To my surprise much has been written about this film. Zombie 3(as my video was titled) or what it should have been titled Zombi 4: After Death is an uninspiring, mundane, pathetic little production directed by Claudio Fragasso and starring a virtual cast of nobodies(apparently some have claims to fame in pornographic circles). The movie opens with a voodoo priest invoking the dead in a cave - all this through a few words on his part and his wife dancing around. A bunch of visitors to the island , all wearing khaki and loaded with guns, come searching in the cave. Soon zombies appear(and another reviewer hit it right on the head when he said they look more like cheaply, made-up ninjas), people die, and we go back and forth between the deaths in the cave and a couple with child running from death on the island's surface. The two parents are killed; the child runs away with an amulet(or something) that her mother gave her to protect her. That is the opening of the film and then we go to 20 years later when a group of people are out by the island for God knows what reason and just happen to be mysteriously willed to the island. Funny thing is that the little girl of 20 years ago happens to be in the group. Hmmm. Why are the near the island? Why is the girl with them? How did a little girl survive if everyone on the island was a zombie? How did she get off the island? OK, I know I could go on with this forever! The rest is just as ridiculous. There is also a group of "scientists" on the island - two guys and a girl - and their scientific knowledge equals reading a forbidden text called The Book of the Dead in great big black letters and nothing more. One guy reads it and zombies appear and kill. The same kind of nonsense ensues for the remainder of the film capped off by a highly unimaginative ending. The film is not overly gory nor scary at all. The zombies don't look like zombies should. The zombies also have weird powers: at least two speak and use language coherently, several use weapons with great accuracy, and one sprints like the second coming of Jesse Owens. Shooting the head is still the prescribed way to "kill" a zombie. Perhaps the most ridiculous scene of all is outside a medical hut with the real humans just standing there looking at these very slow-moving zombies. Even they don't look scared! Did I like anything? The island looked authentic and that was for the most part a good setting. The late Candice Daly plays the female lead, and though not much of an actress, she is a beautiful young lead.
Review of After Death
