Zombie Flesh Eaters

"We are going to eat you!"

1979 1h 31m IT

👍

6.7

SOLID

★6.7TMDB · 703

Horror

Synopsis

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After an abandoned boat sails into New York harbor with a zombie aboard, a reporter teams up with the daughter of the boat's missing captain to investigate the island where he was last seen conducting research—the site of an alleged zombie outbreak.

“We are going to eat you!”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Tisa Farrow
Anne Bowles
Ian McCulloch
Peter West
Richard Johnson
Dr. David Menard
Olga Karlatos
Paola Menard
Al Cliver
Brian Hull
Auretta Gay
Susan Barrett
Stefania D'Amario
Menard's Nurse
Ugo Bologna
Ann's Father (uncredited)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Lucio Fulci
Writers: Elisa Briganti
Languages: English, Italian, Spanish
Countries: Italy

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 3.9× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

47 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Italian, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Zombi Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Lucio Fulci, shot by Sergio Salvati. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Fabio Frizzi. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Vincenzo Tomassi shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Lucio Fulci directs. Sergio Salvati behind the camera. Fabio Frizzi scores. Vincenzo Tomassi cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in Italy. Dialogue in English, Italian, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $0.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Made its money back 3.9× over at the box office.
347 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Italian, Spanish.
5Part of the "Zombi Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
6Directed by Lucio Fulci, shot by Sergio Salvati. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Fabio Frizzi. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Vincenzo Tomassi shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Tisa Farrow and Ian McCulloch and Richard Johnson carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "We are going to eat you!".
11IMDB entry: tt0080057 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 10 themes, including "new york city", "journalist", "boat", "voodoo".
13Released under 14 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Sergio Salvati
Original score: Fabio Frizzi
Editing: Vincenzo Tomassi
Production design: Walter Patriarca
Costume design: Walter Patriarca
Makeup / hair: Giannetto De Rossi
Runtime: 91 min · 1h 31m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $497,000
Box office: $1,925,000
Return: 387% of budget
Original language: IT
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979)

Part of

Zombi Collection

The Zombi Collection is a series of Italian zombie films. The series began with the 1979 release of Zombi 2 directed by Lucio Fulci. It was adapted from an original screenplay by Dardano Sacchetti to serve as a sequel to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978), which was released in Italy with the title Zombi. This was followed in 1988 with Zombi 3, which is an in-name-only sequel to Fulci's Zombi 2. Claudio Fragasso then directed 1989's After Death, which was retitled Zombi 4 by its Japanese video distributors. Finally, Killing Birds is a 1988 Italian horror film starring Lara Wendel and Robert Vaughn which was renamed Zombi 5 by distributors.

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Lucio Fulci

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John Chard2013-11-04
★ 5.5/10
Fulci’s Feral Food Feast. Being of a “certain” age and being British, I was firmly around at the time of the ridiculous “video nasty” mania that swept the UK in the early 1980s. Films that usually involved cannibals, either ferox, holocaust or zombified, and torture porn revengers et al, were banned, prosecuted or given a Viking burial at sea. One such film was Zombie Flesh Eaters (the best title the film has of the few it is known by), it became like the Holy Grail of video nasties, where to see it uncut would be like witnessing the last miracle performed by Christ. I never did get to see it back then, and as my horror leanings waned over the years I let it drift from my conscious. But now I’m here in my middle age and finding a new appetite for horror, I have finally managed to see the fabled shocker from Lucio Fulci. In many ways it’s a disappointment, I mean I understand that to view it now is never going to impact in the way that it did (could) in 1979, but casting aside for a moment the gore scenes, which I will get to, it’s a bad film awash with badness, and not in a horror bad ass way. Much like the other Fulci film I viewed recently, The House By The Cemetery, ZFE is a series of blood and guts scenes strung together by amateurish filler. Be it bad acting, bad dubbing, hopeless dialogue and half hearted attempts at something cranial. However, if judging this particular Fulci film on its key horror scenes? Then it’s got brains, imagination and style to burn. Marking it out as by definition a mixed bag genius disaster! The zombies themselves are brilliant creations, all dripping with rotting flesh, caked in earth and having mother nature’s insect creatures wriggling around their ravaged bodies. They shuffle along in classic Romero mode, and feast on flesh with carefree abandon. They are also perpetrators of some of zombie cinema’s best moments, such as fighting a shark on the ocean bed, pulling a hapless female victim onto a wooden splinter – eye first! And one scene where they collectively rise slowly from the earth is atmospherically as creepy as it is stunning in its execution. It is these things that of course helped to make it a legendary part of the Italian Exploitation era, and it’s these things that make it watchable still today, but let it not be said there is anything else worthwhile, because the rest is simply awful. 6.5/10
quasar19672020-09-01
★ 10/10
in my opinion, quite simply the best CLASSIC zombie movie ever made
Wuchak2025-09-20
★ 6/10
Adventurous zombie outbreak in the Caribbean A woman from New York City (Tisa Farrow) teams-up with a reporter (Ian McCulloch) to find her missing father on a remote island in the West Indies. They hire a vacationing couple to guide them (Al Cliver and Auretta Gay), which leads to a troubled doctor who knew the man (Richard Johnson). Helmed by Lucio Fulci, "Zombie" (1979) or “Zombie Flesh Eaters” is also known as “Zombi 2” in several countries because producers wanted to capitalize on the success of “Dawn of the Dead” from the year before, which was known as “Zombi” in Italy and other lands. With such a title, it’s implied to be an (unofficial) sequel to “Dawn” but, in reality, it’s a prequel (not to mention a prequel to “Night of the Living Dead”). The script was actually written before “Dawn” came out as an adventure/thriller taking place in the Caribbean with no connection to Romero's films. The bookend New York scenes were added later to cash-in on “Dawn.” Dardano Sacchetti based his script on classic zombie flicks with the intention of bringing the genre back to its Caribbean & Voodoo roots. Although the story isn’t as compelling as in “Dawn” (or “Night”) and the characters aren’t as memorable, the zombies have better make-up and are thoroughly gruesome. It’s basically “Night of the Living Dead” with the milieu of “The Deep” and the enhancement of full color. Unfortunately, the dubbing is lousy, which is to be expected with Italian films of that era. Whilst the eye poke scene strikes me as juvenile and dumb, it is well-done and horrific, which fits the genre. Beyond that, there are several highlights, such as the creative tiger shark sequence, the air of life-or-death adventure and the suspenseful stand-off at the climax, as well as the ominous epilogue. It runs 1 hour, 31 minutes, and was shot in New York City, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Latina, Italy, which is 45 miles south of Rome. GRADE: B-/C+