In a breaking story by the good folks at Bloody Disgusting, it’s a safe bet that more than a few of the busybody gatekeepers that have plagued British cinema for the past five decades choked on their morning tea as they gasped in horror to see that Arrow Video is unleashing Lucio Fulci’s graphic 1979 Caribbean cannibal cruise, Zombi 2 (or as they call it over there, Zombie Flesh Eaters), onto their delicate shores in a limited edition 4K Ultra HD restoration that’s loaded with enough eye-popping bonus features to send Mary Whitehouse into a fit of triggered outrage down in the fiery depths of her eternal paradise.
RELATED: ‘Phantom Of The Paradise’ To Be Adapted Into A Stage Musical By Star Paul Williams
“From the sleazy video nasty vaults,” an excerpt from Arrow Video’s website reads. “Comes a movie so stained with controversy and moral indignation that the very mention of its name sends shudders down the spines of the weak-stomached and censorious – Zombie Flesh Eaters. A gut-munching, shark-wrestling, eye-gouging orgy of mud-caked undead terror and Italian splatter from the dark imagination of horror genius Lucio Fulci (The House by the Cemetery, City of the Living Dead).”
There’s no forgetting Don’t Torture A Duckling (1972), From Beyond (1981), and (equally quacky) The New York Ripper (1982), but digressions aside, “Zombie Flesh Eaters” remains Fulci’s most well-known film. It all begins when a scientist’s ship washes up in New York City containing a few passengers that are living impaired. This compels his daughter, and a tagalong journalist to visit the Caribbean island where her father was working, but the twosome quickly finds out that they’ve bitten off way more than they can chew.
The 4K Ultra HD Limited Edition will be available to own on July 28th, but it’s available for preorder on Arrow’s site, and the Bonus Features include:
• 4K restoration from the original 2-perf Techniscope negative
• 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Original English and Italian front and end titles
• Restored original lossless English and Italian mono audio
• Optional remixed lossless English Dolby Atmos audio
• Optional remixed lossless Italian DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
• Brand new audio commentary by critics Eugenio Ercolani, Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
• Audio commentary by screenwriter Elisa Briganti, moderated by Calum Waddell
• Audio commentary by Fulci biographer Stephen Thrower and horror expert Alan Jones
• Sound and Fury: Listening to Zombie Flesh Eaters – brand new visual essay by author and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
• Repellent: Memories of Zombie Flesh Eaters – brand new visual essay by author and critic Chris Alexander
• Archival introduction by actor Ian McCulloch
• From Romero to Rome: The Rise and Fall of the Italian Zombie Film – 2012 documentary featuring screenwriters Dardano Sacchetti and Antonio Tentori, critic Kim Newman and filmmakers Luigi Cozzi, Ruggero Deodato and Russ Streiner
• Aliens, Cannibals and Zombies: A Trilogy of Italian Terror – archival interview with McCulloch
• The Meat-Munching Movies of Gino de Rossi – archival interview with the celebrated special effects artist
• Zombie Flesh Eaters: From Script to Screen – archival featurette featuring Dardano Sacchetti showing key pages from his original “Island of the Living Dead” screenplay
• Music for a Flesh-Feast – 2012 Q&A with composer Fabio Frizzi at the Glasgow Film Theatre
• Original English language “Nightmare Island” screenplay
• Theatrical trailers and TV spots
• Easter eggs
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch
• Perfect bound collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Willow Maclay, Jack Sargeant, Heather Wixson and Matt Rogerson
• Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch
• Six double-sided collector’s postcards
RELATED: George Romero’s ‘Day Of The Dead’ Is Resurrected Into Theaters For The 40th Anniversary
Any horror fan that was alive before the turn of the century is well aware of the UK’s draconian approach to the entertainment they allow their subjects (I meant free peoples!) to consume. If something was too violent, too vulgar, too venereal, or anything else that gives flavor to an otherwise bland story, it would be put on the list of “Video Nasties,” and made illegal to the viewing public.
It was an insane measure which made local law-abiding horror fans into criminals, and crippled the career of any aspiring British filmmaker who was not afraid of a little bloodshed.
With that said, their overinflated, overimportant whinging was not without some connection to empathy, and take a look at some of the Video Nasty titles for yourself to understand why. Even if our friends across the pond are wrong to outlaw owning a movie, and especially some of the classics on that list, that doesn’t mean that all of them are even worth watching, let alone keeping in your home.
Zombi 2 is available to stream on TUBI, and here’s the trailer for the 4K/UK release:
NEXT: Bounding Into Halloween Night 18: A Return To Lovecraft Country With ‘Re-Animator’ & ‘From Beyond’
More About:Movie News
