If you know anything about zombie movies you know they've changed over the decades. Go back and look at a movie like WHITE ZOMBIE or I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE and you'll see natives under the spell of someone walking about with stares on their faces. Fast forward to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and we get meandering slow walking zombies that live off the flesh of others. Move forward again and you'll find fast running zombies that are frightening in their speed, still flesh eaters. Between those last two came the zombie films from Italy that were somewhere in between and almost always set on some tropical island.Such is the case with ZOMBI 4 aka AFTER DEATH. The movie opens with a voodoo priests reading from the book of the dead while a woman gyrates in a voodoo dance. This all culminates with the ground opening and swallowing her while he looks on. While this was taking place a group of white research scientists on the island have tracked the voodoo doctor to this cave. He blames them for the death of his family, they say they're doing nothing but saving lives with research. When one of them kills him, the woman rises from the ground with the fakest set of fangs you'll ever see spewing green goo. She begins killing them one by one as they shoot to no avail. While all of this is going on, a couple and their young child are trying to escape the island, chased by fast running zombies. The parents stay behind and send the girl off to the river with nothing more than a charm around her neck as they sacrifice themselves to save her.Confused? It doesn't stop there. Fast forward 20 years and we find the grown girl returning to the location to find out what happened to her parents and everyone else. She's accompanied by her friend and a group of mercenaries. The engine on their boat mysteriously conks out as they near the location. They dock and disembark to take a look around for parts to fix the boat. At the same time a trio of friends are also nearby with no explanation how they got there or why. They find the cave from the film's opening as well as the book. One of them isn't superstitious so he opens and reads the book, once again releasing the demon from below who proceeds to chase them with murderous intent. The risen zombies also begin attacking our first group. One is bitten and slowly begins to change, later attacking his friends. One by one they're attacked as they hole up in a building hoping to keep the zombies at bay. Eventually those left of both groups are united as they try to survive. If the movie feels a bit jumbled that's because it is. Directed and co-written by Claudio Fragasso, who co-wrote/co-directed the previous ZOMBI 3, the movie once more was a film that was too short once completed that tagged on something extra, mainly the entire opening sequence. That doesn't stop it from being another fun filled romp for fans of Italian zombie films whose gore quotient is higher than most. If you find yourself among this group you know what I'm talking about.Acting and storytelling is not the main focus of the film, gore is. There is plenty of it on hand from the start when someone has their face ripped off to the end when a victim is impaled by a zombies hand as he reaches through to pull out various organs. All of this is done in living color with copious amounts of goo, blood and guts on hand. Severin has just released several of these films together at the same time and all of them look great considering what they had to work with. The film is offered in a 2k scan featuring the film in the first uncut version released in the US. In addition to the film they've compiled an impressive number of extras as well. These include RUN ZOMBIE RUN an interview with director Fragasso and co-screenwriter Rosella Drudi, JEFF STRYKER IN MANILA and interview with actor Chuck Peyton, BLONDE VS ZOMBIES and interview with actress Candice Daly, behind the scenes footage and the original trailer for the film.During the interview with Fragasso he notes that he wanted to combine genres with this film, offering more action than zombie films in the past. He also notes that his was the first film to feature fast moving zombies that could talk and think and he's correct. These zombies communicate with their victims, at least some do, and they don't all stagger about but actually run, jump and fight with their victims. This makes for a more frightening zombie, one that would be difficult to escape. At the same time the limitations of a low budget don't make it a movie that American audiences are likely to appreciate. But those who love the genre will adore the film. The same for horror fans clamoring for this film and others like it. They will want to make a point of picking this one up. If you've picked it up in the past as a DVD or bootleg toss those aside and make sure you pick this one up from Severin. They've done a great job on this release.

Good gory fun.The zombies are very similar to the zombies of Lamberto Bava's "Demons".Gore-8/10 -the gore effects on the zombies are very good.its a pity the plot can't get around its own clichés. Acting-4/10 . if you want to see some good acting go elsewhere. soundtrack-4/10,Movie soundtrack-typical cheesy 80s work. Awful soundtrack.your typical overly echoed drums are present. Plot-5/10- not the worst of them allpsychological effect-3/10 -this movie was a funny to me because i am desensitized to gore and horror,it has nothing on the movie "demons" but also robs a lot from the "Demons" makeup effects. fun factor-6/10, despite the bad acting,bad soundtrack and clichéd plot i will admit i enjoyed watching this movieThis movie deserves a 6 out of ten. if you are not a fan of Horror movies or gore then don't watch. It doesn't have the Hollywood treatment that most people are used to.

No-one can blame Italian Euro-trash for consistency! Borrowly liberally from the over-arcing story in ZOMBIE, the movie is set on a tropical island (filmed in the Phillipines) about the dead rising up to kill a team of scientists. The sole survivor is a little girl with a pendant. How she makes it off the island, the movie doesn't show. In fact, the movie is pretty scant on details (not even a little "20 years later..." inter-title?) Anyway, "20 years later..." she returns as part of a boatload of stereotyped characters. No kidding, it sounds like the beginning of a joke: "So, this blond chick, some mercenaries, a black dude, and a few others are on this boat. And the boat pulls them into an island over-run with the undead..." Almost immediately upon setting foot on-land, one of the characters spots a weird be-robed figure running through the forest and (naturally) chases after him. Why? We don't know, but he does. And of course, upon catching the figure, he's bitten and the survivors hole up in what looks like a rundown hospital. Conveniently, there is a makeshift graveyard out back. As night wears on, the dead rise and claim the living. As is usually the case with these bad movies, I live for moments of sheer stupidity. This movie contains two moments! The first is at the very beginning when the wife of a voodoo priest (and I swear I'm not making this up) is literally pulled down to Hell. She re-emerges moments later as a green gob spewing she-demon with claws, incredible speed and jumping. At one point, she even hovers in mid-air. The second is when the black dude is surrounded by zombies in the hospital. The other survivors have escaped, but he decides to stay behind and sacrifice himself. The zombies are closing in and he's holding a grenade. One zombie says "We'll all be together again" and the black dude replies "We'll be together, forever!" And drops the grenade. BOOM! The ending makes absolutely no sense, though it is eerie. Then again, the same could be said about most Italian horror movies. As usual, this movie is best watched in the company of your funniest friends, so that you can riff your way through it!

What do you get if you mix an island of scientists, a voodoo witch doctor, zombies... and then open the third door to Hell (apparently neglecting the fact that Fulci had already opened all seven doors)? Well, you get "After Death".The first thing you'll notice about this film is the 80s metal soundtrack thrown together by Alberto Festa (including his song, repeated throughout the film, "Living After Death"). Not unlike other 80s Italian horror films, this seems to make sense even though it really doesn't.The second thing you'll notice is that this film features gay porn star Jeff Stryker. (Unless, of course, you don't know gay porn stars... then you won't notice at all.) This film is greatly under-appreciated by audiences, I fear. I loved it, and it seems that the hardcore fans of Italian horror do, too, despite the general agreement that this film fails. Jim Harper says the film features "fast-paced, sharply edited action scenes that rely heavily on excessive gore", and despite the fact "the story is patently absurd" the film is "gruesome enough to please gorehounds." Likewise, Jay Slater praises the film when he says the picture is "a blast of energy, rippling with violent action and awash with gore", an "energetic splatter picture in the spirit of Herschell Gordon Lewis" This is absolutely right. While trying to pass itself off as a sequel to "Dawn of the Dead", it has much more in common with Lamberto Bava's "Demons". The splatter effects and rock music make it perfect for this series.Director Claudio Fragasso laments that the most intense gore had been stripped by the censors. He also insists that the "special effects were all made laboriously by hand", which I think pays off -- most of the zombies are remarkable. What gore was cut is unknown to me... it's already a fairly gory picture as is... to increase it would make this one for the record books.If you only know Fragasso from the "best worst movie" "Troll 2" or don't know his work at all, this is a fine introduction. Taking the zombie jungle island formula many others have used and mixing it with the gore and colorful blood of Lamberto Bava, "After Death" is a film worth catching, and at least for me, owning.