"The Boat Can Leave Now. Tell the Crew They're in 4K"
ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS, arguably director Lucio Fulci's best film, and certainly his most iconic, is getting a 4K UHD release from Arrow with a 4K restoration from the original 2-perf Techniscope negative.
If you're a fan of the film all you need to know is that the transfer is delicious, with Giannetto de Rossi's makeups frequently holding up very well indeed to the increased resolution. Fabio Frizzi's score is also worth listening to on the three sound options included here - Dolby Atmos, original mono (English and Italian) and DTS-HD 7.1 (Italian) because each offers a slightly different listening experience.
If you've not seen ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS before then you're in for a treat. At the time of release Fulci cited Val Lewton's I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE as one of his influences and while at the time critics huffed about how such a gorefest could be compared to the master of the understated chill, it's easy to see now what he was talking about. Back then the amazing gore effects drowned everything else out but there are plenty of atmospheric and ominous sequences on the island that, if you were to remove all the violence, would still give you a film worth watching.
In terms of extras, material new and exclusive to this release includes a commentary track by the familiar team (to buyers of US Blu-rays at least) of Eugenio Ercolani, Nathaniel Thompson and, most ubiquitous of all, Troy Howarth. Alexandra Heller-Nicholas gives us a 15 minute video essay on the use of sound in the film, and Chris Alexander helps those of us of a certain age (and some of us who are even older) to revisit those heady days of discovering Fulci's movie on VHS. Also welcome to scholars and obsessives is the entire screenplay which you can access on screen. There are two pages missing but it's a tiny fragment of the whole.
Archival extras are basically what was available on Arrow's 2012 Blu-ray release which include two commentary tracks - with screenwriter Elisa Briganti and Calum Waddell and the other by Stephen Thrower and Alan Jones which is unsurprisingly the best of the lot. Also included are High Rising's 2012 documentary which runs nearly an hour, and interviews with Ian McCulloch (46 minutes), Gino DeRossi (27 minutes) and the script bit with Dardano Sacchetti (3 minutes). The Fabio Frizzi Q&A from Glasgow (29 minutes) is also on there.
As with the 2012 release you get the option of playing the film either as ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS, ZOMBI 2 or ZOMBIE. There's no difference in the running times and it's just the title cards and font that are different. However, if you've never watched the film in Italian it's worth it as the dialogue sounds a lot less 'Nick Alexander and the gang in a dubbing studio' and the translated subtitles have more gravitas to them then the English dialogue. Ian McCulloch's 2012 introduction in which he expresses regret at talking the film down in previous years is also on there.
Finally Arrow's release comes with a booklet with new writing on the film plus a reversible sleeve, poster, and six collector's postcards. Oh, and Easter Eggs which I haven't found yet.
The classic that is Lucio Fulci's ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS is out on 4K UHD from Arrow Films on Monday 28th July 2025
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