Zombies: The Beginning Review on DVD from Intervision!

Zombies: The Beginning cover artwork from Intervision

In the deep dark padded cells under the asylum, we call trash cinema exists the memory of a wonderful man called Bruno Mattei. Known primary as the maniac behind Zombie Creeping Flesh and The Other Hell, this late Italian legend kept going until the very end, holding onto the fading nightmare of the Italian Golden Age. Bruno was making cheesy totally dreadful cannibal and zombie flicks through the 2000s until his passing in 2007, showing the world that he cared to entertain his fans. He probably knew folks chuckled, but they paid, he had a wage, and gave trash film addicts like myself many glories such as Land of Death (see review here) which stole huge chunks of Predator and Aliens, Bruno/ aka Vincent Dawn did not care one bit what he bagged, he wanted to put movies out! He also released Island of the Living Dead (see review here) which brings us quite nicely to my latest review.

Zombies: The Beginning plopped out the same year and is Bruno’s grand finale to a career which had its genesis in the early 1950s. As usual the trying to be cool and professional reviewers have torn it into pieces over the years, smugly ripping the acting, direction, effects, and story. Have they all forgotten why we watch cheap shitty horror films? They entertain us, they make us laugh and smile – Bruno never tried to be George Romero, full of serious social commentary, etcetera. He is throwing gore and stupid surprises into our faces. I am proud to be a fan of Bruno. He is one of my many go-to names when I need a fix of the worst cinema known to humanity because I can appreciate the work behind the scenes.

Zombies: The Beginning opens to a helicopter rescuing a woman stranded on a raft. We see her memories as she is afterwards laid in a hospital, with visions involving zombies – some with Demon-style teeth, all posing for the camera similar to those cringing scenes at the start of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed. This lady is Dr. Sharon Dimeo, the only survivor of the before mentioned Island of the Living Dead. She spends some time afterwards with nightmares, then trying to convince an investigating board of solemn-faced people who are more interested in the loss of equipment and such, than the island where the zombies wander exists.

“Is it true you take tranquillizers?” asks a woman, which kind of sums up what they think of her story. Sharon doesn’t really gain much sympathy by grabbing the woman and shaking her about. Six months pass. She’s asleep on the floor of a temple still having terrible nightmares of crawling posing cadavers looking into the camera lens – plus skeletons being wobbled at us. God, this movie is weird!

One day a suited chap called Paul arrives at the temple. He introduces himself and his business, she walks away until he says, “We know what you said about the island is all true!”

What we have here is another Aliens scenario. Sharon is dismissed until a new gang of scientists have gone to the island to take samples, headed to another island to study the samples, then lost all contact with the big corporation, Tyler INC. Naturally there’s a rescue mission being put together and Dr. Sharon is being asked to go with them due to her veteran knowledge. She refuses, but the nightmares plague her, so she changes her mind. Hmm, something sounds familiar about the set up.

So, we move on and a platoon of bad ass military types are listening to their sergeant. Dr. Sharon explains what she knows, including the classic fact, “You can’t kill what’s already dead.” On the way over, they chat. “If there’s survivors, we’ll save them,” says one guy with a mouthful of food, “If there’s others who don’t think like us… they’re gonna have problems!”

“Hey, let’s hope those zombies have left us some hot babes to rescue.” grins another bloke. To be fair on them, this is a huge heavily armed set of soldiers who aren’t laughing and not believing the premise of walking dead on an island. They all arrive in the rain and first see a discarded van in the dark. A couple approach for a gander. Only a gnawed at skeleton within so Sharon, Paul, and the few in charge clamber inside. Whilst they stare at screens, the soldiers move towards a huge compound. They blow a door off which repeats slo-mo three times to get the desired effect of fireworks and a flying chunk of metal, then head inside. They discover spent bullet cartridges and body parts in the place.

“Oh my god,” gasps Paul as they watch the monitors, “What went on in there?” Dr. Sharon replies, “I don’t know, but it doesn’t look good.” What they all discover after they follow the troops is the remains of gruesome experiments. Notes reveal they were company women who had their foetuses removed surgically. The unborn are in containers whilst the women are decayed and in cages. “The patients died after giving birth!” which doesn’t explain why one of them is lashing out in her cage.

Suddenly their sensor equipment detects movement. It turns out to be a big head zombie mutant with an eyeball on top of its head randomly who decides to take a bite out of one of the soldiers. To make matters more insane, it’s a midget that looks like a less stop motion Belial from Basket Case. Anyway, they all blast the shit out of the little bastard, and it screeches then gobs up a mouthful of blood.

Like Aliens, the missing scientists are all discovered to be mulling around in one place courtesy of having ID trackers on them, so the troops venture further into the compound. At the thirty-seven-minute mark, WCW/WWE wrestler, Goldberg was about to walk out because as they’re heading over, his theme tune is playing. Now that would be a money shot right there!

It all begins when they enter a room filled with hanging body bagged cadavers. Then the Bruno Mattei gory specials we come to expect and adore really begins…

We’ve got (aside from the midget) zombies giving birth to baby zombies, burning nude female zombies who steal their cries directly from John Carpenter’s The Thing when Palmer burns, plus loads of wild cauliflower head looking zombies waving their arms around – and that all happens in less than five minutes mid-way through this juicy trash lovers wet dream. We witness chow-downs, pieces of flesh torn away, a decapitation, heads exploding, all the classic ingredients are here to see. Let’s not forget some of the undead have the all-important (for our viewing pleasure) sets of Demons gnashers for no reason whatsoever. Almost the whole cast are slaughtered, leaving our Dr. Sharon to wear a vest and carry a big gun in full uncut Ripley mode for the final act of the film.

Writer Giovanni Paolucci simply loves Aliens. He wrote the before mentioned Land of Death which stole chunks of ideas and character inspirations from it. Now this film is practically a remake for most of the way. Hey, I don’t mind Aliens so I’m quite content.

Zombies: The Beginning is far more fun than its predecessor, and way ahead in the enjoyment factor than about seventy per cent of the lower budget zombie films created in the USA or the UK in the last fifteen or so years. Why? Because it cannot be taken seriously, and it isn’t trying to be a comedy. It simply just lets you escape into crazy oblivion for its running time.

As strange as what I’m about to say sounds, being that this is as good as a carbon copy of a film, it has very unpredictable moments. For instance, I did not expect a mutant animal creature lurking outside which has the power to rip a human torso in two with just one lash of its arm. Oh yeah, there’s a mob of pinheaded zombie kids with black eyes! It’s things like this which makes me smile. Zombies: The Beginning has a heavy reliance on old school practical and prosthetics effects which for the time it was made is refreshing.

Bruno Mattei has a flare for action and for dynamic set ups, even on a low budget (c’mon, he was never really passed a wad of money at any time in his lengthy career) basically he makes the most of what he’s got every time.

Yvette Yzon, our star, vanished from acting for quite some time, but it appears that there may be a third zombie film following the adventures of Dr. Sharon in the making, Hell of the Screaming Undead which also stars Lynn (I Drink Your Blood, Cat People) Lowry and Mel (Black Belt Jones, Game of Death) Novak which is a curious mix. Yvette goes all out in this one, far livelier than I’ve seen her before. She’s accompanied on this excursion by Paul (Strike Commando 2, Drop Dead Fred) Holmes and journeyman actor Alvin Anson who’s been in an absolute ton of films. All the central performers do their jobs well and the lesser of the cast are kept back so just to become quick snacks for the zombies.

Life is cheap in the Philippines, well making a film there definitely is, for many of Bruno’s last gasps were in that country. Hence the whole multitude of zombie hoards are Filipino men and women who are having a great time.

The Intervision release on DVD has a 20-minute interview (for Severin) with Antonio Tentori, plus a trailer. The quality is a bit fuzzy but that’s cool adds to the dirty cheap experience.

AKA: Zombi: La creazione
Directed by: Bruno Mattei (aka Vincent Dawn)
Written by: Giovanni Paolucci, Antonio Tentori
Produced by: Giovanni Paolucci
Cinematography by: Rey de Leon
Editing by: Daniele Campelli
Music: Danielle campelli
Special Effects by: 24 people who I’m listing here
Cast: Yvette Yzon, Paul Holmes, Alvin Anson, BB Johnson, Gerald Acao, Dyane Crayson, Mike Vergel, Gene Zwahir
Year: 2007
Country: Italy
Language: English
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 1h 35min

Distributor: Intervision