ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS 3 (ITALY/1988/CLAUDIO FRAGASSO)

The bizarrely disconnected Zombie Flesh Eaters ‘franchise’ continues with this extraordinarily camp instalment. We start the film on a mysterious island midway through an underground voodoo invocation, a hooded priest chanting as a Diana Ross lookalike whirls about in frenzy. The process is interrupted by a team of researchers armed with machine guns, but as soon as one of them shoots the priest, the dead are brought to life as zombies, and the only survivor of the ensuing carnage is young Jenny, who had come to the island with her scientist parents. Many years later, Jenny returns with a band of soldiers in the hopes of finding out what happened to her parents, but fortuitous interference from a group of unrelated hikers leads the island to be repopulated by the undead, and Jenny is left to fight the forces which had taken her family from her before.

This is perhaps the most serious of the Zombie Flesh Eaters films, and thus the least enjoyable. The voodoo theme makes for an interesting set-up, but it’s quickly forgotten once the special effects team get the opportunity to show off their skills. And boy do they show ’em off... within the first fifteen minutes, a character gets his eyeball pulled out, then a series of zombie fingernails scratches off the rest of his face. But the film has little to offer asides from senseless gruesomeness, mind-numbingly poor acting (the cast features a renowned gay porn star) and the tackiest score in recent memory.