Search - Zombie Holocaust on DVD

Zombies, cannibals and brain surgery

crimson-executioner | United Kingdom | 12/14/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Probably the funniest - and one of the goriest - Italian zombie movies is this weird amalgam of zombies and cannibals. In fact, the zombies here don't even kill anybody!They're being created by brain-swap wacko Dr. Obrero (Donald O'Brien, in a priceless trash performance), who has plenty of donors to work on - a whole island full of primitive cannibal tribesmen.But heroic professor Chandler (Ian McCulloch), hoping to get to the bottom of a body-snatching case, stumbles on Obrero's crazy scheme. Now he has to fend off mad surgeons, hungry natives and brain-dead zombies!The really impressive gore FX are sky-high - and include scalpings, eyeball-eating, throat-slashing and a head mashed by propellor - but this only adds to the movie's goofy charm. ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST has moments of such stupidity that it's impossible to resist. For example, a suicide victim's body clearly smashes in two when he throws himself from a 20-storey window, but is back in one piece when the camera closes-up on him. Once O'Brien's medic starts one of his meaningful scientific speeches ("Patient's screams disturbing me - performed removal of vocal chords!"), this becomes Grade-A trash.But it's so self-serious with its' stupid premise that it becomes inoffensive and genuinely hilarious.Italian zombie fans will be well in their element, so I recommend this one wholeheartedly!"

Oh yeah

General Zombie | the West | 02/25/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As I almost invariably point out in my reviews of this sorta thing, I prefer good horror films, but I'll take a campy one too, and 'Zombie Holocaust' is about as good as bad horror gets. With reams of gore and stunning dialogue this film is a delight from beginning to end. Highly recommended.

As many have mentioned, there aren't actually very many zombies in this movie, and they don't actually kill anyone. The film was initially released in the US under the much more delicious and appropriate name, 'Dr. Butcher M.D.', so I suggest you think of it as that. Still, title confusion aside, this is a fine gorefest, with cannibals doing the ripping and eating and whatnot, and they prove to be just as good at it as zombies generally are. The gore actually holds up better than I woulda imagined, better than you'd see in a Fulci film. Partially, this is because the gore is rarely anything to fancy, mostly just severed limbs and spilled guts, and lots of it is only seen in the aftermath. But, those are the essentials of your gore film, so you don't ever want stray to far from them. There are some fun, more elaborate effects, such as a surprisingly nasty and effective eye-gouging scene, and an head mangling via outboard motor so awesome and hilarious that it could be in 'Riki-Oh'. Sadly, much of the gore is too badly lumped together, with one main cannibal assault in middle part of the film, but there's enough good stuff at other points that it doesn't matter too much.

The plot is staggeringly convoluted. Alright, there are some corpse desecrations at a hospital in New York, and they wanna find the culprit, which turn out to be done by natives from some pacific archipelago with a name I can't recall, and some of the hospital workers and reporters and so forth decide to go there, for no apparent reason. They get their, and meet a humanitarian doctor who turns out to be a mad scientist whose making zombies, and they're attacked by the fickle natives, and eventually there's a fire, and they're gonna sacrifice the blonde chick but don't for some reasons and there are zombies and he gonna operate on the dude from 'Zombie'(Peter, in both films) and so on. The wacky plot is good, as films of this sort can get a bit boring while your waiting for the killing to start. Not so here.

The acting tends to be quite humorous as well. Special kudos go to the mad doctor himself, who is played with a startling, intense vigor. Humorous dialogue abounds. A few examples, quoted approximately, but you'll get the gist of it. After discovering the corpse desecration two hospital employees talk to one another. Old doctor guy: 'I could understand this happening in a primitive, superstitious society, but here, in New York city?' Chick: 'But doctor, do you really think we are all that different from primitives?' Old doctor guy: 'I just don't know....' Now that, my friends, is called social commentary. Course, it turns out that it was primitives doing it all along, so his doubting of modern man proved to be foolish. Alright next, upon arriving at the island, the blonde chick finds a severed, maggot covered head in her bed. They go and tell Dr. Butcher, and he responds, saying, 'Don't worry, if the natives wanted to kill you they could already have done so very easily'. How reassuring. And of course, there is the absolutely immortal line towards the very end of the film. Peter nearly escapes, but Dr. Butcher has his zombie slaves catch him, and he pulls a gun on him. Dr Butcher says, 'I could easily kill you now, BUT I'M DETERMINED TO HAVE YOUR BRAIN!!!!!'

Oh man, this movies great. Check it out."

Good movie, but confusing title

Damien Johnson | New Orleans, LA | 10/23/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Zombie Holocaust is a good Italian flick that has suspense and turns. It contains every genre included in any Italian horror movie (bad dubbing, lots of gore, zombies, cannibals, and nudity), but it does have a negative side to it. Well, here's the story.At a hospital, corpses are being cut, revealing missing body parts and organs. The head doctor becomes suspicious of the whole mess and plan to see who the culprit is. One night, one student is caught taking a heart out of a corpse and in the process of eating it when he is caught red-handed. But he commits suicide by jumping out of the window in one of the most hilarious scenes ever filmed. (If you want to know if that was his real arm coming off his body, then you are a fool. That was a stunt dummy falling on the ground on the tape.)The female doctor, who is also educated in anthropology, spots a tattoo on the victim's chest. It is revealed to be a symbol of Keto, a far off island. She brings this to the attention of a local policeman, played by famed Italian horror hero Ian McCulloch. so, the female doctor, the cop, his assistant, and a nosy reporter head to the island of Keto to find out what is going on. Then, like in every zombie or cannibal movie, they face horrible dangers ahead. Now to the negative aspect. Just in the same dilemma as Cannibal Apocalypse (which I also reviewed), the title of the movie, Zombie Holocaust does not really fit the plot. Through the movie, you only spot five or six zombies, all of them never killing anybody in sight, and in one scene appear to be saving our future heroes from being cannibal meat. Now, if I saw over 100 zombies killing live human flesh, I would consider it be a zombie holocaust, but as far as I'm concerned, it could be named Island Holocaust. Also, what is the whole purpose of the mad doctor killing humans and implanting their soul into other corpses? Just like other Italian movies, the plot doesn't mesh. But this is a good movie to watch. There are some good extras on the DVD so go check it out."

Fun Italian Splatter

Robert Meeks | Winchester, KY United States | 10/17/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Zombi Holocaust (A.K.A. Doctor Butcher M.D.) is in a category by itself among Zombie, Cannibal, and Mad Doctor movies because it is all three in a tropical setting. In how many other movies do you get a mad doctor doing Frankenstein experiments, cannibals running amuck, scientists getting lost on the right island, a manniquin leaping to it's death, and Alexandra Delli Colli getting body painted all in one movie. The zombies in this movie are more appropriately automatons (Frankenstein's monsters). They are living beings which have been brought back to life by the mad doctor to do his bidding (of course if they ever got a good look in a mirror they would kill him on the spot). This movie does consist of its good parts and its so bad its good parts. The basic story begins in the city (what city?...who cares) where a rash of cannibalism breaks out (stay with me). In some of the cases the cannibal had a tattoo of an ancient symbol belonging to a group of islands in the Archipeligos. A group of doctors and a reporter take an excursion to an island in the Archipeligos which was pointed out to them by a fellow doctor who attends to the natives on these islands. Unfortunately, they have engine trouble and have to dock the boat at a different island. Then the fun begins. I will not ruin this for those who have not seen this movie. I will say that I have watched this several times and still enjoy it. The four star rating is for the fun factor not the artistic factor (certainly not). Be aware that this is a gory movie; if that does not bother you, then enjoy.-Bob"