Zombi Holocaust (film review)

Zombi Holocaust? The only film were Zombies and Cannibals appear in the same film and you can expect a blood bath I can tell you that.

I saw this years ago under the censored and alternate cut of the film called - Doctor Butcher M.D. – And it didn’t impress me at all. That Cut of the film is advertised as if where a slasher flick… (Kind of got me interested)

Since then I have gone to include this in my top 20 horror films of all time mainly due to the Cannibals and Zombies idea… And I really enjoyed the film.

In New York, body parts are missing in a hospital where Dr. Dreylock teaches anatomy. When one cannibal worker is killed after taking the heart of a corpse, Dr. Dreylock's assistant and anthropologist Lori Ridgeway recognizes the signal of a tribe in the Moluccas Island that worships the god Kito. Dr. Peter Chandler organizes an expedition to Moluccas with his assistant George Harper and invites Lori and the journalist Susan Kelly to travel with him. They meet Doctor Obrero that asks his servant Molotto to guide the group to Kito. Once in the island, they are hunted by hunger cannibals and zombies, and they find a dark secret about the spot.

It kind of sounds like Fulci’s Zombi 2? Well that’s true; It was made based on the success of that and Cannibal Holocaust by clashing the two together. But nether less I liked the story and it’s never boring or dull but it has some very big similarities in the middle.

The acting is great and the dubbing isn’t too bad and we have Scottish actor Ian McCulloch of the TV show Suvivers fame (and one of the actors from Zombi 2 in the same role pretty much). But overall there is some great direction.

The Music is creepy yet beautiful at the same

Time… The sets are kind of borrowed from Zombi 2… The Special effects? ARE FUCKING INSANE! But are impressive for the time.

Here are some facts I found

Although never listed in the UK as an official video nasty the pre-cert video was seized by Cambridgeshire Police and the dealer was tried under Section 2 of the Obscene Publications Act 1977, though eventually found not guilty. The film was released fully uncut in 2000.

Most of the music used in the movie soundtrack was from singer/songwriter Nico Fidenco's Emanuelle e gli ultimi cannibali soundtrack.

There is a german DVD version that is cut down to 72 minutes. All blood and violence is edited out.

USA version was re-edited and altered by distributor Aquarius Releasing Inc. and re-titled "Doctor Butcher, M.D.". Among the changes:

A new, completely pointless and unrelated opening title sequence featuring a zombie rising from a grave, which is actually taken from an unfinished anthology "Tales To Rip Your Heart Out".

The original "serious-sounding" musical score was replaced with a cheesy and wonderfully irritating synthesizer one.

Some dialogue and character "development" were deleted for pacing reasons.

Filmed in Latina, Lazio, Italy and New York City, New York

Overall if you need some time to kill and you want a horror film what’s stopping you?

Jesse’s Zombi Holocaust score – 85-100%