Now who'd have thunk it?

That is, Shriek Show beating Blue Underground at their own game. I don't know why two such firms have deemed to release the same film at almost exactly the same time but that has happened here. The winner? Well BU's alleged special edition version comes with, um....trailers, radio spots, a poster and the obligatory Fulci bio. I have no idea what's so special about that since even the old crappy Anchor Bay release had a commentary as an extra! The Shriek Show set carries almost two hours of featurettes, trailers, a poster AND the commentary track off that earlier release.

According to early comparisons, the SS disc has slightly better picture quality too. My BU prediction - not many sales from informed genre fans.

So Fulci decided to dip his toe in the soon to explode Italian zombie film phenomenon after the success of Romero's very own Night Of The Living Dead sequel. Fulci seemingly shot the euro load early since the Italian zombie film craze was complete cack for the most part! Not so here, despite the usual lack of plot and sometimes very daft dialogue, Zombie is a gore classic of the seventies and is destined to be in the top-ten or even top-five greatest walking dead films for many years to come amongst some very fine company indeed (sorry Dawn remake but you suck).

As ever, the film features a couple of fading semi-famous western stars such as Ian McCulloch and Richard Johnson acting alongside folks like "Al Cliver" (or should I say Pierluigi Conti), who speak their lines in Italian on set awaiting the obligatory dubbing process later on. When Tisa Farrow's father's boat floats into New York harbour minus said father but plus one big, fat skanky zombie, limey journalist McCulloch and Farrow head off to a mysterious cursed island to discover the truth and maybe, just maybe find her father. Okay, so the plot ain't exactly complex or challenging but it's the unusual set pieces and the gore make-up genius of Gianetto de Rossi that makes this one stand out big-time.

I'm talking about a film which features a stuntman in zombie guise fighting underwater with a real shark. Get my drift? I can't see that happening again - quite frankly, I'm amazed that it happened ever. I'm also talking about a film which spent a great deal of energy on the look of the zombies (unlike Savini's little boy blues), even placing real worms in the eye socket of the lead zombie featured on the posters. Brilliant flesh tears and pulsing blood flows too. Nearing the climax, one can't help but feel that the throwing molatovs at the wormy critters gig is being overdone but hey, if it looks good once, it looks good several times. I suppose.

Not certain as to why Shriek Show have released this film under it's Italian title (aka Zombie in the US and Zombie Flesh Eaters in the UK) but maybe that's to distinguish it from the BU and AB releases of the same picture. The anamorphic picture quality is excellent, so much so, that the effects look a little faker than they did previously. We'll sure as hell never see any better picture quality than that provided here, that's for sure. The film is unsurprisingly Unrated (yeah, no shit!) and the generous extras look a bit like this:

- A very impressive anamorphic print plus generously provided 5.1, 2.0 and original mono soundtracks in both English and Italian for each

- Plush shiny cardboard outer packaging disguising a quality two disc plastic container with a groovy Zombi 2 poster inside

- An enjoyable commentary with true English gent Ian McCulloch - the same as that on the earlier AB release (it's fun to hear Ian, who's never actually watched this film before, proclaiming "Jesus!" during the infamous splinter in eye sequence)

- An over 98 minute featurette covering special effects, acting, cinematography and the writing

- An Evening With Dakar, a bit part actor from the film

- Production stills, posters and lobby cards

- The Zombi 2 trailer plus trailers for 9 shit zombie films (good for laughing at if nothing else)

All those featurettes are comprised of modern interviews with the living participants and whilst clutching at straws in the case of those trailers for other flicks and the pointless An Evening With Dakar (where he plays a guitar song for us!), the quality is generally magnificent. Well done to Shriek Show for not only providing their very best release to date but the truly definitive version of Fulci's zombie classic. This could well be a contender for the best dvd release of 2004. Shriek Show, take a well deserved bow!! You earnt it.