As a kid I never really considered
myself as a horror fan. Sure I loved stuff like the Alien
movies and X-Files, not to mention a fair share of monstrous
toys. Maybe I just figured it was pretty universal to have an
interest in weird creatures and spooky stories. Even into the mid
90's when I would camp out in the living room to watch Joe Bob Briggs
host the hell out of Monstervision, I still didn't identify as a
horror fan. Moving into my late teens and the glory days of the DVD
market, something happened and horror became a much larger part of my
life. I can never pinpoint the exact moment when it happened but
somewhere along the line I found myself collecting horror movies at a
steady pace.
In the spring of 2008 that collection
had grown enough that I decided it was time to restore the glory of
those old Monstervision nights. I declared that every Saturday would
be horror movie night. After the first shaky couple of months it
became this became a constant within our house. Scary flicks have are
that little something to punctuate every week whether it be to
celebrate a good time or to make up for a lousy one.
With this year marking the tenth
anniversary of this Saturday night tradition I thought it might be a
fun addition to the site to share with you all my 100 favorite horror
flicks. Now I want to make that very clear, these are what I enjoy
the most. I can't declare them to be the absolute best flicks out
there as that would require me to have seen every single scary movie
ever made in the history of the world. Nor will I adhere to
historical relevance, so no matter how much Scream may matter
historically, it's not popping up in my countdown.
There will be some familiar titles no
doubt, like The Fly, but you'll also see some bizarre picks
like Full Circle or Pin: A Plastic Nightmare. Also
these are not appearing in any sort of quality ranking. I'll simply
write about which one I feel like discussing at the time. Just
understand that if it's part of this series, whether it be something
deep and well-made or something so bad it's hilarious, I'm including
these flicks because I think they're an outstanding part of any
horror collection.
Given the current frightful weather
across the states, I think we deserve a nice tropical vacation, so
let's go with a movie that doesn't meet most of the usual standards
of quality but sure is a lot of warm weather fun.
Zombi 2 was one of the earlier Italian
horror flicks to enter my collection, and while it eventually wormed
its way into my hear it also served as something of a lesson in film
buff bullshitting. For the life of me I can not count the number of
times I have read film nerds wax poetically about the deeper meanings
and quality of Italian horror, and while I have a love for some of
these films there are incredibly few I would tout as having any real
narrative meat. By and large you watch Italian flicks because you
want some pure unfettered excess. That's where I grew to love this
flick. Think of it this way. Some days you need a nice healthy
meal. Maybe a salad, some whole grain toast, you get the picture.
Then there's those days where the only thing that can lift you spirit
is Taco Bell. Zombi 2 Is pure Taco Bell.
The story is crazy simple. A boat
carrying some dead bodies, and one not so dead one, arrive in New
York City. A reporter meats up with the daughter of the boats owner
and soon the two set off to the Caribbean in search of answers. Along
the way they hitch a boat ride with a married couple and arrive at an
island occupied by a shifty doctor, his spiteful wife, and craploads
of zombies. There's honestly not much more than that. There's no deep
character study or revelations about human nature. It's all a sun
drenched excuse to get people topless and bloody. And on that front
tit totally delivers.
Everything you could ask for from a
sleazy zombie picture is on display. Cranial explosion, burning
corpses, eye trauma, topless diving, and even a fight between a
zombie and a shark! It's like the sketchbook of a nasty little boy
brought to the screen with just enough overwrought and poorly dubbed
dialogue keeping things from getting too serious.
I just remembered you may be wondering
about the first Zombi, well there isn't one, not really
anyway. You see Zombi was an international title for Dawn
of the Dead, this is simply an unofficial sequel. It's a fairly
common practice in Italy. Even the Evil Dead films have some
completely unrelated sequels in name only. The Zombi franchise
itself doesn't dodge this practice either as later entries like
Killing Birds are simply
dragged in to benefit from brand recognition.
While
I fully endorse this movie as a bit of trashy fun, it's definitely
not something for new horror fans to dive right into. If you're just
developing an interest in the genre and hoping to catch up on some
old goodies, you'd be much better served with something like The
Fog. Zombi 2 is something you
can sit on for a long time, until just the right time when life has
left you exhausted and sort of brainless. Then it's time to gather
some like minded individuals, some tasty hooch, and just enjoy the
show.
That's
all for tonight, folks. I hope you will all enjoy this new feature,
though I can't say for certain how frequently it will appear.
Haven't even decided on all the titles that will be featured, so
there will be surprises for all of us.
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