Dubbing gone mad

[Andrew]

Watched "Zombie 4" last night and it surprised me.  I did not think that it would be worse than "Zombi 3."

Anyway, I have been watching a lot of dubbed Italian films lately.  Creatures from the Abyss, War of the Robots, a couple of zombie films - you get the idea.  I have come to the conclusion that sometimes the actors doing the voiceovers are just making things up.

What jumps to mind is the main character in "Creatures from the Abyss" asking the delirious doctor about his, uh, relations with fish.  Then, in "Zombie 4," there was something amazingly sexist said that got me to laughing.  Didn't fit the scene at all, except maybe in a mad movie sort of way.

I'd also like to point out that "Zombie 4" is memorable for zombies jumping on people.

[StatCat]

You didn't like zombi 3? I find that one to be hilarious- probably because its made by the genius Bruno Mattei who also did other classics like rats: night of terror and hell or the living dead and because it has that flying zombie head. Zombie 4 is pretty bad indeed but I enjoy really bad Italian horror movies anyway. The funny thing about the zombie 4 dvd is the interview with Claudio Fragasso. The interviewer brings up the point that one of the actors in the film is a gay porn star and Fragasso says something like really? Maybe we should of put some porn in the movie. Truly frightening...hes also responsible for troll 2 so no wonder why hes so wacked out. I want to dub movies, always sounded like fun and I'm sure they won't care if I throw a random line in here or there.

[Chris K.]

I actually liked AFTER DEATH (or, as it is misleadingly known as ZOMBIE 4). It was interesting and yeah, it had a few silly moments but then what could you really expect. But it was different from the typical Romero/Fulci zombie film and had some neat ideas. But I will have to say the ending was a let-down.

What I also enjoyed on the DVD of AFTER DEATH was the interview with writer-director Claudio Fragasso (credited in AFTER DEATH as "Clyde Anderson"). Basically, Fragasso comes across as an intelligent person who deeply understands the ideals of the film industry. Fragasso admits that AFTER DEATH was nothing but a bread-and-butter picture devised by ZOMBI 3 producer Franco Gaudenzi and it made money via international sales and it's Italian theatrical release. However, Fragasso also admits that while he had fun making AFTER DEATH, he does consider it to be nothing more than a low budget film with very little artistic style (which was due to very little shooting schedules and the small budget). Sadly while the film was released in an 85 minute cut (the cut shown internationally and in Italy as well), Fragasso also mentions that it had more gore but was removed by Gaudenzi to avoid big censorship problems during it's release. Despite that, Fragasso was able to introduce some interesting ideas and concepts in a film that, when seen in it's terribly dubbed English format, comes across as just a typical Italian splatter fest.

But like StatCat mentioned, their was a funny scene in the interview in which when the interviewer mentioned that AFTER DEATH American star Chuck Peyton was a gay porno star known as "Jeff Stryker", to which Fragasso was indeed quite shocked and mentioned, "Maybe I should have put some porno scenes in the film." Fragasso intended his comment to be funny, and I laughed as Hell. Truely this guy has some good ideas for a film, a personality and a sense of humor. Hollywood, hire this guy!

[Andrew]

StatCat wrote:
You didn't like zombi 3?

It became tedious at times.  It did have its moments though.  I would probably give it one slime, maybe two if another viewing made it grow on me.  Flying zombie heads always crack me up, because I wonder how exactly they are doing that (flying around).  Plus, the pregnant woman suddenly has a full sized zombie claw and arm erupt out of her stomach.

Ah, Bruno.  I noticed that it appears he used the same flamethrower in both "Rats: Night of Terror" and "Zombi 3."