I saw this film in the cinema in 84'. It was slightly modified, although the eye gouge was left in, it could have been shortened. Was disappointed and a tad bored and the cuts were obvious. Have finally seen the full, uncut version and again, was disappointed.
The NY opening was good on the yacht and I would have preferred it, if the whole film had been set in the city. I think this would have made it more epic and given the film more scope and possibilities, that the ending hinted at. The film was well shot; but the actors were insipid and did stupid things. While I realize it was dubbed in parts, they will still quite weak. The shark zombie sequence was bizarre and felt out of place and an excuse to show some boobs.
Some of the makeup was very good; but most of it was cheesy. It's like it was attempting to be more ambitious here, than Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD and Fulci was using his gore effects for shock value, to make up for what I see as a lack of suspense or tension in the film. Pity, that most countries around the world censored them at the time and this is all the film really had going for it. The tropical island setting wasn't all that creepy either and the best the film could muster up, in an attempt to be spooky and give some explanation for the happenings, was some boring dialogue about voodoo. As for the theme music, it sounded strange and didn't appear to compliment the action that well.
Overall, the film was flat and overdone in parts, to mask it's weaknesses. Not that impressed! Will view more of Fulci's work from this era, to compare.
reply
share