Horror is driven by imitation, and there was no better rip-off artist than Lucio Fulci. The Italian schlock-shock maestro built a career nibbling from other, better movies. But perennial favorite Zombie stands as the director’s splatter masterpiece. The 1979 film was originally marketed as Zombi II in an effort to ride the laurels of George A. Romero’s opus Dawn of the Dead (called Zombi in Italy). There’s little innovation in Zombie, but there is an extended underwater fight between a zombie and a shark, and one of the most excruciating eyeball impalements in history—two scenes that put the “nasty” in video nasty. When it comes to inventively gross violence, fans of imitation should accept no imitations. Hollywood Theatre. 9:30 pm Friday-Saturday, Oct. 21-22.
- Best paired with: Laurelwood Free Range Red.
- Also showing: Attack the Block (Laurelhurst), From Dusk Till Dawn (Academy).
