music for a Flesh-Feast is with Fabio Frizzi, taken from a Q&A that was held at the Glasgow Film Theatre.
There are also at least three Easter eggs on the disc. They’re not too difficult to locate—remember that just because a back arrow is pointing in one direction, it doesn’t mean that you can’t go the other way:
- Zombie Holocaust German Trailer (Upscaled SD – 8:23)
- Critics of the Living Dead (HD – 1:04)
- Gino de Rossi’s Wall of Fame (HD – 2:12)
Now, while Arrow was able to license this 4K master for Zombie Flesh Eaters from Blue Underground, they couldn’t secure any of the extras. So, this is missing Blue Underground’s solo commentary with Troy Howarth, as well as the vintage commentary with Ian McCullough and Jason J. Slater that was originally recorded for the 1998 Roan Group LaserDisc. It’s also missing their interviews with Stephen Thrower, Ottaviano Dell’acqua, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver, Fabrizio de Angelis, Elisa Briganti, Dardano Sacchetti, Sergio Salvati, Walter Patriarca, Giannetto de Rossi, Maurizio Trani, Gino de Rossi, Fabio Frizzi, Antonella Fulci, and Guillermo del Toro, as well as the Easter egg about near disaster while shooting the diving sequence. (It’s also worth pointing out that their 2018 Blu-ray was a 3-disc set that included a CD with Frizzi’s soundtrack.)
Unfortunately, such is the lot for physical media collectors who have a yen for popular Italian horror movies that keep getting released over and over again. In terms of the 4K presentation itself, Arrow definitely has the edge thanks to the Fidelity in Motion encode and the addition of the different opening and closing title sequences. The different extras will come down to personal preference. Mind you, if you really are a physical collector with a yen for popular Italian horror movies, you know damned well that you need them both. But if you do have the discipline to choose just one, I’m still giving the nod to Arrow. It’s the best possible version of the film itself, and that’s the most important thing.
-Stephen Bjork
(You can follow Stephen on social media at these links: Twitter, Facebook, BlueSky, and Letterboxd).