I also prefer City and The Beyond,but it's still a gore classic IMO.

You may find yourself in a minority Ven.....:lol:

To be honest it is the ONLY zombie-themed film (i think of City of the living dead more of demon-themed as the undead do not really act as stereotyped zombies do) that unsettled me and i would classify as horror. The first 40 minutes are slow, but overall it gets faster to a climax, unlike Dawn of the living dead which people say is the greatest, but i think of as action rather than horror.

I especially like this opinion because it's probably the most true one I've read about zombies and their appearance in movies, nice to read your say.

I'd have to say if I first saw Zombie 2 now I would be majorly disappointed. Fortunately I saw it at a movie theater in college in the early 1980s. The theater was fairly empty which added to the atmosphere, except for a couple that stupidly brought their middle school-aged kids with them. My friend and I were blown away at the gore scenes so the story line only had to be borderline. The underwater scene with the hottie and the shark were like nothing seen before. During the eyeball splinter scene one of the kids in front of us literally got up and ran out of the theater vomiting in his hands. It was one of those great "at the theater" horror movie experiences branded forever in my mind, along with Alien, Psycho, The Exorcist, Night of the Living & Dawn of the Dead, etc.......It's why I love this genre!!

I love Zombie 2/Zombie Flesh Eaters simply because it brings back memories of getting my videos from "under the counter" in my local shop. The owner was sympathetic to my bloodthirsty needs. I think he rented more "under the counter/banned titles" than he did regular ones. lol
Anyway, there was a sense of rebellion watching that then which is missing now because we're "allowed" to see it. Although, the scene of the zombie rising from the grave, his whole head rotted but the shoulders are completely fine and decay free, still cracks me up.

I've long been a big fan of Fulci's work and I adore ZFE. But, again, as with others here, there's probably a bit of a nostalgia thing going on with that. However, ZFE's long term impact on horror cannot be underestimated. Whereas Romero's zombies were pale blue-faced creations, Fulci's zombies are worm-infested and rotting monstrosities. And I have no doubt that this had an impact on the zombie genre - I mean, can you recall ANY film prior to ZFE that featured zombies like that?

Saying all that, each to their own. Different things affect different people. If we were all the same it'd be well boring. I like it when people make contentious statements, it gets everyone thinking and generates interesting discussion. ;)

As a piece of cinema it is certainly a lesser work than The Beyond or City Of The Living Dead, but it has phenomenal verve and I find it carries one along most effectively with its flaws easy to ignore in the grander scheme of things.

There is no question Fulci is a major force in the history of horror. His over-the-top gore by way of the FX maestro, Giannetto De Rossi, set the course for so much of the 80s and 90s horror along with the American contingent of Romero, Savini, etc. I will always prefer the brooding slow moving zombies from the Fulci and early Romero films as I found it more creepy and other worldly. Fulci and many other European horror directors always seemed ahead of their American counter parts when it came to grisly FX with details such as the rotting corpses, flies and maggots, etc. It always seemed more real to me. So for movies made around 30 years ago (Zombi 2, The Beyond, City of) they still visually pack a punch.

Zombie flesh eater is IMMENSE, the eyeball scene, the shark scene, the totally AWFUL acting. its amazing...it sure as hell aint no romero but its a classic in my eyes (pun intended)

ZOMBIE 2 is an amazing film, not just for the gore but i think that the sheer look of the zombies themselves add to the graphic / gothic style that this film has and prooves that you don't need cgi to create certain effects when a bit of thought can go into it to create realistic and impressive effects without the help of a computer(boring) so not a disappointing film at all but to me a major winner,can't wait for the blu ray edition :woot::clap::rockon: