Zombies: The Beginning (DVD Review) - Intervision Picture Corp

Italy/2007
Directed By: Bruno Mattei
Written By: Antonio Tentori, Giovanni Paolucci
Starring: Yvette Yzon, Alvin Anson, Paul Holme
Color/95 Minutes/Not Rated
Region 1
Release Date: February 10, 2015

The Film
Picking up right where Island Of The Living Dead left off, ZOMBIES: THE BEGINNING is the story of the lone survivor from the previous film. After being fired from her company after they didn't believe her tales of an uncharted island inhabited by flesh eating zombies the woman joins a monastery, the only place she could find any sort of peace after her horrible experiences have given her awful nightmares each and every night. She is approached by a company to find out the truth of what is really going on on that island. She joins a team of mercenaries armed to the teeth and quickly encounter all sorts of zombies and weird science experiments.

ZOMBIES: THE BEGINNING is a bit slower in starting and tougher to get comfortable with than its predecessor but once the action gets going its even more over the top and bizarre and just plain off the fucking wall than Island is. The medical experiments, the insane ripped off plot devices (and scenes, and stolen footage) just add to the sheer gold plated ridiculousness of the entire package.

This would end up being Bruno Mattei's swan song, his final film, and dammit, there's probably no better way he could have gone out. His legacy is perfectly summed up in this film. His legacy could be summed up nicely by most of his films but I digress... I'm not entirely sure what this movie was supposed to be "the beginning" of but it surely would have been some kind of spectacle if it surpassed this one. If you're at all a fan of schlocky, so bad they're good films or just really fucking like bloody and guts being thrown around you have to see this one.

The Audio & Video
Similar to their transfer of Island Of The Living Dead, Intervision Pictures delivers a nice looking DVD presentation of ZOMBIES: THE BEGINNING. The anamorphic widescreen transfer (1.78:1 aspect ratio) does a good job of showing off the digital photography. Colors look good and the picture is relatively sharp and detailed. This is likely the best this movie will ever look on home video. The English audio track is a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track that sounds crisp and clear with a solid mix. Dialogue is never lost and the score is never overbearing. There's no damage to speak of.

The Extras
-"Zombie Genisys" - featurette with writer Antonio Tentori
-Trailer

The Bottom Line
Another total schlock fest from Bruno Mattei made available uncut for the first time in America from Intervision gets the instant seal of approval. Go get it!

ZOMBIES: THE BEGINNING is available HERE

ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD (DVD Review) - Intervision Picture Corp

Italy/2006
Directed By: Bruno Mattei
Written By: Antonio Tentori, Bruno Mattei, Giovanni Paolucci
Starring: Yvette Yzon, Gaetano Russo, Alvin Anson
Color/97 Minutes/Not Rated
Region 1
Release Date: February 10, 2015

The Film
A group of treasure hunters wreck their ship on the coast of an uncharted island. While the mechanic tries to fix the boat (with all of those tools on board he should have no problem!) the rest of the group heads ashore to find food and water and scope out the island. Almost immediately they're attacked by hundreds year old zombies and must begin to fight for their survival. That fight gets a bit more difficult after the boat is overrun by zombies and explodes leaving them totally stranded. Things get stranger and stranger as their time on the island goes on until they set sail on a shoddy raft as their only hope.

ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD is exactly what you'd expect from a Bruno Mattei film. It's pure schlock. The man had no shame throwing 90 minutes of pure cheese, many times cheese that he ripped off from someone else, on the screen. I for one am thankful for this because some of my favorite movies are Bruno Mattei movies. ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD is now among them. In his penultimate film Mattei gives us splatter like hadn't seen out of Italy since the 80s. Blood and guts fly while zombie hordes fill the screen. The special effects are very good for the most part but some of the zombies have really fucking bad makeup. I guess that adds to the experience of watching this movie.

ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD is what it is. A movie to share with likeminded friends who enjoy this type of stuff. There's some legitimately good sequences including a ghost guitar that while random, is a creepy and cool visual. The movie only makes a little bit of sense really, as much as you need it to since some of the zombies are very interactive beyond just wanting to eat the living. It all adds up to an exceptionally entertaining time that will have you laughing while a bit grossed out and certainly smiling ear to ear.

The Audio & Video
Intervision Pictures' anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) transfer looks as good as you'd expect. This film was obviously filmed with digital photography so it lacks the richness and warmth of actual film but colors and details still look good. The various monster designs shine through as well as the substantial blood and gore. The image is clean and stable and for a standard DVD release it looks nice enough. The audio is a standard Dolby stereo track with an English dub from the actors. The track is clean and free of any damage and sounds very good overall.

The Extras
-"Bungle In The Jungle" - featurette featuring interviews with producer and long time friend of Bruno Mattei Giovanni Paolucci and writer Antonio Tentori
-International sales promo
-Trailer

The Bottom Line
If you're into splatterfests and/or schlocky over the top Italian horror romps you'll be doing yourself an injustice to pass over this release. Intervision has given this film its first ever uncut release in America and it's one I highly recommend.


ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD is available HERE

Mondo Cannibal (DVD Review) - Intervision

Italy/2004
Directed By: Bruno Mattei
Written By: Bruno Mattei, Giovanni Paolucci
Starring: Helena Wagner, Claudio Morales, Cindy Jelic Matic
Color/91 Minutes/Not Rated
Region 1
Release Date: November 11, 2014

The Film
A famous news reporter's network is on the verge of shutting down due to poor ratings when she gets the station and co-workers on board with a story that will take them into the heart of the jungle to a do a story on a tribe of cannibals. The story isn't juicy enough and the news group quickly takes advantage of their situation by faking stories, and terrorizing the natives by killing and raping them until the native tribe fights back.

I'm a big fan of cannibal and jungle horror films. I can overlook quite a bit of bullshit in them and simply enjoy their excess of gore, nudity and explicit content but there's just not a good movie hiding underneath the surface of MONDO CANNIBAL. This is a lazy and totally unexceptional jungle horror film that is weak and low rent even for Bruno Mattei standards. It looks cheap, it feels cheap and beyond that it is an obvious ripoff of every other cannibal horror film, even one done a year earlier by Mattei himself. It's more than a bit disappointing.

MONDO CANNIBAL is weaker than I could have ever hoped and certainly meets the lowest expectations I could imagine for an early 21st century cannibal horror film. There's some graphic content full of gore and sex that does give the film a bit of splatter factor including a forced C-Section that is rather nasty that gore hounds may enjoy but overall MONDO CANNIBAL isn't a good film.

The Audio & Video
Intervision gives MONDO CANNIBAL its North American debut on DVD with a 4x3 full frame transfer that maintains the film's original aspect ratio. The digital photography is middle of the road material. It looks decent but far from great or "film like". Sharpness is good and color reproduction is solid. Overall this early 2000s production takes advantage of cheaper production techniques and manages to look decent despite not being a truly proper aspect ratio. The 2.0 English audio track is a dub track, as the movie didn't record live sound. The track mixing is fine and while the audio is nothing special it gets the job done.

The Extras
A trailer for the film is the lone extra.

The Bottom Line
I'm a huge fan of jungle and cannibal horror and consider the Italian cannibal cycle one of my favorite cycles of film but MONDO CANNIBAL is simply a very weak film that I suggest only the biggest fans of the genre check out. 

MONDO CANNIBAL is available HERE

In The Land Of The Cannibals (DVD Review) - Intervision

Italy/2003
Directed By: Bruno Mattei
Written By: Bruno Mattei, Giovanni Paolucci
Starring: Claudio Morales, Lou Randall, Cindy Jelic Matic
Color/93 Minutes/Not Rated
Region 1
Release Date: November 11, 2014

The Film
A team of commandos head into the jungles of Brazil to rescue a politician's daughter who has been kidnapped by a cannibal tribe deep within. This team of hotheaded stereotypes joins up with a couple of locals including a guide and a man that looks to have been a person of a jungle tribe at one time or another. The teams heads in to the jungle armed to the teeth with a prisoner of their own to lead them to the tribe but quickly find that all of the combat training and automatic rifles in the world couldn't prepare them for the horrors found in these jungles.

IN THE LAND OF THE CANNIBALS is a modern day piece of sleaze that is straight out of the late 70s/early 80s cannibal film cycle that quickly rose to prominence in Italy. Filmed in the Philippines, Mattei uses his location to his advantage getting some great location shots, despite not really showing anything inherently terrifying about the jungles such as snakes, spiders or other dangerous wildlife until later in the film. The first half of the film not only feels like, but is a cheap retread of Cannibal Holocaust, undoubtedly the king of cannibal exploitation. Ruggero Deodato's classic scenes are ripped off one by one and I counted no less than a half dozen such scenes until I finally gave up and just watched the rest of the movie. I wouldn't say it hurt the film as IN THE LAND OF THE CANNIBALS isn't a particularly strong film either way, but it certainly made you realize just how cheap this movie really is.

Bruno Mattei is no stranger to cheap movies. Many of his films have ripped off far more impressive films in one way or another but that doesn't make me less of a fan. It just shows an exploitation filmmaker being exploitative, for better or worse. It almost gives me a laugh thinking about it. IN THE LAND OF THE CANNIBALS is pretty action packed however, with plenty of shoot outs, gory cannibal corpses, and all of the classic tropes of the genre you'd expect. Yes, even a snake meets its maker at one point which is a bit upsetting as this isn't the 1970s anymore when it could be argued that it would be a bit more acceptable. I'm not one to get up in arms about the animal cruelty in these types of cannibal horror films and I'll go as far as saying I think watching Cannibal Holocaust with the "Cruelty Free" version is sacrilege but those were different times in different circumstances. I highly doubt the cast of this film ate the snake that was brutalized in this film. If I'm wrong so be it.

Alas, that is the type of film we're dealing with. IN THE LAND OF THE CANNIBALS is nothing more than cheap entertainment at its best, a ripoff of better films and the going for the wrong side of exploitation filmmaking but I can't say I didn't enjoy it for what it was- cheap, sleazy and of questionable nature.

The Audio & Video
This movie was shot on decent quality digital cameras that seem to be a bit above typical consumer level cameras of the time but nothing I'd venture to call "professional level" equipment. Intervision Picture Corp. has released the debut DVD in a 1.33:1 full frame aspect ratio that seems to be the original filming aspect ratio. The picture has a good sharpness to it taking in to consideration the equipment used along with solid detail levels and color representation. It certainly isn't film but I can't really complain about the PQ too much. The audio track, a 2.0 English dub track as Mattei didn't film with live sound,  which is probably for the best, sounds good with no background noise or audio hiccups (obviously). A live audio track would have meant dealing with all of the distractions present while filming and the Italian film industry classically didn't film with live sound so I think of it as a nice little throwback to the heyday of these cannibal films.

The Extras
A trailer for the film is the lone extra.

The Bottom Line
This cheap ripoff of classic exploitation does hold some value as time wasting entertainment. It provides enough gore and guts to satisfy the appetites of fans of the messy stuff. Recommended for die hard fans of jungle horror.

IN THE LAND OF THE CANNIBALS is available HERE