Although ZOMBIE was actually rated X at the theater where I saw it, the theater management wasn't restricting attendance to "adults only": it was, after all, a Horror movie, and Horror was BIG at the time; movies like HALLOWEEN and DAWN OF THE DEAD had changed the movie-going landscape, and theaters were more than willing to bend the rules a little to make a buck. I knew, going in, that ZOMBIE was an Italian version of George Romero's ground-breaking DAWN OF THE DEAD; what I DIDN'T know was that it was even more unrelenting in its depiction(s) of gore (which had to do with the fact that ZOMBIE lacked both the Social Context and the Humor that Romero had so effectively employed in DAWN OF THE DEAD); ZOMBIE was pure exploitation, cashing in on the (still-) current craze. We sat in the balcony, near the top, and were blown away by the graphic depictions of sadism (the eye-gouging) and cannibalism (the Last Supper, especially)- but it was the memorable close encounter underwater between a zombie and a shark that was the most memorable scene of all. It was, at that time, a truly AMAZING thing to see. I can't really say that I've ever been a Lucio Fulci FAN (though I did eventually see both HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY and GATES OF HELL at the drive-in), but ZOMBIE was, all things considered, a decent (if gut-wrenching) movie. (GATES OF HELL was the Ultimate, though: in one scene, a girl sitting in a car literally pukes up her intestines...) And it was always cool to see "Dr. Markway" on the Big Screen. (See THE HAUNTING.)
