Oh boy, do the stories go around about this, and the blame with that. According to credited director Lucio Fulci he started directing it from a script by Claudio Fragasso. However, Fulci threw half of the script out the door and thus ended up with a movie only about an hour long. According to himself he then left the production because he was dissatisfied with Fragasso, whom he called "a natural born cretin", and was replaced by Bruno Mattei. Another persisting rumour insists that Fulci left because of his bad health, though the rumour that he was asked to leave because he had began to look and behave like a zombie himself, so much that no one could no longer tell the difference between him and the real zombies, has never been confirmed. Anyway, according to both Fulci and Mattei, the latter shot about 35 minutes of new footage to complete the around 65-70 minutes of footage that Fulci had already done. Further on, in order to make the movie comprehensible Mattei had to edit out another 15 minutes or so from Fulci's footage, which was considered incomprehensible, not to forget too long. This is why some of the actors, like Luciano Pigozzi, was edited out of the picture totally but still gained credit. There is a "director's cut" circulating among bootleggers, claiming to contain Fulci's original vision. To my eyes it's almost exactly the same old version previously released, apart from a new prologue attached before the credits and maybe some other thing.

Anyhow, it doesn't really matter who made what. Although, again according to themselves, the incredible flying zombie head in the fridge (must be seen to be believed) is Fulci's creation while the opening stealing of the virus and the bird attack are definitely Mattei's. Many of the names involved in the production are also old Mattei war-horses. Claudio Fragasso has written and co-directed for Mattei for ages, actors Richard Raymond and beardy Alex McBride were both in Rats and Strike Commando 2 and several other Mattei efforts while cinematographer Riccardo Grassetti also framed Strike Commando 2 and Robowar and so on. Actually it all feels like it was always a Mattei film from start to finish. Treat it like that and you will at least not get disappointed. Zombi 3 rocks and it rolls but also almost qualify as the worst Italian zombie film ever made. Oh yes, make no mistake about that, it's crap from start to finish. But that doesn't mean it's all bad. It may be incomprehensible, stoopid, all over the map and not at all like the original Zombi 2, but, honestly, we've all seen crappier zombie movies than this. There's at least a a handful of memorable set-pieces and sequences of over-the-top fun to treassure for the patient. Especially cool is the extremely frisky and spasmodic macheta-swinging zombie who almost manage to kill off Beatrice Ring at a gas-station (he's torched, so relax). Add to that tons of green slime and gut-munching mayhem courtesy of Franco Di Girolami, shoot-outs and a zombie breaking out of a pregnant woman's belly. Ultimately though, Fulci admirers most likely have Zombi 3 in their collection for complementary reasons only while Mattei fans have it for other reasons for which there are professional help available if seeking in time.

© The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.