1X1 2 PART FIVE: ZOMBIE (2) (FLESH EATERS) (1979)

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ZOMBI 2

Guest sadist and host of the Blood and Popcorn podcast Erik W. Van Der Wolf joins the boys of TGTPTU with his 1x1 choice. On brand, it’s a horror film. On Van Der Wolf brand, it’s got gratuitous female nudity and Italians. That film that starts the final pairing of Season 17 is Lucio Fulci’s ZOMBI 2 (1979).* 

Staring store-brand Mia Farrow and at least one British actor who, due to the Video Nasties in England, was unable to see the film for years after its retitled release as Zombie Flesh-Eaters in the UK.** The flick begins and ends in New York City with permit-less guerrilla filmmaking, and while its gory middle occurs on a Caribbean island where a plague ship leads a reporter and daughter*** in search of the doctor/father (and boat owner) who has been White-manning on the island. The reporter and daughter’s search unites them with a White couple owning a boat and a underwater zombie and a shark, the latter two famously fight. Things go pear-shaped when another White woman on the island gets an up-close look at a jagged piece of wood and the outbreak of medical or mystical or who-cares origin brings back the dead, including conquistadors, while killing those infected, like the island’s population. The reporter-daughter pair, now likely a romantic couple at the end of the film, narrowly escape the plague island before returning to the archipelago of NYC where <<<spoiler>>> the Twin Towers still stand.****   

This ep, Erik tries to backdoor into the end of the recording an episode of his own podcast; Ryan finds a way to bring up Tarantino; Ken defends shaking fists and crying; and Thomas learns about the 1970s bra allergy pandemic.*****   

Next week brings Season 17 to a fortunate close with the return of Jack.   

FOOTNOTES:

*There is no Zombi 1. Yet. 

**In the U.S., the film was released as Zombie. In the Netherlands (hi, Shannon!), it was released in English as Zombie 2. 

***Two different characters played by actors, the former male and the latter female. 

****And zombies have overrun one of the city’s bridges. Oh, yeah, and there was a weird autopsy scene earlier in the film with a very condescending medical examiner. 

*****We’re trying something new in the show notes where I’m getting paid by the footnote. Hopefully this format pans out!!! †   

†Spoiler for next episode’s show notes: It will not. -Ken‡ 

‡Or will it? -Thomas  

THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.
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Ken: Ken Koral
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