Night of the Zombies
Night of the Zombies
NR | 20 January 1983 (USA)
Night of the Zombies Trailers

A rat causes a chemical leak at a Papua New Guinea research facility, leading a group of eco-terrorists to demand the closure of all facilities. When a team of Interpol commandos are enlisted to eliminate the terrorists, they find themselves embroiled in a zombie outbreak.

Reviews
Protraph Lack of good storyline.
FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.
Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
koroxx "Virus" ("aka Hell of the living dead" or "Zombie Creeping Flesh") is a fun rip-off of "Dawn of the Dead", with also some typical stuff we can find in Italian cannibals movies, but without the cannibalism (there is a tribe in the jungle composed mostly from stock shots of "The Real Cannibal Holocaust" - aka "Nuova Guinea, l'isola dei cannibali" - and stock shots of animals from documentaries too). The director is Bruno Mattei so it's not really a big surprise, he used a lot stock shots and work done by others in his movies (for example his "Zombi: La creazione" AND "Shocking Dark" are copies of James Cameron's "Aliens"). I kinda like his movies, because most of them are really fun to watch (the "so bad it's good" kind). But for this one, I think it's just an OK movie. Funny in many scenes, but also boring in many others. There is a nice variety of zombies, some looks like the blue ones from "Dawn of the Dead", others have a more "gory" look, as in "Zombi 2" of Lucio Fulci. The characters from the Swat are fun, lot of crazy men in the team with totally irrational reactions! Unfortunately, the movie is too long, should have been cut by at least 20 minutes.
Andy Clark Having watched this again recently after not seeing it since I was a kid, it really didn't live up to my memories. The acting is pretty erratic (and sometimes downright comical).The effects are a total mixed bag. Some are great, some are ripped from what looks like nature documentaries, and others are terrible (running out of time in makeup? let's paint these guys blue and put them in the background)It follows regular tropes that show these guys to be "badass soldiers" but they seem to forget their training and skills at all the opportune moments (you know, convenient zombie movie shtick).SPOILER: Having watched this again last night with the girlfriend, there was a part that literally made her say "Oh really?" and bust out laughing. As the group of survivors are leaving the infested house, there is a zombie that just straight up opens the moving car's door and starts to sit in like he's one of the living. I found this extremely comical as well.I can't hate on this film though, as I did have fond memories the first few times I saw it as a kid. It just didn't age very well. Still worth a viewing, and deserves a place in any serious zombie collector's movie collection.
Theo Robertson I was trapped in to seeing this movie down to the plot summary on this page saying " A tough female reporter and her cameraman boyfriend team up with a four-man commando unit in the New Guinea jungle whom are fighting flesh-eating zombies " which sounds intriguing to a degree and does have an average rating of 4.7 . Not enough to get it into the IMDb top 250 but not entirely bad for an Italian Spanish zombie horror co-production and went in open minded with the mindset to be a little forgiving Oh dear . If nothing else I learned something and that is I don't have a forgiving nature . It's the usual Euro 80s zombie rubbish with a bunch of Europeans dubbed by Americans being chased by zombies that couldn't out chase a quadruple amputee . I will be slightly charitable and mention the dubbing isn't too bad in that the synchonicity usually matches the actors lips and a couple of times the inflexion used in the voices is slightly emotional but apart from that there's not a lot to recommend it outside the usual gorefest market where one note characters go around shooting the shuffling undead and get chewed to death when the plot demands it As for the bad points one of the more striking things is the lack of internal continuity . Early in the film there's a hostage situation which is no doubt included to introduce the SWAT team and the news reporter states that the anti-terrorist team have the newest and most sophisticated weapons which is strange since they include a commando with a Thompson sub machine gun developed at the tail end of the first world war . The film continues like this where the commandos shoot someone and conclude the only way zombies can be killed is by shooting them in the head . Nice bit of detective work since they were shot in the torso and not the head etc etc etc . Like I said this is a film that won't appeal outside of hardcore horror circles
ma-cortes This low-budget terror motion picture deals with a group formed by a four-man commando squad who run into a pack of natives terrorizing island of Papua . After a chemical leak at the Hope Centre in New Guinea , an enterprise devoted to feeding underdeveloped countries, turns its staff into flesh-eating zombies , there a special force led by Mike London (Jose Gras 0r Robert O'Neil) are sent to investigate it . They run into a TV news crew led by celebrity journalist (Evelyn Newton) , who are after the same news . As a female reporter and her cameraman boyfriend team up with a four-man commando unit in the New Guinea jungle whom are fighting flesh-eating zombies . Then , the group discovers that the entire country has been overrun by zombies .Gory, gruesome , pretty repellent , and ghastly cannibal feast in which the stumbling flesh-eating stiffs and can be only destroyed by fire in the head . Unrelenting shock-feast plenty of disturbing images laced with brief touches of black humor . Army of Zombies appearance roaming the countryside , village and some people besieged inside a mansion and a factory deliver the goods , enough to be interesting . Bruno Mattei's main great success is regularly directed with startling visual content and acceptable production by Jose Maria Cunilles , also producing to Mattei and Fragasso a pair of "spaghetti westerns" titled ¨Scalps¨ and ¨Apache Kid¨ ; furthermore special mention to filthy make-up by the craftsman Giuseppe Ferranti. In the first draft, Claudio Fragasso had followed the idea of an entire Third World made up of an army of zombies against whom the armed forces of the industrialized nations would have had to fight. However, the script had to be altered considerably due to budget limitations. This frightening movie is plenty of thrills , chills, body-count executed by the eerie Zombies and photographed in pallid color with lurid images and passable results . Stock footage from the film Nuova Guinea, l'Isola Dei Cannibali was used for the native scenes , it has been recently re-released on DVD as The Real Cannibal Holocaust. This is an ordinary excruciatingly Zombie film where the intrigue , tension , suspense appears threatening and lurking in the sunny outdoors and every room , and corridors from a house , a shack , a native hamlet , jungle and many other places . At the time considered the plus ultra of thoroughly disturbing movie is less stomach-churning by nowadays's standards, yet its fundamental power to thrill remains undiminished. This genuinely frightening story with correct utilization of images-shock is professionally photographed by John Cabrera on location in Barcelona , Catolonia , Spain . Using yet another alias, "Vincent Dawn", Mattei middlingly directed this "Hell of the Living Dead" or ¨Virus¨ , a low-budged zombie picture inspired by other zombie cannibal movies such as Zombi (1978) and Lucio Fulci's Zombie 2 (1979). "Virus" was filmed in Spain and used jungle footage from New Guinea and a patch soundtrack from Goblins "Dawn of the Dead" soundtrack, which was a minor hit in Italy and abroad . ClaudioFragasso, the writer of the screenplay, also directed one half of the movie, he said in an interview .Mattei directed all kind of genres in low budget and exploitation pictures . He eventually had more pseudonyms than any working director in the world. He returned to editing before making another comeback in 1976 with two low-budget Nazi exploitation films, "Women's Camp 119" and "SS Girls"(1977) . Mattei followed these taboo-breaking films with excursions into porno films and Mondo "shockumentaries", all directed under his many pseudonyms, concentrating on "shock value" with films such as Mondo erotic (1973) and "Libiodomania" . Always on the lookout for new exploitation avenues, Mattei followed with "nunsploitation", with the soft-core sex film La Monaca di Monza (1980) and the violent sex thriller "Guardian of Hell" (1981). Both films involved a partnership with writer/director Claudio Fragasso, who helped him write and direct the back-to-back productions . After directing two women's prison films starring Laura Gemser , Mattei moved to directing sword-and-sorcery flicks , starting with I Sette Magnifici Gadiatori (1983). Both Mattei and Fragasso collaborated on the Sci-Fi/horror flick "Rats " (1984), inspired by the futuristic movies of the early 1980s . Mattei considers this his best work, despite his still having to work with a very low budget. He worked relentlessly through the 1980s, some action flicks and about half of Zombi 3 (1988) after Lucio Fulci was taken off the production, though Mattei was not credited with it.Rating"Hell of the Living Dead" or "Night of the Zombies" : Passable , this is one more revolting , foul Zombie horror pictures in which the camera stalks in sinister style . It's just one long unrelenting cannibal feast and average budget terror movie that still packs a punch for those who like to be terrorized out their wits.