Zombi 3 (1988)

The muddled production history of this sloppy horror film was so convoluted that for years it was assumed that schlockmeister Bruno Mattei (Inferno dei Morti-Viventi) had completed the project after the failing health of principal director Lucio Fulci had forced the cult legend to abandon it. It was subsequently revealed that co-producer Claudio Fragasso, who had directed such abominations as Monster Dog and La Casa 5, was the man responsible for the resultant mess (albeit with Mattei's assistance on location in the Philippines). The story line and approach bear little resemblance to Fulci's much-admired 1979 cult favorite Zombi 2, revolving around scientists at a top-secret research facility working on a biological weapon called Death One, which mutates and kills the living and reanimates the dead. Naturally, there is a leak, and the rest of the film concerns the spreading infection, zombie attacks, and their effect on a trio of vacationing soldiers and a group of stereotypically daft young people in and around a contaminated hotel. Where Fulci's Zombi 2 had taken elements of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead (released in Italy in a re-edited Dario Argento version as Zombi) and introduced more traditional Haitian voodoo mythology to the plot line, this film attempts to play off not only its predecessors, but Day of the Dead, the jokey American remake Return of the Living Dead, and Romero's own 1972 bio-terror film The Crazies as well. Lowlights include a zombie baby ripping from its mother's womb Alien-style to tear off someone's face, a legless zombie attacking her ex-boyfriend in a swimming pool, and -- most groan-inducing of all -- a zombie DJ concluding the entire sorry affair by dedicating a record to "all the undead around the world." American exploitation director Deran Serafian leads a cast including Beatrice Ring, Luciano Pigozzi, and Massimo Vanni, while Franco Di Girolamo handled the gore effects. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi