Zombie Stew: Zombi 3

In a world that allows no cels to hit the cutting floor, 95 minutes to be chopped down to 84 and 72 thus confusing most viewers and more than 8 English alternative titles comes... well a lot of pain mostly. Welcome to Day 1 of Zombie Stew and boy do I have a treat for you all. Imagine what promises to be a Fulci movie but later revealed to be batted around by Bruno Mattei and finished off by Claudio Fragasso. This is Zombi 3.

DO YOU HAVE ANY FRUIT TO DECLARE?!!!

Also the common title for this flick being Flesh Eaters 2 our brilliant silver screen schlock establishes a terrorist attack at a chemical company, armed assailants snag a potential bio-weapon name of Death One for...a jihad? Demands to the release of their captive brothers-in-arms? Money? Yeah that part never really got focused on. With all the subtly of a cheeseball 80s action film a gun fight ensues and most of the terrorists are wiped out. One escapes into the jungle with the canister of some seriously nasty compounds when he notices the case was damaged and the canister is leaking some strange fluid on him.

With a go around with the military and scientists snarking at one another, the lead scientist Dr. Holder (Robert Marius of Heroes for Hire, Dog Tags, Warriors of the Apocalypse, Vengeance Squad, American Commandos, Movie in Action and Aliens from the Deep) explains with great length of exposition what the virus could do and even the possibility what it could do to the deceased. General Morton (Mike Monty of Thompson 1880, The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance, Achtung! The Desert Tigers, Proibito erotico, Emmanuelle 3 and Dog Tags) scoffs at Holder and tells him to go play with his test tubes and everything is at hand. No sooner do they burn the bodies that Holder tells him the virus can be made airborne and anything in those wind patterns can be affected.

Scotty from Evil Dead has seen better days.

With a camper full of fun filled teens/twenty somethings they are up for anything as they drive by a jeep of three "American Soldiers"...with long hair...and beards and frankly looking as Army as Crosby, Stills and Nash. With an evacuation order, Morton's people are trying to get everyone that has not been bit to safety. Maybe offer them some salt as well. Will Kenny Loggins and Doofus Company be able to fend off the zombies? Is the chemicals really covering the island? What is to be come of the population?

A few points of interest on this flick now. Lucio Fulci (Don't Torture a Duckling, City of the Living Dead, The House by the Cemetery and Demonia) was set to direct it when he had a mild stroke, a few days rest and he wanted to get back to work. After another 70 minutes of footage he had a major stroke and had to leave for his own health. Editor and second unit director at the time Bruno Mattei (Hell of the Living Dead, Rats: Night of Terror, Strike Commando, The Tomb and The Jail: The Women's Hell) was asked to set into some really big shoes. Between Mattei and Claudio Fragasso they managed to edit down and add an additional 40 minutes to the film so there are about three English dubbed versions coupled with the film being re-released so many times it is difficult to nail down a definitive copy.

The continuity of which director was pushing which portion of script gets very confusing. On one end it feels like Hell of the Living Dead and next we have a chainsaw wielding, Kung Fu zombie smashing the place up and the funniest thing is Resident Evil: Extinction lifting the carrion feeding birds affected by a zombie plague from this movie.

Where...Margaritaville??