Island of the Living Dead (2006)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
The one and only Mattei got to end his career with a couple zombie movies, which will be good news for fans of the genre and horrid news for non-fans. In the film, a group of treasure hunters got lost in a fog bank and in the morning they notice what appears to be a deserted island. The group goes on shore and sure enough there are zombies running around. If you're looking for any type of actual story then you're obviously not too familiar with the work of Mattei. He's considered one of the biggest hacks in Italian history but at the same time he's made some rather entertaining bad films. This one here really doesn't work but there's enough gore and badness for fans of bad cinema to at least want to give it a single viewing. As is the normal case with the director, we get all sorts of stuff stolen from other movies including dialogue lifted from NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, the infamous eye/splinter sequence from Fulci's ZOMBIE and the Blind Dead movies are certainly playing a big key here. We also get stock footage which is another Mattei trademark. It's pretty hard to judge the acting in the film because the dubbing is so horrendous you really can't tell what's going on. I'm not sure who did this dubbing job but it's among one of the worst tracks I've ever heard but this does lead to some rather campy moments. I think zombie fans will enjoy some of the gore here as we get some (bad) CGI as well as real effects. We have heads being blown off, arms ripped off and plenty of flesh being eaten with all types of blood flowing at ease. We also get some rather bizarre zombie stuff including some having fangs, a few ghost zombies and one that can grow his dead parts back after they're shot off. On a technical level pretty much everything here is bad but those checking this title out are going to know that going in. The film's biggest flaw is its 90-minute running time, which is just way too long for a movie like this especially when you've only got enough plot for a half-hour movie and not enough attacks to justify the long time.
* 1/2 (out of 4)
The one and only Mattei got to end his career with a couple zombie movies, which will be good news for fans of the genre and horrid news for non-fans. In the film, a group of treasure hunters got lost in a fog bank and in the morning they notice what appears to be a deserted island. The group goes on shore and sure enough there are zombies running around. If you're looking for any type of actual story then you're obviously not too familiar with the work of Mattei. He's considered one of the biggest hacks in Italian history but at the same time he's made some rather entertaining bad films. This one here really doesn't work but there's enough gore and badness for fans of bad cinema to at least want to give it a single viewing. As is the normal case with the director, we get all sorts of stuff stolen from other movies including dialogue lifted from NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, the infamous eye/splinter sequence from Fulci's ZOMBIE and the Blind Dead movies are certainly playing a big key here. We also get stock footage which is another Mattei trademark. It's pretty hard to judge the acting in the film because the dubbing is so horrendous you really can't tell what's going on. I'm not sure who did this dubbing job but it's among one of the worst tracks I've ever heard but this does lead to some rather campy moments. I think zombie fans will enjoy some of the gore here as we get some (bad) CGI as well as real effects. We have heads being blown off, arms ripped off and plenty of flesh being eaten with all types of blood flowing at ease. We also get some rather bizarre zombie stuff including some having fangs, a few ghost zombies and one that can grow his dead parts back after they're shot off. On a technical level pretty much everything here is bad but those checking this title out are going to know that going in. The film's biggest flaw is its 90-minute running time, which is just way too long for a movie like this especially when you've only got enough plot for a half-hour movie and not enough attacks to justify the long time.