Horror Movie Review: Zombie Creeping Flesh (1980)

Zombie Creeping Flesh is a zombie horror directed by Bruno Mattei (under a different name) & released in 1980. It is a cheap rip-off of George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead and the only memorable thing about it is the horrendous dialogue, most of which is dubbed.

You might also know the movie under it’s other titles, Hell of the Living Dead & Night of the Zombies. It’s probably most famous for being one of the 72 video nasties within the UK in the 80s.

“What’s the matter? Disappointed? Sorry, boys! I guess I’m not on the menu after all! Ha, ha, ha, don’t let it worry ya! I figure we’ll all meet again… in hell!”

The movie begins in a laboratory that is in Papua New Guinea. At this lab the scientists are working on feeding underdeveloped countries but an errant rat causes a chemical leak. This transforms the workers into flesh-eating zombies.

Elsewhere a group of crack commandos deal with a hostage situation then head back to the lab believing that it has been attacked by terrorists. Once they arrive back in the country they run into a journalist & her cameraman who tell them about the zombie outbreak.

Forced to head into the jungle, the group must work together to survive the increasing hordes of undead.

Zombie Creeping Flesh is a mess of a film, one with a sub-text regarding third world hunger that falls extremely flat. Its plot is all over the place with very little making sense & the most forgettable characters. None of that is helped by the poor acting & atrocious dialogue.

“Bastards! Filthy jackals! Look at them, look at THAT! They’re eatin’ him like PIGS! Goddamned rotten ghouls!”

The film has plenty of gore as you would expect but it’s nothing that wasn’t being done by many other horrors in the 80s. The most memorable moment being an eyeball squishing scene near the end.

Easily the most blatant attempt to copy Dawn of the Dead, it unashamedly copies the bleak style that made Romero’s work such a classic. The major difference here being that Dawn is a quality piece of film-making while this has zero charm.

Getting to the end credits is a chore, if you manage it you won’t feel satisfied or entertained in the slightest.

“Experimental project Operation: Sweet Death must be considered a complete failure. Some kind of degenerated process has begun which may be catastrophic for everybody. May God forgive us… for what we have produced here and… pardon us for this evil.”

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