Italian Exploitation of the 70's and 80's can be a bit iffy. Sometimes boring, for the most part, entertaining. Usually, in a "so bad, it's good" kind of way. And of course, the inevitable ripping off of popular ideas from far more creative and talented non-Italians. I recently watched a film called Hell of The Living Dead. AKA, Virus, this cheesy zombie epic was directed by none other than Bruno Mattei, using the name Vincent Dawn. Mattei is responsible for some of the worst, and some of the most entertaining Itallian trash to come out of this era. This one is pretty bad, but I like to think of it more as entertaining than anything else. Say what you will about this movie. Entertainment value is one thing it has going for it. Gore, titties and stupid dialogue. These are the things Hell is made of.
After a chemical plant accident unleashes a deadly virus on the world, a SWAT team heads to New Guinea to investigate. What they find is walking corpses. But shortly after running into a hot reporter, they're all taken in by a primitive tribe when she gets naked for them and puts on a little face paint. These scenes which involve said tribe kind of makes this a cannibal movie as well as a zombie flick. Just sayin'. The jungle hospitality is short-lived as the living dead make their presence known after eating several cannibals. As the group ditches their new friends, they make their way through a very stock footage-filled jungle, taking an unusual amount of time to figure out that shooting zombies in the head is the only way to kill them. One guy either already insane, or getting there due to all this madness, sees fit to have a little fun with the extra slow-moving ghouls, and tease them, obviously setting up for the moment it all blows up in his face. As this group gets closer to salvation, they also get closer to finding out the truth behind all this. Knowledge they may soon regret learning.
Alot of fuss gets made over Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2, which is a sequel to nothing, by the way. While this one here hasn't gotten a fraction of the appreciation as well as the legendary status that it deserves. I'm not sure what makes that other one so great, other than who directed it. Not that Fulci was all that great, himself. But Bruno Mattei isn't quite as respected in his field, as he's known for nothing but trash, as opposed to Fulci, who put out some classy stuff, early on. but Mattei already earned my respect with such mean-spirited exploitation cheese-fests as Women's Prison Massacre and Rats: Night Of Terror. Both bad, both entertaining. But this trash epic takes the cake.And that's not quite all it takes, as this movie shamelessly flaunts a stolen score from movies such as Beyond The Darkness, Contamination, and get this, Dawn of The fucking Dead. Yeah. That's pretty sad, Bruno. Such a choice of movies to rip off more or less pigeonholed Hell into being seen as a poor man's Dawn Of The Dead. Which is a shame because it deserves better than to be in any movie's shadow. I'm not going to play it off like Hell Of The Living Dead is anywhere in the same league as Dawn, but it can be just as entertaining, if not more, at times. Hell Of The Living Dead is non-stop fun. Gory, ridiculous, apocalyptic, and just all over the place with stupidity and dumbass quotes that'll leave you scratching your head hours after it's over. A 100 minute epic just waiting to be discovered by more fans of trashy Italian cinema, which should be seen as essential for most. Highly recommended! 7/10
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