A top-secret covered scientific find (codenamed Death One) is smuggled inside a secret military base by a group of terrorists. While escaping from the bacteriological research laboratory, a terrorist (carrying a vial of the composite) is intercepted and hit by a machine gun barrage from a helicopter. The rupture of the vial, and following spillage of the chemical compound, infects the carrier, who takes refuge inside a motel...
Soon the symptoms of the infection manifest with frightening consequences: virulent pustules appear on the body of the unfortunate man who, now out of control, assaults a maid (infecting her)...
The man, after being tracked down and killed, is cremated in order to avoid a possible nationwide contagion...
But the airborne smoke, mixed with a torrential downpour, infects first a group of birds, then a residential area, which is immediately placed under health control.
As the outcome of the contagion shows devastating effects (the contaminated are aggressive and feed on human flesh), orders come from the military base to exterminate everyone: tourists, residents and "zombies"...
Three military personnel on leave and a group of boys meet by chance, and they will have to confront the frightening creatures, but that's not all: when they run into the "decontamination" military, their lives appear, as far as possible, even more at risk...
Zombi 3, which would have marked Fulci's return to horror after a prolonged absence due to a worrisome illness, turns out to be an experience bordering on the tragic for the director: on this set a whole series of misunderstandings arise with the subjectwriter (Claudio Fragasso) that decree, from the very beginning, a strong contrast between the two "colleagues"...
Filmed in the Philippines, and with an almost ridiculous budget, the film was abandoned mid-shoot by Fulci and brought to a conclusion by Bruno Mattei (Virus, Rats) and Claudio Fragasso (later director of After Death, circulated in the foreign market as Zombi 4) who, metaphorically, in the film play two crematorium soldiers who shoot a fat man who strongly resembles the Roman director.
Overall, while assuming that the central idea (that of widespread contagion from the dust generated in the oven) is the same as Dan O'Bannon's better-known The Return of the Living Dead, the film nevertheless leaves its mark for a curious array of splatter and gore effects (a sequence/parody that would later be reprised in the remake The Dawn of the Living Dead) and for the presence in the cast of Luciano Pigozzi (aka Alan Collins, a face famous for his performances in Italian Gothics) and Deran Sarafian, a prolific director/actor of horror/thrillers (almost never memorable)...
Of special note is the sequence (derived from Lamberto Bava's Macabre) of a severed head placed inside a refrigerator, and able to pounce on an incredulous -rather than frightened- protagonist....
We are a far cry from the previous chapter (of quite different depth) directed by Fulci, but if you can turn a blind eye to the script (and especially to the performances) and indulge in the atmosphere (to which a good soundtrack contributes), fun is assured...
Review by Undying1
