ZOMBIE CREEPING FLESH
released OUT NOW! 1980 | 18 | Blu-ray Director Bruno Mattei Cast Margit evelyn Newton, Franco Garofalo, selan Karay, Vincent José Gras
As Dawn Of The Dead rip-offs go, it doesn’t get more shameless then this. Not only does Zombie Creeping Flesh recycle parts of the score, it cribs Tom Savini’s blue-tinged makeups and places a commando squad at the fore. To rub it in, director Bruno Mattei is credited as “Vincent Dawn”!
In fairness, the bookending sections, featuring a zombie outbreak at a mysterious nuclear facility, aren’t too bad. There are tantalising hints of a political subtext here – sadly, miserably under-developed.
The central stretch is the problem. Painfully slow, it sees the commandos, a female journalist and her cameraman trekking through the jungles of Papua New Guinea (the woods of Barcelona). The reliance on recycled documentary footage is tedious, with countless cuts to monkeys, birds and (oddly) elephants.
Still, there’s fun to be had hooting at the dreadful dialogue, the literally eyepopping gore effects, and the Klaus Kinski-esque Franco Garofalo’s over-acting.
Extras Interviews with star Margit Evelyn Newton and writer Claudio Fragrasso; the latter is engaging, discussing the original script, and revealing that Garofalo was just as OTT in real life. Plus: choice of English or Italian soundtrack; trailer; booklet. Ian Berriman