EATERS – ZOMBIE PLANET

Le monde, dévasté par la Grande Épidémie, est gouverné par des hordes de morts-vivants. Enfermés dans une forteresse transformée en centre de recherche et en abri, trois hommes – les chasseurs de zombies Igor (Alex Lucchesi) et Alen (Guglielmo Favilla) et le scientifique Gyno (Claudio Marmugi) – tentent de trouver une réponse à ce qui est arrivé à la race humaine. Gyno expérimente ses théories sur les zombies qui lui sont donnés par Igor et Alen, qui croient que Gyro cherche un traitement pour le virus afin de sauver non seulement le monde mais aussi Alexis (Rosella Elmi), la petite amie d’Alen, une porteuse saine du virus. Mais en réalité, Gyno essaie de donner vie à une nouvelle race d’humains-morts.

Alen et Igor partent pour deux jours de chasse afin de trouver de nouveaux « cobayes » pour Gyno et, au cours de leur voyage, ils rencontrent les personnages les plus variés : un peintre fou, un groupe de néo-nazis, et une fille mystérieuse qui est la fille de l’homme redouté appelé le Propagateur de la Peste, supposé artisan de l’épidémie. Lors de leur retour à la forteresse, ils découvrent bientôt les expériences détournées de Gyno et ce qu’il a fait à la petite amie d’Alen, Alexis, rendant une confrontation finale avec Gyno inévitable.

Les années 1970 et le début des années 80 ont vu l’Italie produire un grand nombre de films de zombies, tels que Zombie 2 (Lucio Fulci, 1979), Burial Ground (Le notti del terrore, Andrea Bianchi, 1981), Nightmare City (Incubo sulla città contaminate, Umberto Lenzi, 1980), City of the Living Dead (Paura nella città dei morti viventi, Lucio Fulci, 1980) et Hell of the Living Dead (Virus, Bruno Mattei, 1980), pour n’en nommer que quelques-uns. Mais depuis lors, les morts-vivants avaient complètement disparu du cinéma d’horreur italien – jusqu’à maintenant, car les réalisateurs Marco Ristori et Luca Boni ont ramené les zombies italiens à la vie avec leur nouveau long métrage Eaters.

Eaters est un film qui s’inscrit dans la tradition des films de zombies italiens, un genre qui a connu son âge d’or dans les années 70 et 80, après le succès de Night of the Living Dead de George A. Romero. Ce renouveau du genre zombie par Ristori et Boni est une tentative de raviver une tradition cinématographique italienne qui avait été mise en veilleuse pendant des décennies.

Le pape s’est suicidé ce matin, il s’est tiré une balle dans la tête. Il a laissé comme message: ‘Je ne veux pas revenir’.

Female TV announcer

Written by Marco Ristori and Germano Tarricone, Eaters is without a doubt heavily influenced by zombie maestro George A. Romero’s classic Day of the Dead (1985). The military-like men and the scientist hiding in order to survive while trying to come up with some sort of solution, is very much reminiscent to the aforementioned Romero movie, but it actually works quite well and makes Eaters a more classical and pure zombie movie, unlike many other recent films in the genre, and it will most probably be especially appealing to fans of Romero’s zombie ideology and narrative style.

Opening with a great credit sequence showing various newscasts reporting of the great epidemic and ultimately telling us that the pope himself has just committed suicide, leaving a note saying “I do not want to come back”, the tone is set for what is to follow – a somber film about a world devastated by a fatal epidemic. I honestly thought this movie would be much like The Horde (La horde, Yannick Dahan, Benjamin Rocher, 2009) – an action packed fast paced tour de force of the undead. I was glad to find out I was wrong. Not because I don’t like movies like that, but simply because most of the newer zombie films makes far more use of bombastic action, rather than focusing the energy on the story and the human relationships. 

Eaters does hold its share of action and gore, but if one can see beyond that there’s much more to find. A large part of the film can be characterized as a road movie with Igor and Alen driving around from place to place encountering different people and of course plenty of zombies. The road movie element is a welcome addition and works so well because the driving scenes with Alen and Igor allows the audience to get closer to these two main characters and get to know them through their dialogue and interaction with each other. In addition I must mention the short but priceless scene, with Igor sitting in the passenger seat singing Wham’s “Wake me up before you go go”.

Another good element incorporated is the one concerning Alen and his beloved girlfriend Alexis who is being held captive in the research center because she carries the virus. We see Alen watch her on the surveillance monitor, longing for her and remembering their time together before the world was devastated by the Great Epidemic. This does not take up much of the movie, but it is still a strong element and an emotional dilemma that few newer zombie movies contain.

Fun facts for Italians: the pornographic film actor Francesco Malcom, famous in Italy for having played in more than 400 films over a 30-year career, plays the role of a guard. When the heroes leave the camp, he jokingly asks them if they don’t have a date with a beautiful survivor.

Technically the film is a beaut to behold. Shot in High Definition on the small but highly effective Canon Mark II D5 camera, Eaters looks like big-budget 35mm production with plenty of striking visuals making great use of close-ups, and holding a superb colorgrading. The special F/X make-up also needs to be mentioned as it is simply fantastic and the zombie designs are of the old school kind, once again with a respectful nod to Romero and Savini’s zombies in Day of the Dead.

Even though Eaters is in no way a masterpiece, nor particularly original, I’m still extremely fond of this little Italian zombie shocker, and I can honestly say that it’s one of the best zombie films I have seen in years, as it holds just about everything I love about the genre like desolate landscapes, solitude, despair and the constant feeling of insecurity. But most important it has a well told storyline, great dialogue and the classic Romero element with a handful of people bound together by the desire for survival. It’s not so much about the zombies, but about the human relationships between the survivors. Combine this with the fantastic F/X make-up, great locations, a fitting score and an overall heavy and gloomy atmosphere and you have a film that I believe most true zombie fans will eat right up.

DVD:

The DVD reviewed is a screener and therefore there are no special features or sound options included. the right thinking and application, it can definitely be a good beginning to start tackling them.

On the french version of the DVD distributed in Europe, there is an introduction by Uwe Boll, the making-of, a photo gallery, and several trailers. On this version, the name “Planet Zombie” is used instead of “Eaters”. The font and colors used on the cover desperately try to mimic those of the movie Zombieland released in 2009.