One thing I can say about Director Bruno Mattei with absolute certainty , is that he went out with guns blazing....at a midget zombie. Mattei,well known for films such as Rats ,Zombi 3(Which he Co-Directed with Lucio Fulci), & Hell of the Living Dead, ended his long career with Island of the Living Dead and Zombies: The Beginning( which is supposedly a sequel to Hell of the Living Dead as well as a direct sequel to Island of The Living Dead). Island Of The Living Dead is a throwback to 80's Italian zombie cycles shot on video & Zombies: The Beginning is a re-telling of the film Aliens only with zombies.....literally. If both of these films would have been shot on film they would easily fit along side Mattei's earlier work in the horror genre. Although Island Of The Dead is a Shit Sandwich, I'll be damned if good ole Bruno didnt slip some love up in there. There is some great homages to Lucio Fulci & Amando De Ossario, awful acting , and a character named Snoopy who wheres a Snoopy T-shirt throughout the entire film. Island of The Living Dead plays the same role that Alien did for Aliens which is setting the stage for a superior sequel. Zombies: The Beginning works simply because Bruno Mattei had the balls to completely rip off the Aliens script as well as jack footage from Crimson Tide(unless they paid Viggo Mortenson to make a 30 second cameo) to make his submarine sequence look more convincing. ZTB is also the birthplace of that zombie midget who gets machine gunned I mentioned earlier, as well as home to naked Alien-esque mutant zombie children, a master mind talking brain & an exploding baby head. Its definitely a shit sandwich as well, but a tastier shit sandwich with more atmosphere. Bravo Bruno Mattei, Bravo.
3 & a half shit sandwich's out of 5
R.I.P. BRUNO MATTEI 1931-2007
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