ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST

Italy, 1979, 88 minutes, Colour.
Ian Mc Culloch, Alexandra Delli Colli, Sherry Buchanan.
Directed by Marino Girolami.

Zombie Holocaust is one of many Italian horror films made in the late '70s and early '80s capitalising on the popularity of occult and violent trends in the United States. This one borrows the basic plot of the mad doctor creating zombies - but transfers it to South East Asia. Opening in the United States, there are gruesome scenes of body-part snatching. There is then a transition to the Orient where the mad doctor is operating, the foolhardy heroes and heroines wander the jungle only to be confronted by violent death and transformation into zombies. The plot was used to much better effect by Sergio Martino in Zombie Flesh eaters with Richard Johnson.

There is an emphasis on the gruesome and the ghastly and there is a dash of sex with the leading lady a most unlikely doctor-anthropologist.