RELEASE DATE: 1988
RATED: Unrated
REVIEWED BY: The DarkSider 11/10/07
Our film of voodoo and other nonsense begins with some kind of narration about death. All narration rules shall apply here obviously. This starts up the theme song which I think is called �Living After Death�. I�ve heard of zombie theme music but honestly, this attempt goes over and beyond the call of duty. It appears randomly throughout the film and quite frankly, its hard not to laugh at.
This gives way to a woman sporting a Chaka Khan-like haircut running around frantically. Joining her is a guy wearing a dark cloak chanting some voodoo or whatever. Meanwhile a bunch of people toting guns are running their way. Eventually, the voodoo priest is able to make a light appear out of nowhere which goes into spaz chick�s gullet. Apparently this upsets her tummy and she proceeds to throw up. Out of nowhere, she gets sucked into the ground and disappears.
Meanwhile the gun toting group meet up with the voodoo priest. Who are these numbskulls, scientists who are on an island researching odd phenomenon. Oh Christ, when will they not use that angle in an foreign zombie film? The voodoo priest talks of how he has sent his wife to hell. The leader of the group confronts the voodoo priest a bit more and the token trigger happy guy in the group proceeds to blow priest away. This causes the spaz chick from the opening to rise from hell and make a mess of everyone in group. On a side note, 5 minutes in hell apparently can cause one to get a rather fugly makeover.
Anyhow, the surviving members of the group bolt. Immediately the film switches to a mother, father and daughter running through the jungle. After a few Evil Dead rip off shots, the family stops to take a rest. The mother panics and says that they are about to die. Good job mom, comfort your daughter. Anyhow, this reigns true for the mother and father who are dispatched by a horde of zombies in cloaks. The daughter runs away with nothing more than a strange talisman hanging from her neck. Hmmm�we�ll probably have to gave a sh*t about that later.
So with most of the beginning film help ending up as dead, we have some fodder shoes to fill. Immediately (and the continuity of this will be trashed later) we get introduced to a group of ex-mercenaries who are traveling along side the island. They are low on gas (how convenient) and have a token screwed up chick named Jenny played by the late Candice Daly. She goes on and on about how she dreams about the island they�re passing (once again, how convenient) and that something is odd to her about it. Anyhow, long story short the group of misfits get stranded on the island.
Meanwhile, three more folks gets introduced named David, Chuck and Valerie. So I should say now that Chuck is played by a fellow named Jeff Stryker. Who is that you may ask? Well he has starred in films titled �Powertool� and �Every Which Way�. I don�t think I�ve seen any of his other �works� so to say and I doubt I will any time soon. Lets just say I�m an �exit only� kind of guy. Anyhow, these guys are wondering around looking for a cave�hehe�porn star, �looking for a cave�. Sorry�my 12 year old mentality is acting up again.
Meanwhile back to David�s group who find the cave they are searching for and set out to explore it. They come across their own circle of Satan and find a mysterious �book of the dead�. Oh Christ, here we go with the Evil Dead stuff again. Anyhow the group stupidly read from it and open an onslaught of zombies. Chuck makes it out alive as the rest of his group get gobbled up.
Back with the mercenaries who get assaulted by a zombie. Chuck somehow stumbles on the group and show them that you have to shoot them in the head. Thank you Mr. Chuck for pointing that out. Meanwhile back in the hospital, the group�s wounded member turns into a zombie and takes out another member. I apologize about not using names by the way. It just seems futile in a movie where people are killed quicker than they are introduced.
Once things settle down a bit, Chuck spills the beans on why he is there. Turns out David was leading him on a exposition to find out what happened to a scientist and his family years ago. So here is where the continuity of the film really screws itself. You see, Jenny is the little blonde girl from the beginning. Hence why she has the same talisman around her neck. I had to wonder though, couldn�t the director�s chair have hinted that the opening scenes were 20 years before the current story? I mean the way the scenes segued earlier it seems the event were happening a few minutes apart from each other. Oh well�past, present�this is all sucking to me.
So predictable stuff happens and before you know it Chuck and Jenny are left standing. They, for no apparent reason, stumble upon a house which they explore. More zombies attack and they escape into the safe haven of a graveyard. Um yeah, good move kids. Even more zombies attack and eventually they escape to the mouth of the cave Chuck ran from earlier in the film. Somehow they have time to take a nap and don�t get attacked (wtf???) in between.
So the huge climax results in utter confusion. Jenny reads from the book of the dead and it turns out she needs to sacrifice her soul to close the gate of hell. She chucks the talisman into the mouth of hell and it closes. However, Chuck gets his insides handed to him by a zombie and Jenny, well, she gets rather screwed up. The film ends with everyone pretty much dead and a few unanswered questions lingering over the viewers mind.
When it comes down to it, Zombie 4 is just simply a blah kind of Zombie film. It never really does anything new or interesting in the realm of undead films. Granted the gore is there but like I�ve said before, that doesn�t always make a good film.
On the bright side, I have to admit, I�ve never seen such agile zombies in a film . They pretty much leap around and cartwheel around their victims. This ends up as unintentionally funny and makes the viewing experience all the more goofier. That and the film has a zombie theme song.
Aside from that, it wasn�t the director�s worst work. Does the town of Nilbog sound familiar?
