Flash Ming's Well

Trigon Fire
(1989/Philippines)

‘‘If I die I take you with me !’’

A somewhat initially neutered Sam Flash Gordon Jones, as a doctor of medicine, gets caught up in a global terror plot involving a super nuclear bomb. Known as the Trigon Factor, there are three separate parts to the mighty weapon safeguarded around the world. A plot is in action to bring the three ‘phases’, as they are referred to, together by the head of the Palestinian Revolutionary Front. Lots of guys dressed all in black with matching balaclavas, looking like a cost cutting grunge variation of Ninjas with no stealth, just brawn and a complete lack of colour coordinated fashion statement head band wear, steal away the three parts but keep them still separated. Headed up by a former defence minister named Abdul he instigates a bidding war to secure the Trigon. Libian backers come in way above the competition with an almighty $20billion.

The C.I.A are on immediate alert and place a bounty of $1 million on the head of one Sirian McCoy, known as The Irish Terror, wanted around the world and known to be directly involved with the organisation behind the multiple heist. A professional terrorist bounty hunter named Shield is hired to locate McCoy and learn of the whereabouts of the three Trigon phases. Due to a last minute identity change poor old Sam Jones gets mistaken for Shield and is soon dodging bullets. His character Doctor Ford, no not Doctor Zarkov !, is assisted by a local agent operative named Manuel. Masquerading undercover as a cab driver Manuel is equipped to protect Doctor Ford, initially believing him to be Shield. With the bad guys off his scent Shield benefits from the benefits of anonymity allowing him a little extra time to get a close look at his target McCoy, and learn about the incoming Trigon parts to the area.

Sam Jones is wastefully inept for the first part of the movie as his character truly is a regular guy. It is when his wife and child are repeatedly shot down in cold blood by the militant group that he is forced to adapt to a more recognised role as an aggressor and take up arms against the killers. Assisted by Manuel in double quick time to handle a weapon, and accepting Manuel’s help, the two men turn into a combined force that actually engage the enemy in pursuit of the Trigon themselves !. Almost like a cut down version of The A-Team they are joined by a female reporter, who herself is a mysterious government agent, who can handle herself extremely well but may not be all that she appears !?. Together the intrepid trio cause havoc amongst the inept forces guarding the Trigon Factor and incredibly manage to start securing the parts !. Not even ‘‘Howling Mad’’ Matt Murdock was this crazy !.

Though thankfully delivering a Flash of Action at the end, not even Sam Jones can save the world from this merciless ‘Ming’ atrocity !. Shield provides at least a semblance of what an Action hero should be, as he storms in with the cavalry just in time to at least raise viewing interest to some degree come closure.
The mind numbing banality of the movie is as wooden as Pinocchio’s carved flaccid pee shooter, and just as unlikely to stand up to a repeat showing.

Review by Paul Cooke / Source Japanese NTSC VHS
Trigon Fire (1989)
Director John Lloyd
With Sam Jones, Blueberry, David Light,
Jim Moss, Erwin Hahn, Jerry Beyer & Mike Monty

For The War Horse ... Nick Nicholson

Recently Ballistic Blood Bullets brother of bravado Nick Nicholson was rushed to hospital following a heart attack. Not good at all. But Nick is a tough guy of old school biblical proportions, and even the thought of sharing a weed pot noodle with the big man upstairs isn't enough to take this mighty War Horse from the 'Pino pastures of God's green Earth.

Wishing Nick all the very best for a speedy full recovery, and as a well intentioned gesture of mirth injection the following review brings about a wry smile. Forget the thumb spinning anal jockeys who have thrown diuretic drivel at this slam bang bodacious Zombie flick, here's my spin from a while back when the oh so very welcome Shriek Show DVD came out.

This One's For You Nick

Zombie 4 : After Death
(1988/Italy)

Armed with a type writer he is a delirious joy, but loaded up with the duties of a Director Claudio Fragasso is downright frenzied. Even at the end of the Italian Zombie cycle cheerful Fragasso peddled his wares to a Production crew, already bewildered by the ‘B’ movie making might of cohort Bruno Mattei, and pulled off the most ham fisted , low budgeted, reel of dumfounding Zombie nonsense that makes Zombie 3 seem like a classic.

The story is simplistically derivative as a well meaning scientist searches for a cure for cancer. Along with his wife and six year old daughter he sets up a lab on a remote Filipino island, but in offering a remedy he unwittingly brings about the death of a young girl who just happens to be the daughter of the resident voodoo priest. Soon the doorway to hell is opened and the dead rise up to take vengeance upon the doctor and his family. They flee for their lives with the spritely undead in pursuit as clearly aided by the genes of Carl Lewis.

These living dead could relay for Team America at the next Olympics although their tendency to spew green bile may not sit well with the impartial Judges. With the Zombies closing in for the kill the doctor and his wife stem the charge, sending their little girl running off all alone, comforted only by a strange medallion dangling around her neck.

Twenty years later an outboard motored boat with a cargo of thrill seekers made up from ex-military types is mysteriously pulled in by the current of the very same island. The draw is accompanied by the drone of the wailing dead, competing for audio dominance with the brash disco sound from composer Al Festa. The gaggle of friends we later learn includes the returning doctors daughter, now grown into womanhood as portrayed by the attractive Candice Daly.

The arrival of an intrepid trio of explorers to the mainland island at the same time, seeking out the Book Of The Dead , leads to the re-emergence of the rotting dead as a passage is read to invoke them. Having discovered the tome, which conveniently has the words Book Of The Dead boldly emblazoned on the front dust cover for just such idiots to happen on, the lead male and Fay Wray wannabe female colleague are soon sharing their body parts with the gums of the risen dead in bloody fashion. Centre stage is then taken by clean cut hero Jeff Stryker, who rather ironically gained infamy as a gay hard core porn star. Clearly his thespian skin apprenticeship stood him in good favour as after helping raise the dead he then proves to be a dab hand at handling the stiffs !.
It isn’t too long before Stryker comes across the other party, who are just discovering the island has a strangely aggressive indigenous people with a rather flaky line in facial makeup and skin care. Introductions are unnecessary as Stryker knows how to handle himself and soon shows them the only way to deal with the welcoming committee, with a swift bullet to the Zombie cranial region.
Holed up in a dilapidated shack with makeshift barricade the living and breathing survivors, naturally having discovered a stored cache of weapons, take on the Zombies in a fun fighting highlight. Enshrouded with billowing fog they take on casualties which before too long leads to members of their friends coming back from the dead for an entre all their own, complete with undead speaking roles !.

The release to home video DVD format is a very welcome one for this truly inept but insanely amusing yet silly Zombie entry. As well as the joyous delights of such a wonderfully bumbling outing is the bonus material of star interviews and a particularly enjoyable discussion with Director Clyde Anderson aka Mr. Claudio Fragasso. His very insightful sharing of the fact that the movie was made for only one hundred thousand dollars is not surprising, but the fact that he pretty much shot the entire movie at night following his daytime duties on the set for Director Bruno Mattei’s Action romp Strike Commando 2 is truly amazing.

To finance the Bruno Mattei outing with stars Richard Harris and Brent Huff good old Claudio finished daytime duties and then purloined the very same camera, along with some of the crew to serve up his own picture to offload for the same Producers. This bodacious initiative ingeniously offset expenses by reaping back expenditure via the European market. Amusingly enough Action hero lead Brent Huff actually called his girlfriend of the time to the set for more than just companionship as actress Candice Daly was also recommended to Fragasso as his female lead for Zombie 4. Look out too for regular Filipino stalwart support star Nick Nicholson as Rod. A bearded badass who chews up the jungle scenery and dumps dialogue for a turn of expressive Action beyond wasteful words.

This really is a great package for all the ‘B’ movie, Zombie fun loving fans of Eighties Italian shlock, and if, as intimated by Fragasso, all the excessive gore had remained intact may well have actually been even more so !.

With all the classic Zombie moments from previous outings cram packed into the closing scenes the ending is set up for Stryker and Daly to save the day and plug that hell hole with the talisman adorning her neck. Rescuing the world from the Book Of The Dead proves to be more ludicrously entertaining than Bruce Campbell taking on the deadites. However, imbued with the writing blither of Fragasso even he audaciously saves a hybrid penned page torn from many a Lucio Fulci finale. Bloody in places and bloody funny in others you have to admire the audacious tomfoolery brought forth from the table of Claudio Fragasso, just keep the napkin handy to wipe away that smile of ridiculous disbelief.

Review by Paul Cooke / Source U.S NTSC DVD

Zombie 4: After Death (1988)
Director Claudio Fragasso
With Jeff Stryker , Candice Daly, Massimo Vanni,
Jim Gaines & Nick Nicholson

A Prior Jungle Incursion

Jungle Assault

(1989/USA)

‘‘Any blade can get dull, but the steel is still there’’

A guerrilla hit squad is taking out U.S. military personnel in central America. Retired General George D. Mitchell is concerned for the well being of his errant daughter Elaine, who is there in support of the rebel alliance. Believing in them for what she feels is a stand against the dictatorship of the American oppressors. The general has fought against communist aggressors in Vietnam and uprisings across continents, and he knows only too well what the rebellion in central America is really about. Drugs and arms dealers with connections to other communist state sympathisers. His daughters altruistic construct is misplaced, and her understanding of her patriotic father is misguided by those she aligns herself with. General Mitchell wants his daughter out of danger, and there are only two men he trusts to go into central America to retrieve her.

Two Vietnam veteran war buddies, Kelly (William Zipp) and Becker (Ted Prior), are having a drink in a beat up bar when a gang of degenerates barges in pulling a frightened young woman with them. Led by a 350lb plus man mountain who has one intent in mind, and that is to rape the woman. Sprawling her across a pool table the gang molest her. Kelly and Becker, witnessing enough, spring into Action and put the beat down on big poppa belly and his repugnant crew. Fists fly, chairs and pool cues hit bodies, and bottles smash heads as the two saviours rack ’em up. The Wurlitzer whirls to the tune of toes to chins as the hits keep coming. With just Kelly and Becker left standing, into the bar comes a face from the past, their old commanding officer General Mitchell.

The general wants the two men to bring back his errant daughter, and gets them on board to undertake a mission deep into drug country. He briefs them with all the information he has and gives them Intel on the guerrilla factions leader, a clever and ruthless female named Rosie Garcia. The general describes her as probably more lethal than any man they have ever met !. She has at her side a calculating killer mercenary known as McClusky, Garcia’s second in command.

Kelly and Becker have kept in pretty good shape and are soon prepared and kitted up to get back in Action. Air lifted by helicopter, into known rebel territory, the two men soon find themselves targeted as the drug runners come calling. They get an assist from an arranged contact, but having saved them from their attackers reveals himself to be none other than the mercenary McClusky !. Kelly and Becker are immediately up to their necks in the smelly deep stuff, as they are bound and taken directly to the camp of Rosie Garcia. McClusky and Garcia want to know who these two soldiers of fortune are, who sent them, and why ?. The two men are tied up, and torture begins !.

With Kelly getting the more hands on treatment from McClusky it is up to Becker to get free from his bindings, and offer assistance to his buddy. Together again they attempt to break out of the rebel encampment and drag the uncovered generals daughter with them. The resulting coup only leads to Kelly managing to escape back into the jungle. McClusky and a handful of armed men set off shortly after him, readied for a man hunt. With a Russian backed major finance operation to hit the American embassy beckoning, and a guaranteed retirement pay day, Garcia and McClusky want all loose ends tied up. Kelly and Becker have other ideas !.

Trained to survive in the jungles of Vietnam Kelly soon puts all of his experience to conclusive use. With a head start on his pursuers he sets traps and readies himself for a fight. One by one McClusky’s men are picked off as life taking pitfalls do their job, and Kelly deploys sticks and kicks against those who stray. Outwitted, and soon equal numbered in opposition, McClusky scurries back to camp. Garcia has her own battle going on as Elaine Mitchell has finally wised up, and having emancipated Becker and rejoined with the returning Kelly the fight for freedom ensues.

It’s more ‘Z Team’ than The A Team, but with paintball bloody splatter body pops, and explosions a plenty, there’s enough Action taking place to enjoy when a plan comes together. Sure to induce more than the odd disbelieving smile and ‘‘Oh come on’’ reaction. But can there be anything more rewarding than having both reactions at once !?. You’ll surely agree when witnessing a bad assed bodacious babe experiencing a full body bazooka lobotomy to go out on with a bang !.

Review Paul Cooke / Source Japanese NTSC Video

Jungle Assault (1989)

Director David A. Prior

With William Zipp, Ted Prior, Mario Rosado,
David Marriott, Darwin Swalve,
Jeannie Moore & William Smith

Seagal Slays 'Em Dead

Against The Dark
(2009/USA)

‘‘We’re not here to decide who’s right or wrong, we’re here to decide who lives and who dies !’’

The worlds turned against humanity in the form of natures population cleanser, a virulent virus with no known cure. A disease that turns people into creatures of the night, with a thirst for blood. Living off the uninfected, killing for their blood like vampires. A cancerous infection that needs to be put down, and who better to serve last rights than the Ebola enema that is Steven Seagal !.
Pockets of survivors forage for food and supplies during the day, when the infected hide away from the daylight, to role reverse at night as they seek sanctuary away from the darkness that shadows the world that once was. One small band of adults with a young girl hold up in a multi storey medical facility, seemingly safe from the hordes of creatures intent on taking their lives. From dusk till dawn they must traverse down through the facility in order to seek exit from the only way out of the secured complex. They have only until the morning to get out through the lower floor security lock down gate, as they believe the power to engage it will diminish with the buildings back up generator at any time. Their haven of safety soon turns into a tomb of terror as the farther they descend the more apparent it becomes that they are not alone !.
On the outside the army prepare for an air strike at the city and the medical facility is part of their destructive objective. Lieutenant Waters, played with military clout once again by Keith David, is under higher order to cleanse the city of its diseased before the dawn but the survivors need the cover of day to best escape their predators. Where the soldiers fear to go by foot, renegade bands of professionals calling themselves Hunters tread with intent on assisting those that desperately need their help. One such band of Hunters is headed up by Steven Seagal, as team leader Commander Tao along with mighty man mountain sidekick Tagart, and two hot to trot femme fatales, the Hunters enter the medical facility to cleanse the way for the group of survivors and terminate the terminally affected.

Sartorial elegance aside the Hunters dress code is black and predominantly leather. Steven Seagal pads the paunch with his requisite long black coat and sports a sword for a sidearm that he wields with swift aplomb to despatch any ill begot that even dares breach his personal radar within stepping distance. His two bodacious babes could strut the Milan walkways modelling designer underwear but in this time zone they slice flesh rather than show it. Only the super charged, multi muscled fighting machine Tagart displays more emotion than sombre in this elitist group, as his energy is channelled into not only slicing, dicing and bullet blasting his way through diseased dudes and dudets, but adding an injection of oh hell yea reaction whenever he does. One of TV’s American Gladiators, Tanoai Reed plays Seagal’s younger protégé Tagart. Reed is also cousin to one time WWE wrestling legend Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, the similarity is evident for all to behold once Tagart gets to use all his combo moves, taking down the neo Zombies when all he has are his hands and feet to get him out of a scrape or two. This guy has a big future in ‘B’ movie Action roles as a lead player, if he wants to add to his resume of being stunt double for Dwayne Johnson and choreographing stunts.

The main story actually follows the small group of survivors brought together in the medical centre and their fight for freedom. They encounter all manner of nastiness and ghoulish creatures diminished of their humanity along the route to their objective. What they are completely unaware of is that the creatures are evolving, and where initially all form of cognitive processes were missing, beyond the base instinct to kill and feed, now awareness of a new race is prevailing and with it are the signs of hierarchy.

This is a definite change of genre for Steven Seagal and one that, although not perhaps as realistically violent as some of his earlier and best films, certainly is the goriest of all that he has made. The level of blood, gore and dismembered body parts on display is more associated with an all out horror movie from the like of Clive Barker. One scene shows a body deli of all you can eat for free of human buffet entrails, spewing out from ripped open guts of several unfortunates, strung up from a ceiling by their feet and left in grisly ignominy. The vampire like creatures equipping themselves for the feast fray by actually filing down their own teeth into razor sharp butchers knives, to more easily rip apart the flesh to gorge upon the warm blood that they crave from human hosts. It’s like happy hour at the burger bar but with all natural ingredients and no free gift for going extra large.

All the Action and real ‘B’ movie pleasure comes from when the Hunters are doing the business, and more specifically when Tagart is let loose to lock and unload his arsenal upon the nefarious Nosferatu’s. The gorgeous gal duo get to hold their own in nifty knife close combat, and who wouldn’t want these babes to hold their own !?. It’s take down or be toe tagged, and pretty much with Steven Seagal serving last rites to the creatures it’s a one way stretch to them being ‘Tao’ tagged !.

Keeping most of the movie to the confines of the close quartered complex, with its low lit corridors and darkened rooms, maintains the threat of the besieged survivors from their stalkers that may lurk around any corner, or lay in wait amidst the shadows. It’s a cross between Blade Trinity (2004) and The Omega Man (1971), a combination that works in its favour as a pretty well done ‘B’ movie hybrid.

Steven Seagal is the star name that sells the movie to his fans and direct to video Action patrons seeking ninety minutes of entertainment, not even coming close to challenging anything remotely synonymous with a Shakespearian text. This is then perfect for its intended audience of mid budget Action with more than enough going on to engage from start to finish, and indeed enjoyably genre crossing into horror with a large degree of entertainment value. It is perhaps ironic that with Seagal appearing on screen for only around one third of the movies duration he manages to deliver one of his most watch-able screen performances in quite a while. Suitably stoic and effortlessly nonchalant, but quirkily imposing. It is worth stating that whatever many may now think of Steven Seagal, without his name attached to this it is a movie that would go completely unnoticed. Genre hopping may be the way for Seagal to go, beyond shaping up to do Under Siege 3, as without a doubt, here kicking crusty creature butt crack, who else but Steven Seagal could win Against The Dark !?.

Review Paul Cooke / Source DVD NTSC Region 1

Against The Dark (2009)
Director Richard Crudo
With Steven Seagal, Tanoai Reed, Jenna Harrison,
Danny Midwinter, Emma Catherwood, Stephen Hagan,
Daniel Percival, Skye Bennett & Keith David

Don't Leave The Bronx ... Enzo's Back

Enzo G. Castellari's
Carribean Basterds

Eighties Action returns by the beach bucket load as Italian movie making juggernaut Enzo G. Castellari returns to do what he does best. Film making has been in his family for generations and ever since the Sixties Enzo has been involved with many of the Euro greats. Writer, producer, stunt coordinator, stunt man, actor and director, he's pretty much done it all. From the cult spaghetti westerns, through the gloriously gritty and politically incorrect crime flicks of the Seventies, right through the glory days of the Action Eighties and well into the less prolific Nineties. The style and flair as a Director is clear for all to see that has even a passing liking for the Action genre. The Bronx Warriors movies, Striker, Hammerhead, are but a few examples of the ballistic bliss that he hit the video stores with in days gone by.

One of his Action war movies from 1978 The Inglorious Bastards, as most will now be aware of has been dusted down by Quentin Tarantino and is due to hit the multiplexes this summer as Inglourious Basterds. Tarantino has long been a fan of Enzo's and this is his opportunity of showing the love and respect he has of the man and the Euro style of Action movies. Let's hope the bastardisation of the movie titles spelling proves to be the only miss fire !.

Enzo has a cameo in the new movie, and star Brad Pitt gets to serve notice of violent intent against the Nazi war machine. He sure ain't no Bo Svenson and Fred Williamson isn't around to watch his back. Let's give it a chance and hopefully Q.T has taken on board any advice Enzo has passed on.

The great news from this collaboration of talent is that Enzo has managed to sneak out some film time of his very own once again. Calling upon his own past successes and drawing upon the work of Stanley Kubrick, Enzo has a new movie in the can Carribean Basterds. Tarantino borrowed Enzo's movie idea, so Enzo borrows Tarantino's title input. All's fair in mutual appreciation it seems.
It really is a great thrill to learn of a new movie from the mighty Enzo G. Castellari. It's a family affair, as his son and daughter have both been involved in the making of it, most likely along with some familiar faces and movie making assistance from the old days. Let's hope that whilst in France at the Cannes Film Festival, helping to promote Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds Enzo himself has as much success in getting a deal for Carribean Basterds so the movie gets an early distribution, and we can revel once again in the Action glory of one of Euro cinemas true greats.

I'm as jazzed over this as a Peter North play mate. Now if only someone could re-discover Mark Gregory, maybe Bronx Warriors 3 could still be a possibility !

Vincent Dawn ... Of The Dead II

Zombies: The Beginning
(2007/Italy)

‘‘ I heard that there’s a problem on an island, and they called us !’’

When the dead rise up and one amongst them shall lead, who shall stand against them in deterrence of a new species of Zombie existence !?. The U.S. Naval Marine Corps that’s who, themselves raised on red meat and highly able to chew chunks out of any enemy standing in their wake. There has been no transitional wake for this army of the un-dead though, no last rights, and any piece of ground set aside for a final resting place surely has a vacancy sign crossed out in blood !. This then is the stage set for Zombie Armageddon, as the next generation of flesh eating fiends strive to leave The Island Of The Living Dead (2006) and rise up their brethren for global domination !. Send in the marines, and someone get hold of that girl who survived come the end of the first movie. They’re gonna need her for this sequel, because Director Bruno Mattei is back for one final feast for all with his super schlock-buster Zombies: The Beginning.
Adrift at sea on the man made raft, swiftly put together to escape the island at the end of this Zombie prequel, Sharon is rescued by the coast guard. Rushed to the Middle East Asia General Hospital by helicopter, exhausted from her traumatic experience she spends a week in an unconscious state, relieving the gruesome events that befell her and her crew mates through recurrent nightmares. One terrifying vision sees her turned into a flesh eating creature herself, and graphically ripping out the throat of a nurse attending her bedside. A mere entrée for the carnage to come.

Sharon’s employers, The Tyler Incorporated Company, want answers and solid proof of what happened to her team of treasure hunters, and their insurance company wont pay out on the destroyed salvage ship without a sound reason for its destruction. Tyler Inc want her to return to the island with another team to gather substantiated proof of her unbelievable tale of events. Sharon has no intention of going back and drops out of society, choosing instead to take solitude in a monastery. She spends the next six months in the Wai Sung Temple, but her nightmares still visit her with great regularity. The Tyler Incorporation come looking for her again, having sent a team of experts to the island and successfully set up a base of operations, only to then loose all contact with them !. They need Sharon as a consultant biologist to send in with a crack team of navy seals, and a shady scientific representative of their own named Barker. Sharon still wants nothing to do with a return trip to dead central, but with her nightmarish dreams unabated she knows that the only way to end the nightmares is to face up to them, and so she finally agrees to undertake the trip back to the island where it all began.

Bruno Mattei gets to rework his own movie Shocking Dark (1990), itself a bizarrely brilliant hybrid rip of equal parts Aliens (1986) and The Terminator (1984). Arriving under cover of dark at the island by submarine, and beaching by motorised dingy, the marine corps with Sharon and Barker hit the shore with their wits about them. Not far in land they arrive at the Tyler Incorporated Company base camp. It is desolate, and no sign of life. Incredibly though, stretching out before them, is a vast industrial estate. A multi million dollar installation constructed in just six months !?. Suspend all disbelief at this point as either, completely unexplained in the movie, the Tyler Corp have known about the island for longer than they have let on and built this vast installation secretly on the other side of the main island, or the writers have been watching recent episodes of TV’s Lost, and decided to throw in their own time displacement mumbo jumbo. If Doctor Jack Shephard turns up, and Hurley is responsible for raising the dead because of a formula relating to his winning lotto numbers, then maybe an appearance by Sayid, arriving to shoot them all, wont be such a bad thing !.

Armed to the hilt, and kitted out on their wrists with motion detectors, the marines break into the sealed complex. There are immediate signs of a struggle. Further in they discover ghastly experimentation's upon decomposed bodies, and a collection of baby foetus’ contained within glass jars !. Female company representatives lay in an almost unrecognisable state upon steel gurneys, each seemingly with a foetus ripped out of their bellies in violent fashion. The results of these abominable experiments awaits them all !.
The unit is suddenly attacked by a gene mutated hybrid mini Zombie, a grossly deformed freaky little fella with a determination to maim. Is this evil urchin the resultant cross fertilization of human and the un-dead !?. Whatever it is soon becomes a moot point as the crazed creature is besieged with a gauntlet of firepower, rendering it in a bloody pulp that even a Jack Delane power juicer could not squeeze another drop out of !.

The immediate job at hand is to find any sign of recognisable life. Every member of the Tyler Incorporation has a surgically applied tattoo etched on to their arms, transmitters and personal data coding. A perturbed Captain Jurgens, heading up the navy seals team, raises the serious issue of the application being a procedure that the Nazi S.S. used. Barker nonchalantly agrees, but insists that it enables the location of their people within the vast complex. Sure enough signs of survivors do show up on the tracking device, but they each appear in a dispersed fashion. To seek them out the marines have to go beyond the base camp facility and into the nearby main complex, it is there that the perimeter motion sensors they have go haywire !.

The commandos are dropped off at the main instillation by a fortified MPV. As they explosively gain entry through the steel door, posted bio hazardous !. Sharon, Captain Jurgens and Barker stay within the vehicle, viewing the units incursion via on board monitors. From here on in things get freakier and bloodier in equal large measure, as the startling truth behind what has gone on ghoulishly unravels. Genetic experimentation between human and Zombie cellular structure with the purpose of creating a new race !.

Deep within the main Tyler Inc complex the commandos find themselves caught up in the mix of Zombie activity and are set upon from all fronts by the ravenous creatures. Witnessing first hand the explosive birth of a mutant Zombie baby, tearing itself out of the womb of a still conscious, and severely distressed mother host, they fire up the flamethrower and incinerate any future hope the newborn has of ever becoming a terror-way. Captain Jurgens and Sharon, along with a fixated Barker, can only watch in horror as the soldiers are besieged by an ever increasing number of the un-dead. They are ordered to make a retreat and hastily back track to where they came in, as Sharon takes charge of the MPV and races to their aid. Together all that survive make a hasty return back to the base camp and stockade themselves in, but communications with the submarine are down. It’s up to the fearless female navy commando to venture back outside and realign the satellite receiver on the island tower mast. Time is of the essence, but what lingers outside is a larger developed strain of creature that can’t wait to get its claws into some fresh meat !.

The situation gets progressively worse as the facility is compromised both from without and within !. The Tyler Incorporation wants Barker to bring a live sample back to the mainland at any cost, even to the final detriment of those that accompanied him to the island. It’s a fight for survival all round as the Zombies overrun the place.

In a rewarding rerun of the first movie Sharon kits up to clean house at Zombie HQ. She escapes base camp and heads back into corpse central, where our heroine uncovers far more than she bargains for. It’s a creche for mutant killer kids with Zombie cone heads !. Dan Ackroyd’s not responsible for this turkey shoot, and these creepy critters don’t need a baby sitter, so when Sharon comes calling they sense her presence and the threat to their existence. She has stumbled into the gruesome breeding ground and birthing pool for the next wave of genetic abominations. Not so far removed from the ending to Luigi Cozzi’s Contamination (1980) this is a great indoor set, suitably garish and gaudily lit to accentuate the scene perfectly. Face to face with an overseeing creator, that would not be out of place in an episode of Dr. Who, Sharon squares up to her greatest threat for survival. Time then for her to introduce a deadly pacifier, and for the monstrosities to say hello to her little friend, Mr. Flamethrower !. It’s flame on to fricassee the new wave Partridge Family before they get on the bus to the outside world. A flame-tastic finale with an explosive conclusion.

Bruno’s bow out to ‘B’ movie brilliance is as wild and wondrously stupefying as ever. How befitting that one of Italian cinema’s most prolific entertainers should leave us with such a prophetically titled movie, Zombies: The Beginning. Sadly, The End.

For Bruno 30th July 1931 - 21st May 2007

Review: Paul Cooke / Source Japanese DVD
Zombies: The Beginning (2007)
Director Vincent Dawn aka Bruno Mattei
Starring Yvette Yzon, Alvin Anson, Paul Holme,
James Gregory Palely & Robert B. Johnson

Vincent Dawn ... Of The Dead

Island Of The Living Dead
(2006/Italy)

‘‘It’s written by hand, it must be very ancient !’’

When the dead don’t stay dead and the Earth won’t consume their carcass, they shall rise up to feast upon the flesh of the living. Cursed by a disease ridden crew of Spanish Conquistadors, ship wrecked off the coast of a remote Filipino island, a peaceful people have their idyllic paradise desecrated. Forcefully ravaged of its resources and stripped of its innocence. These malicious marauders rape, pillage and cull a harmonious community of its people, until a dark day of retribution is served unto their dark souls. A resurrection of the dead !.

An opening descriptive of terrifyingly biblical proportions to tempt you in to the delights of not a multi million dollar Hollywood horror, to tear at your throats and paralyse you with fear, but to prepare for the deliriously re-imaged dumbfounded-ness of Zombie lore Bruno Mattei style. Yes the lord of the un-dead schlock-buster is back, bolder and badder than ever with his own inimitable flambé of flesh feasting for the 21st century. A veritable regurgitation of the great works of Romero, Fulci and even unashamedly ripping his own material, it in itself of course previously Xeroxed from other genre legends. Bruno’s bowel belching gregarious gruel may not fall far from the same apple tree of his better know peers, an acquired taste for sure, but his film flavour is far from rotten to the ‘gore’!.
A team of modern day treasure hunters, trawling the seas in search of rich antiquities, get caught up in a mysterious fog enshrouded storm that assaults their small ship. With the night having fallen upon them they struggle to gain their bearings as the ocean waves pummel their craft. Their forward motion is abruptly halted as they run aground and cause damage to the main engine. They weather the storm till daybreak when the fog clears and reveals to them dry land. An uncharted island that is nowhere to be found on their maps. A haven they must go ashore and investigate to seek help, and find fresh water.

Leaving the boats engineer behind to work on repairs, the rest of the crew transfer to shore by row boat. The compliment of five men and two women split into two groups to search the island for signs of life and useful supplies. Off they trek into the tropical jungle that lay beyond the beach. It’s not long before Filipino babe Yvette Yzon’s character Sharon, along with her designated two male companions, stumble upon an old world graveyard. A serene area set out with rot infected wooden crosses. As the trio look around a frightful figure of a man stumbles towards Sharon. ‘‘They’re coming to get you Barbara’’, is the cry from one of her ship mates, and of course he’s right on the Romero button as this, sure enough, is lifted directly from the iconic opening of Night Of The Living Dead (1968). There’s clearly more things wooden than just crosses here. The shuffling figure of a man comes too close for comfort and announces full on his intent to tear into the female flesh of a startled Sharon. Who wouldn’t want some of the tasty ‘Pino pie that is the highly attractive beauty Yvette Yzon !?. To her rescue springs the kung fu cabin boy, serving up some Zombie fu to the un-dead crooner looking to woo and chew his curvaceous crew babe. This Zombie knows how to fight back though so its grapple time at the O.K Cemetery !. Cabin boys days of swabbing the decks and hanging his rod overboard, in hope of a catch like Miss. Yzon, are pretty much numbered as other Zombies arrive for the impromptu off beach barbecue.

Reunited with her remaining crew members Sharon and the others are all now fully aware of the islands Zombie uprising. With night closing in they must seek refuge, as the darkness seems to act as a calling card for the living dead to come out on mass. They find brief sanctuary in a stone fortitude, harbouring beneath its centuries old fascia a myriad of catacombs. Before retreating to this sanctum they have to fight their way through a horde of frenzied Zombies seeking their human supper, and a typically well staged Mattei mêlée ensues. The encroaching dead become target practice for the protagonists, who quickly learn that head shots bring about finality. That doesn’t stop them shot gun blasting arms and legs off their antagonists in explosive bloody fashion, nor body splattering them against walls with gory dispatch. It’s shoot and squelch time and no body does it better ‘B’ movie style than Director Bruno Mattei, using his equally well known pseudonym here of Vincent Dawn. There’s even room here for both the bizarre and wryly humorous. The bizarre being that one blasted Zombie instantly displays re-growth of a bullet severed lower arm and hand. Bizarre in that this is never touched upon again at all in this particular movie, but perhaps hints at a new strain of Zombies to come !?. The ingeniously wry moment of humour is delivered with subtle aplomb as a discarded cigarette is stubbed out under foot with meaningful intent by a Zombie. It clearly goes to show that even after death smoking may seriously harm your health !.

Safe for the time being in the heart of the refuge the enterprising Captain Kirk, yes the scriptwriters dared challenge the wrath of Khan to boldly go with the name of Kirk for the ships captain, uncovers books of scripture that reveal detail as to the islands history. The Latin text speak of prophecies of the dead. How every cadaver that is not destroyed immediately becomes one of them … one of the living dead !. It is also written about gold that was brought to the island by the Spanish, rescued from aboard their shipwrecked galleon back in the early Seventeenth century. If there is one thing sure to keep the insane amongst any group of people forgetting the safety of their own lives it is for the greed of riches beyond their wildest dreams. Never mind the endless number of limb loving Zombies looking for a fresh meal, outside of the Island Burger Rats, these treasure hunters want their own feast of tasty trinkets. Only Sharon keeps her logic of reason for self preservation above all else.

Bruno Mattei has in many quarters always been an easy target. Labelled a hack director and disregarded for pretty much his entire career. Those that take the time to appreciate just what he achieves from working on a micro budget, and his real flair for entertainment value on a return for that investment, are rewarded with rough edged movie jewels. Here he once again displays quality of production for what is a marginally financed shot on video outing, yet he musters together everything he possibly can to deliver an end product that far exceeds what the investors would have signed up for.

There are some truly great interior sets on display here. Dust encrusted décor, enshrouded with cobwebs and dressed in a texture of colour that is reminiscent of those Roger Corman films from the Sixties, based upon the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. He has always been able to call upon the experience of cast and crew who have been in the business for many, many years. Here he has the benefit of Eighties Italian Action movies regular Jim Gaines, who playing a character nicknamed Snoopy presumably also worked on this project for peanuts !. Older generation and experienced character player Gaetano Russo, who started his film career with Seventies Italian Giallo and Crime flicks such as, The Killer Reserved Nine Seats (1974) and Rome Armed To The Teeth (1976), is also on hand. Mattei’s ability to also unearth new talent such as he has here with the delightful Yvette Yzon, is also a sign of his true credibility.

The movie escalates towards an exciting conclusion with Mattei throwing everything into the mix including talking Zombies and a Vampiric high priest laying claim to ruler of the island, as well as cult leader to a posse of skull faced un-dead padres. Now what the ‘flock’ is that all about !?. Who cares, as in this world of the unbelievable anything goes. Sharon has become the feisty femme, freedom fighter, and wields a grim reaper sized scythe as she sets about cutting Zombies down to size. It’s her against the denizens of the dark in Hell’s inferno, and with the living dead rising up all around no tomb is left unturned.

This then is the penultimate regurgitation of the Zombie pantheon from the maestro Mattei, his conveyor belt of reanimated corpses grinded out for another brilliantly banal ‘B’ movie horror Action film, that only he could pull off. Bruno Mattei recycles so much here that he must have worn the yellow jersey when he won the race to bring this one home.

Dedicated To Bruno Mattei & Mike Monty

Review: Paul Cooke / Source Czechoslovakian DVD PAL

Island Of The Living Dead (2006)
Director: Vincent Dawn aka Bruno Mattei
Starring: Yvette Yzon, Ronald Russo, Alvin Anson,
Ydalia Suarez & Jim Gaines