Best known to American audiences as Zombie 4, the film bares zero relation to the original Fulci classic. Infact, I am still scratching my head as to why anyone thought it would be a good idea to slap the Zombie brand on the box cover to begin with.
The film opens by giving us a back story as to how this whole zombie epidemic began. A group of researchers trying to save the world set up operations on a remote island somewhere in the Caribbean (though the credits list filming locations in the Philippines) and manage to piss off the local voodoo big wig when his daughter dies of some disease or another.
From here things tend to get a little blurry. The voodoo guy kills off his wife with some spell just as a group of scientist armed to the teeth with assault rifles storm into his cave. When one of the scientist tires of the voodoo guys jibber jabber he unloads a clip into the man, pissing off his dead wife who explodes out of the floor as a demon. The make up on this broad was actually kind of decent, reminding me of the monsters from Lamberto Bava's Demons. Which is probably what they were going for.
We are then introduced to some family running through the jungle dodging zombies that wear black hooded robes. When the father is taken down and chomped on the mother orders her daughter to run away as fast as possible, handing her some sort of necklace deal that will play a bigger role later in the film. At this point I had to laugh and even get a little pissed off. The little girl runs about as fast as a bowlegged sea turtle and does so with a cheesy little grin on her face. Why the mom chose to turn around and get eaten by zombies is beyond me, it would have been easier to pick her little brat off the ground and just run to safety.
Twenty years later the girl returns to the island for some reason that's never really explained with a group of drunken mercenaries and some chick in a bikini. Heading up river in a boat, the crew hears loud groaning coming from the jungle and their engine mysteriously tanks on them. Conveniently there is a dock and the gang saddles up on the shore looking for mischief. It should also be known that a group of scientist are also stumbling around the island for no apparent reason at the very same time.
The cast here isn't all that impressive. Honestly it looks like the players were all taken from the set of a bad pornography film. Which could very well be the case considering one of the actors is Jeff Stryker star of such gems as Strykin It Deep, Powertool 2 and Santa's Cummin. I will say though that the guys playing Mercenaries look pretty damn cool and fit the parts well.
The second half of the film is pretty standard zombie stuff. A group of people stuck in a building, this case being a abandoned hospital, fight off hoards of the undead with gory results. One of the mercenaries finds a trunk full of M16s and distributes them amongst his pals. What makes this so interesting is that later one of the guys is bitten and uses the weapon on his friends. An easy comparison would be to that of Bub from Day Of The Dead but these aren't those kind of zombies.
While a lot of people would point to 28 Days Later as the origin of the fast moving zombie, this movie (along with Nightmare City) proves otherwise. They also occasionally lunge like frogs at their victims and have the ability to think.If I have any real complaints about this movie its that it runs about a half hour longer then it should. Had the filmmakers up' d the action and chopped some time off the story this would have made for a much more entertaining movie.
While I personally enjoyed After Death it's hard for me to actually envision anyone else being bizarre enough to sit through the whole thing with a smile on their face as I did.
For fans looking for a cool little zombie flick with zero story and loads of cool gore effects, I say check it out. Note to readers: The copy of After Death I have is the Japanese cut and may differ from the U.S. release better known as Zombie 4: After Death.
The film opens by giving us a back story as to how this whole zombie epidemic began. A group of researchers trying to save the world set up operations on a remote island somewhere in the Caribbean (though the credits list filming locations in the Philippines) and manage to piss off the local voodoo big wig when his daughter dies of some disease or another.
From here things tend to get a little blurry. The voodoo guy kills off his wife with some spell just as a group of scientist armed to the teeth with assault rifles storm into his cave. When one of the scientist tires of the voodoo guys jibber jabber he unloads a clip into the man, pissing off his dead wife who explodes out of the floor as a demon. The make up on this broad was actually kind of decent, reminding me of the monsters from Lamberto Bava's Demons. Which is probably what they were going for.
We are then introduced to some family running through the jungle dodging zombies that wear black hooded robes. When the father is taken down and chomped on the mother orders her daughter to run away as fast as possible, handing her some sort of necklace deal that will play a bigger role later in the film. At this point I had to laugh and even get a little pissed off. The little girl runs about as fast as a bowlegged sea turtle and does so with a cheesy little grin on her face. Why the mom chose to turn around and get eaten by zombies is beyond me, it would have been easier to pick her little brat off the ground and just run to safety.
Twenty years later the girl returns to the island for some reason that's never really explained with a group of drunken mercenaries and some chick in a bikini. Heading up river in a boat, the crew hears loud groaning coming from the jungle and their engine mysteriously tanks on them. Conveniently there is a dock and the gang saddles up on the shore looking for mischief. It should also be known that a group of scientist are also stumbling around the island for no apparent reason at the very same time.
The cast here isn't all that impressive. Honestly it looks like the players were all taken from the set of a bad pornography film. Which could very well be the case considering one of the actors is Jeff Stryker star of such gems as Strykin It Deep, Powertool 2 and Santa's Cummin. I will say though that the guys playing Mercenaries look pretty damn cool and fit the parts well.
The second half of the film is pretty standard zombie stuff. A group of people stuck in a building, this case being a abandoned hospital, fight off hoards of the undead with gory results. One of the mercenaries finds a trunk full of M16s and distributes them amongst his pals. What makes this so interesting is that later one of the guys is bitten and uses the weapon on his friends. An easy comparison would be to that of Bub from Day Of The Dead but these aren't those kind of zombies.
While a lot of people would point to 28 Days Later as the origin of the fast moving zombie, this movie (along with Nightmare City) proves otherwise. They also occasionally lunge like frogs at their victims and have the ability to think.If I have any real complaints about this movie its that it runs about a half hour longer then it should. Had the filmmakers up' d the action and chopped some time off the story this would have made for a much more entertaining movie.
While I personally enjoyed After Death it's hard for me to actually envision anyone else being bizarre enough to sit through the whole thing with a smile on their face as I did.
For fans looking for a cool little zombie flick with zero story and loads of cool gore effects, I say check it out. Note to readers: The copy of After Death I have is the Japanese cut and may differ from the U.S. release better known as Zombie 4: After Death.
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