Spaghetti & Eyeballs: Italian Cannibal/Zombie Worship

Description

What is there to say about the Italian zombie/cannibal genre that hasn't been said thousands of times already?

Possibly the first official entry in the Italian cannibal genre was Umberto Lenzi's 'Il Paese del Sesso Selvaggio' aka 'The Man From Deep River'. This film got the ball rolling and inspired the production of many similar themed romps through the cannibal infested jungles of Italian cinema. It wasn't until 1980 though, when Ruggero Deodato released 'Cannibal Holocaust' than flood gates opened and a new, particularly brutal version of the cannibal film was introduced though none were to come close to the savagery and overall nastiness of Deodato's groundbreaking film save, perhaps, Umberto Lenzi's 'Cannibal Ferox' aka Make Them Die Slowly'.

The zombie craze in Italy can without a doubt be traced to George A. Romero's 1978 masterpiece, 'Dawn of the Dead'. 10 years earlier Romero quietly took the world by storm by introducing zombies who not only rose from the dead but also ate the flesh of their victims. With the overwhelming success of 'Dawn...' Italian filmmakers were inspired to create their own works of undead art. Perhaps the most known of these was director Lucio Fulci with his zombie quadrilogy, starting with Zombi 2 which can be viewed as the perfect prequel to Romero's Dawn of the Dead. As with the cannibal genre the success of Fulci and Romero's films spawned a near countless slew of "hungry" filmmakers wanting to cash in, some of which creating minor classics of their own and others laughable and blatant rip offs of other films but ALWAYS compelling and enjoyable.

Mangia!