Zombie Holocaust – 88 Films (4k UHD/Blu-ray Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1980
Director: Marino Girolami
Writers: Fabrizio De Angelis, Romano Scandariato
Cast: Ian McCulloch, Alexandra Delli Colli, Sherry Buchanan, Peter O'Neal, Donald O'Brien, Dakar, Walter Patriarca, Linda Fumis

Release Date: September 25th, 2023
Approximate Running Time: 89 Minutes 13 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10
Rating: 18 (UK)
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Italian, DTS-HD Mono English
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region Free (4K UHD), Region Free (Blu-ray)
Retail Price: £24.99 (UK)

"Do you like Italian zombie movies? And do you like Italian cannibal movies? If you do, you're going to love Zombie Holocaust, which takes the best bits of both and mashes them up into a particularly nauseating cocktail as the great Ian McCulloch (Zombie Flesh Eaters) does battle with the living dead, the local 'anthropophagi' and an especially demented scientist as well." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5 (4K UHD), 4.25/5 (Blu-ray)

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, “Zombie Holocaust was scanned at 4K resolution on the Scanity film scanner at Eurolab Lab in Italy from the original 2-Perf overcut Negative.

It was then transferred to hard drive as 4K uncompressed dpx files and sent over to the UK where it was edited, restored and graded by Filmfinity.”

Zombie Holocaust comes on a 66 GB dual layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 59.5 GB

Feature: 58.6 GB

Zombie Holocaust is a film that is never going to look immaculate. That said, this transfer looks great; it is easily the best this film has ever looked on home video. Flesh tones look correct, colors are nicely saturated, image clarity and black levels are strong, compression is solid, and the image always looks organic.

Zombie Holocaust comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 43.9 GB

Feature: 23.6 GB

The Blu-ray uses the same source as the 4K UHD does for its transfer.

Audio: 4.25/5 (DTS-HD Mono Italian), 4/5 (DTS-HD Mono English)

This release comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD mono mix in Italian and a DTS-HD mono mix in English. Though both tracks sound clean, clear, and balanced, When it comes to ambient sounds and the score, the Italian track sounds more robust than the English-language track. Included are removable English subtitles for the Italian-language track.

Extras:

Extras on the 4K UHD disc include a theatrical trailer (4 minutes 20 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), and an audio commentary with film critics David Flint and Adrian Smith.

Extras on the Blu-ray disc include a theatrical trailer (4 minutes 20 seconds, Dolby Digital mono English, no subtitles), a restoration reel (3 minutes 5 seconds, no sound), a Q&A with actor Ian McCulloch at the Manchester Festival of Fantastic Films (50 minutes 25 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with Marcello Avellone titled To Die and Rise in Rome (15 minutes 46 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with composers Giacomo and Edda Dell’Orso titled Our Life, Our Music (42 minutes 8 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with editor Alberto Moriani and filmmaker Enzo G. Castellari titled Girolami Holocaust (19 minutes 16 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), a documentary titled Eaten Alive!: The Rise and Fall of the Italian Cannibal Film (85 minutes 12 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English and Italian with non-removable English subtitles for Italian), and an audio commentary with David Flint and Adrian Smith.

Other extras include reversible cover art, a slipcase (limited to first pressing), A3 fold-out poster (limited to first pressing), and 40-page booklet (limited to first pressing) with cast & crew information, an essay titled Zombi Holocaust: A Gory Collision of Cannibals and the Undead written by Rachael Nisbet, an essay titled Zombi Holocaust written by Martin Beine and information about the restoration.

Summary:

Directed by Marino Girolami, whose other notable films are Violent Rome, Rome: The Other Side of Violence, A Special Cop in Action, and Lover Boy.

The narrative revolves around a police officer who enlists the help of an anthropologist in a case involving missing body parts.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the zombie and cannibal genre cycles were two of the more popular in Italy at that time. Zombie Holocaust is a combination of the zombie and cannibal film genre cycles.

Zombie Holocaust is a wild ride. What starts off as a police procedural about missing body parts transforms into a jungle adventure with cannibals and zombies. Though it is logical that a detective would travel so far to solve a case, this actually does not work against Zombie Holocaust, a film that is filled with characters doing things you would not expect them to do.

The performances work great in the context of the story that unfolds, especially by Donald O'Brien (Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals) in the role of Dr. Obrero, a mad scientist character who brings dead bodies back to life. Another performance of note is Alexandra Delli Colli (The New York Ripper) in the role of Lori Ridgeway, an anthropologist whose character provides an ample amount of eye candy.

Though it is clear that Zombie Holocaust is a film working within the confines of an anemic budget, director Marino Girolami does a superb job exploiting his resources for all their worth. The practical special effects are on par with other Italian horror films from this era. Also, if the score sounds familiar, that is because it uses music cues from Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals. Ultimately, Zombie Holocaust is a highly entertaining film that fans of Z-grade Italian horror cinema should thoroughly enjoy.

Zombie Holocaust makes its way to 4K UHD via an exceptional release from 88 Films, highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a VLC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer