With a name like Zombi 3 (or Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 if you prefer the US/previous UK title), you'd think this was a sequel of some sort. Certainly the UK video cover at one point wanted people to think that, as it was virtually-identical to the cover of Zombie Flesh Eaters. In reality, the movies are almost completely unconnected, aside from the fact that there are zombies in both of them, and that legendary director Lucio Fulci had a hand in directing both.
A terrorist steals a compound that someone unironically named DEATH-ONE. He is chased by a helicopter but manages to escape, but not before the container holding the DEATH-ONE gets breached and he gets it all over himself. By the time the military catch up with him, he's checked into a hotel, started bleeding green, infected a bellhop, murdered a maid and finally expired of a bad case of crusty-faced zombification, complete with a green glow. The military, having apparently never seen Return of the Living Dead (which is a great surprise, as the movie's score definitely has) then decide that the best thing to do is burn all the bodies and release the smoke and ashes into the air.
We then meet our motley crew of protagonists, who consist of a trio of soldiers on a weekend pass, a group of students in a winnebago and a couple in a red sports car (and that's about all the characterisation most of them get) who get caught up in things and find themselves fighting to survive together as everything goes inevitably pear-shaped. First birds start falling from the sky and dying, then they come back to life and attack people, then the human zombies turn up - and some of them can do kung-fu leaps! There's also a scene with a head in a fridge that I still can't believe actually got filmed, and at one point a zombified character literally says, "I'm feeling better, Patricia, but I'm thirsty... for your blood!" (Oh yes, sometimes the zombies can talk as well.) All the film really needed was someone who looked like Linnea Quigley to dance naked in a graveyard, because it's pretty obvious that Zombi 3 wanted to be Return of the Living Dead so badly it hurt.
So just why was this movie the confused mess that it was? Well, one reason would be that it had two (or even three, according to the IMDB page) directors. Lucio Fulci, who directed the first Zombie Flesh Eaters, was supposed to be the sole director here, but he became ill during filming and so had to pass the directorial reins over to one Bruno Mattei. Mattei's works in the genre included Zombie Creeping Flesh, Porno Holocaust and Rats: Night of Terror, and it's something of an understatement to say that Fulci and Mattei had very different filmmaking styles. The resulting styles clash really hurts the film - although honestly, I'm not too sure than even having just the one director would have really "saved" or helped the film in any way.
That being said, as the years have gone by Zombi 3 has developed something of a cult following, being considered one of those "so bad it's good" films, and so it has its fans even today. And I'll be honest, one thing you could never say about this film is that it's dull - there's nearly always something happening, regardless of how derivative or utterly insane it might be. It's the kind of film you could enjoy watching with friends, along with the refreshments of your choice...
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