EATERS - ZOMBIE PLANET

The world – devastated by the Great Epidemic – is governed by hordes of living dead. Locked in a fortress that has been turned into a research center and shelter, three men – zombie hunters Igor (Alex Lucchesi) and Alen (Guglielmo Favilla) and the scientist Gyno (Claudio Marmugi) – are trying to find an answer to what has happened to the human race. Gyno experiments his theories on the zombies given to him by Igor and Alen who believe that Gyro is looking for a treatment for the virus in order to save not only the world but also Alexis (Rosella Elmi), Alen’s girlfriend, a healthy carrier of the virus. But in reality Gyno is trying to give life to a new race of human-dead.

Alen and Igor leave for two days of hunting to find new ‘guinea-pigs’ for Gyno and during their trip, they meet the most varied characters: a crazy painter, a group of neo-Nazis, and a mysterious girl who is the daughter of the feared man called the Plague-Spreader, supposed craftsman of the epidemic. During their return to the fortress, they soon find out about Gyno’s diverted experiments and what he has done to Alen’s girlfriend Alexis, rendering a final confrontation with Gyno inevitable.

The 1970s and the early 80s Italy produced a high number of zombie movies such as 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) and Hell of the Living Dead (Virus, Bruno Mattei, 1980) just to name a few. But since then the undead completely disappeared from Italian horror cinema – until now that is, because directors Marco Ristori and Luca Boni has brought the Italian zombies back to life with their new feature film Eaters.

The Pope committed suicide this morning,
by shooting himself in the head: he left a message:
‘I don’t want to return’.
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.