Zombi series
Directed by Claudio Lattanzi and Joe D’Amato
Reviewed by Deep Red
AKA Zombie 5: Killing Birds, Killing Birds: Raptors, Dark Eyes of the Zombie, Raptors, Killing Birds, L’attaque des morts-vivants (Attack of the Undead)…
Italian zombie film that starts with a soldier, Fred Brown, returning home and finding his wife in bed with another man. He kills them both and then kills his parents who walk in on him but spares his baby. A falcon, they keep birds, then tears out one of his eyes.
Years later a group of students looking for a rare bird, the ivory-billed woodpecker, travel to see one of the last three people to have seen it; the now older Dr. Fred Brown (Robert Vaughn).
The students go in search of the woodpecker but find an abandoned truck with a rotting corpse in it. They then find the house where Brown committed the murders and decide to use it as a base.
I like this film. I like the cast; OK, the acting is pretty bad but it is Zombie Flesh Eaters 4. I like the fact it’s serious in tone. It was filmed in Louisiana and it looks pretty good throughout. It’s not the goriest zombie film I’ve seen but it has a pretty good atmosphere and it has its moments when it comes to effects and imagery. The soundtrack’s good, adds to the atmosphere well.
There’s absolutely no point in looking at this film as a sequel to Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979) aka Zombi 2 directed by Lucio Fulci as it’s only connected to that by name, this is Killing Birds, its own film, but for what it is I’m quite fond of it.
Also stars Lara Wendel as Anne, Timothy W. Watts as Steve, Leslie Cumming as Mary, James Villemaire as Paul, Lin Gathright as Jennifer, James Sutterfield as Rob and Sal Maggiore as Brian.
