Customer Reviews

Revenge of the Living Zombies (aka Flesheater)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I gave this one 3 stars and looking back, its probably more than the film deserved except I had such a good time watching it. In all areas, it was technically awfull. Bad acting, bad camera work, bad sound, bad picture...but it was redeemed by its over the top gore. This one went full out. The stuff looks amateur and thus, there was no fear factor involved. But it was sure fun to look at. When i say there is really no story, i am not kidding here. The body count in this one is higher than any movie i've seen.There is no central character here. Except perhaps the head zombie (and lo! its the guy from the original night of the living dead! props to that!). Each character exists only long enough to get a few screams in before a zombie starts eating.
It starts in a farmers field or something. A box is opened and out pops a zombie. He kills. The rest of the people there get killed. They turn to zombies. Then a nice family is established. Then they all get killed. Enter more meat! A party in a barn. Zombies crash the party. Everyone dies. And on and on and on.
If you like your zombie films cheap, gory and to hell with the plot..you will like this. Also known as zombie nosh.

When George Romero unleashed "Night of the Living Dead" on filmgoers back in the late 1960s, the world sat up and took notice. Well, some people did, mostly horror fans who thought the idea of disintegrating corpses coming back to life to take a bite out of the living sounded like a gift from heaven. I know I think it's a grand idea. Anyway, enough people expressed enough excitement about Romero's little black and white monstrosity that the filmmaker decided to make another movie a few years later called "Dawn of the Dead." Whoo, lordy! This little number really cemented the idea of zombies in the popular consciousness as well as made George Romero a legend in the horror world. Several more years would pass before Romero returned with "Day of the Dead," a gory conclusion to this Dead Trilogy (until his recent "Land of the Dead" hit theaters, that is). Good old George Romero. His films inspired a slew of imitations, both here and abroad, all loaded with bloody carnage. Some of these imitations, like Lucio Fulci's "Zombie," are pretty enjoyable. Most, however, fall far below the bar established by Mr. Romero. For example, take Bill Hinzman's 1988 film "Revenge of the Living Zombies," aka "Flesheater," aka "Zombie Nosh," aka "What a ripoff!"

Hinzman's claim to fame is a rather tenuous one; he played the cemetery zombie in Romero's "Night of the Living Dead." He's obviously trying to cash in on that fleeting moment of glory with "Flesh Eater." Problem is, this isn't the sort of film with which one would try to acquire glory. It starts promisingly enough (*snickers*) as we see a gang of teens heading out into the woods for an all-night hayrack ride. It's Halloween, you see, and kids can take hayrack rides in the woods while getting blasted on booze. Unfortunately, some farmer out in the woods is pulling stumps out of the ground with his tractor when he uncovers a funky looking crypt with all sorts of wording on it that basically says, "OPEN THIS AND DIE!" So what does Farmer Brown do? He pulls the lid off the casket! Inside is a pasty-faced gent (Hinzman, of course) who promptly rises out of the ground to feed on the surprised farmer. Well, just as in nearly all other zombie films, those attacked and killed by a card carrying member of the undead corps soon rise from the ground to wreak their own brand of bloody havoc on the living. Hinzman and the newly enlisted farmer track down the kids in the forest for some gut munchin' fun. A couple of the lads and lasses fall, but the rest flee to a nearby farmhouse to make their final stand. Fun, eh?

Two of the kids, Bob (John Mowod) and Sally (Leslie Ann Wick), soon escape the deathtrap that is the farmhouse and spend the rest of the film running through a countryside populated by an increasing number of zombies. I feel sorry for the people they meet up with because no sooner do Bob and Sally arrive on the scene than a few flesheaters drop by to rip and tear the living to shreds. It soon becomes apparent that Bob and Sally are the equivalent of couple of adolescent grim reapers, bringing death and destruction to the living with seeming impunity. To their credit, the two attempt to warn everyone they come in contact with that the world has gone haywire, but no one believes them until they feel sharp teeth on their necks and hear the growls of the living dead in their ears. No one is safe from the flesheaters, not the folks living in the countryside or the ones living in town. Women especially suffer the most egregious indignities at the hands of the zombies as the undead in this movie simply cannot restrain themselves from tearing open all these poor girls' shirts. Anyway, farmers discover what's happening and form armed posses to dispatch the zombies with extreme prejudice. The film ends on an utterly tragic yet utterly predictable note.

I did enjoy a few things in "Flesh Eater." Hinzman's zombie is a rather menacing presence even though we see him so much the impact wears off quickly. Too, the gore is great in a few scenes, especially the part where Hinzman performs some abdominal surgery--sans anesthetic--on a shrieking lass in a barn. It's over the top gross in the best way possible! But these few pluses quickly sink under phenomenally bad acting (check out those kids partying in the woods), dumb dialogue, and sloppy editing. The worst crime, and truly an unforgivable one at that, is the shameless cribbing from Romero's "Night of the Living Dead." Since George knows Hinzman and probably likes him, perhaps he forgives such an obvious case of plagiarism. I, however, am under no such constraints. Entire scenes lifted out of NOTLD appear here as though they're original concepts. Sorry Bill, but most of the audience for this film has likely seen Romero's first film and will quickly recognize what's going on. Maybe you could've gotten George to do a "George Romero presents..." lead-in for the film? Might as well acknowledge where you got most of your material.

The Media Blaster's Shriek Show DVD of "Flesh Eater" contains more extras than you would think. A huge number of stills grace the disc. We also get a lengthy interview with Hinzman and a chap involved in the crafting of the special effects. Not bad for such a low rent flick. Perhaps I'm being a bit hard on the film; I did appreciate the amount of sauce spraying all over the place, and the babes in birthday suits didn't hurt, either. I think I'll give "Flesh Eater" three stars, which acknowledges the film's derivative qualities while giving it some props for the gore. It's still difficult to recommend this in the same breath as any Romero zombie film, however.

After 20 minutes of viewing this feature, you may be inclined to discontinue. However, what you want is not far off, so hang in there.

The horrendous acting will not improve, but the three basic 'elements' will. Any horror enthusiast will tell you that this type of film needs to offer something significant in each of the G, T & A categories: Gore, and well, T & A. You were not here to discover a lost gem of cinematic brilliance, just get your G, T & A rocks off, no?

What starts off as low budget trash with cheap candy-coated gore and one bare chest scene evolves to markedly improved (and plentiful) gore sequences and full nudity to boot.

Hey, it's still low budget trash, but the kind of trash you wouldn't mind rummaging through to find that awol saw buck.

DVD includes trailers, an odd pizza commercial, a documentary, the complete soundtrack & score with stills.

I suppose if you're reading this review, you know what you're getting into. We all know well the misadventures of one Bill Hinzman, the original (get it straight, kid, he's the original) zombie from Night of the Living Dead. If you don't, I'll catch you up: Bill Hinzman one day realized that he wasn't getting his due. Romero had moved on to bigger and better things, and Russo had moved on to...well, things. So one day he thinks, "Why not me? I was the face of the living dead, was I not? I, Bill Hinzman, am the iconic figure in the graveyard! Where is my credit? Where is MY sequel?"

So Romero got his Dawn, Russo got his Return. This is what Hinzman gave us.

I guess I could identify the myriad number of problems with this film, be it the poor acting, the crazy-person babble that is the script, and the obvious (shameless) aping of plot points from NOTLD. Instead, I'll point out something obvious and genius about this film.

Hinzman wrote this film entirely for one purpose. Not simply to outdo his former cohorts. No, too easy. Too focused, perhaps. Hinzman wrote this film around the idea that it would allow him to cop a feel or two, good and legal-like, provided it occurs between a consenting "actress" and a "desperate actor/writer/director/producer/hack" in the friendly confines of a "film set," and it's simply "in the script, baby" because "the writer put it there" because "I'm the writer" so "I'm going to go ahead and grab your chest while I pretend to bite your neck in this scene." This is Hinzman's way of recapturing the youth, the youth he tries so desperately to re-recapture with eight pounds of wrinkle hiding make-up a decade or so later in Russo's horribly ill-advised Night of the Living Dead 30th Anniversary Edition.

Then of course, there is the other thirteen minutes of people who are barely considered attractive, even by eighties standards, making out by trees and in barns. There are girls dancing in the woods, voices dubbed in to make it sound as though the boys are instructing their girls to keep up that dancing "all night long," lazy receptionists, guys who drive tractors, an eight year old with a hobo beard, and what may or may not be a babysitter who takes an unnecessarily long shower and is promptly eaten and felt up by Bill Hinzman. But wait, there's more. Most of it is Bill Hinzman, though.

I can't recommend this movie to anyone. Even if you're plumbing the very depths of your unintentional-comedy-with-zombie-movie-tropes barrel. I know you want cheap laughs. But at what cost? Twenty-five bucks new? Naw, man. If you absolutely have to, getcha a used copy. I've gotten some laughs out of it. But I'm not condoning it. What you do in your home is your own business.

Sure, this movie has poor, poor production values, the dubbing (even though it's in English) is atrocious, the dialogue a joke, the plot none-existent, but so what?

I'm not saying this is a great movie, it's just okay. There's some nudity and plenty of gore, but other than that, if you're looking for more, forget it.

I think Hinzman took himself a bit too seriously though, the commentary track is boring--he put me to sleep!

Rent it if you can first; I only bought it because it was a good childhood memory to re-live.

Favorite quote: "These zombies are about to kill my a*$!"

"Flesheater" (aka "Revenge of the Living Zombies" and "FleshEater: Revenge of the Living Dead") is a late 1980s ultra-cheap zombie flick filmed in an around Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. The auteur responsible is Bill Hinzman, who horror aficionados will recognize immediately as the lead zombie from George Romero's revolutionary "Night of the Living Dead," the zombie movie that almost all others have emulated since its release. I watched the extras for "Flesheater" and Hinzman is very candid about taking the character from that film, altering him enough to avoid lawsuits, and basing this movie on that character. Let's be clear, though, it's not a sequel (it doesn't have the budget,) it's more an homage, but a very derivative one. Hinzman says he got the idea when he went to a sci-fi convention and he was so recognized that he thought he should star in a movie of his own making.

The film itself is amateurish and features loads of padding, cheesy acting, a plot that only marginally makes sense (of course, it is a zombie movie, so my hopes were not high,) and some great 1980s fashions and hair. Hinzman actually looks reasonably creepy, and the simple makeup is effective; the issue is that he's onscreen so much in so many places that it gets very monotonous very quickly. Pacing is not the movie's strong suit. The film opens with teenagers on a hayride and camping excursion (that's certainly an original plotpoint in a horror film...) and a property owner pulling a stump out of the forest with a tractor. (Who pulls a stump out of the ground in the middle of a forest?) The farmer and the kids reach a peaceful coexistence after some conflict that was wholly unnecessary to the plot. I want to single out Eddie (James J. Rutan) as one of the most annoying characters ever onscreen; I was praying for his removal from the cast to be the first. I was not so lucky.

The discovery of Hinzman is quick, and his mission of zombification is even quicker. This results in no end of running through the woods (in a later plot twist it turns to running through fields,) accompanied by omnipresent synthesized music that reminded me of a medley of the background music from "Pod People" and "The Exorcist." The constant music just contributed to the tedium of the film for me. The score itself isn't bad, it is just overused.

While the film is mostly just another undistinguished zombie flick, there are moments of low budget badness that are hard to ignore. The teens are cornered in an old farmhouse and call the worst 911 operator in history (Terrie Godfrey.) This scene stands out for being the worst acted, directed, and scripted in the entire film. Annoying Eddie starts nailing wood over all the doors and windows, which leads me to two points: first, in a zombie movie do we really need more carpentry scenes than an episode of "This Old House;" and second, is it wise to nail yourself into a house with a zombie victim (and future zombie) inside the house with you? Decisions like that show why Eddie's in charge. As zombie mayhem spreads, Hinzman introduces more characters to be devoured. Sadly most of these involve more teenagers at a Halloween barn dance where drunken morose vampires casually mingle with frat boys in chicken suits. It's rare to see a scene combining a chicken suit and a meat hook, but since the party goes on way too long (more padding) I was willing to take any resolution possible. The sheriff gets involved and a media panic ensues (the media angle is actually pretty ineptly entertaining,) while roving bands of rednecks with guns start wandering the countryside looking for zombies to shoot. Two of the teens manage to survive the wrath of the zombies, only to be mown down by the militia. It's just as well after hearing their saccharine whining about wanting to elope to Tampa and have children. Now that's screenwriting genius!

Ultimately the zombies are hunted to extinction (or are they?) and for some reason the sheriff decides to burn down a barn. I was never really clear on this, as the zombies were never confined in that barn. If I had to guess, Hinzman had a barn he could burn down and so he did. It was the most interesting scene of the movie, though, so I suppose that was a good directorial choice. As the sheriff sifts through the remains of the barn, I will not tell you what he discovers (like I have to) other than to say it leads to a prompt and predictable conclusion, opening up sequel opportunities. (Just say no, Bill.)

Truthfully this is a fairly average zombie movie: the acting is worse than many (but better than some,) but the script and pacing really drag down any appraisal of the film as a whole. The "making of" documentary (which is around 40 minutes long) with Hinzman and others central to the production was more interesting for me than the movie itself. It does seem that the film is a clear attempt to exploit Hinzman's 15 minutes of fame from "Night of the Living Dead" (Hinzman discusses that at length,) but beyond the film being derivative in many ways, it does seem that Hinzman tried to be a real writer and director here, though with mixed success. I thought Hinzman's presence onscreen was creepy and had the potential to be scary (if the movie the performance was in had been stronger,) but his performance behind the camera was a real detractor. The film needed to be slimmed down: there was way too much padding to keep it interesting. The "making of" feature itself was over-long, and I wondered if this was a trend.

There is a lot of gore in the movie; most of it is not exceptionally scary (the heart removal scene is interesting, and the discussion of it in the "making of" feature is a highlight.) Despite my relative lack of enthusiasm for "Flesheater," Hinzman seems like a nice guy who simply wanted to make a movie capitalizing on his screen image from years ago. I have no issues with independent filmmakers taking old ideas and remaking them into new and interesting pictures, but my problem here is that "Flesheater" simply isn't that interesting. I would recommend it to horror or zombie die-hards and fans of "Night of the Living Dead," but for most others it's a fairly boring B-movie with not a lot to recommend it other than the appearance of its Zombie-in-Chief.

You know, I feel kinda sorry for Bill Hinzman. When I watch this film and the dreadful 30th Anniversary of Night of the Living Dead, my heart really goes out to the guy coz he obviously wants so badly to be a big horror icon. We all know Hinzman has the honor of being the very first flesh eating zombie introduced to movie going audiences(and also the fastest moving), and it's this angle he is constantly trying to exploit(of course we can't forget The Majorettes either), and it usually ends up getting him flak as he's always using it in projects that are considered to be spitting on George Romero's legacy. Of course if you ask me, 98% of the zombie films that come out today are the ones that really spit on his legacy.
I know I'm in the minority, and I know it's sinful, but I enjoyed this movie. I'm sorry, it's true. Even if it wasn't a blatant ripoff of NOTLD, I realize the film is so amateurish, cheap and all out lame that I shouldn't like it anyway. But what can I say? I do.
So here we go: Partying teens on Halloween take a hayride out on a farm, farmer discovers Hinzman's coffin, opens it and releases Hinzman on the world, zombie army starts to grow, partying teens are killed off except for two lovers, two lovers flee and try to warn people in town, zombies invade town and kill everyone they can get their hands on, Hinzman gropes a lot of boobs, law enforcement organize search and destroy mission, movie ends in NOTLD fashion(even using Vince Survinski once again, who has a funny in-joke line). It actually sounds more upscale than it really is. It's very cheap and very ridiculous, and totally unapologetic. A decent amount of gore too, though not quite as much as you may have heard.
The DVD has an interview with Hinzman and the FX artist. Hinzman is totally guiltless about this project, and in a way I think that's kinda cool. Only kinda.
Stuff like this won't earn Hinzman the status he's going for, but like I said, I liked it.

Zombie Nosh (S. William Hinzmann, 1988)

Ever since Bill Hinzmann, whom any casual horror fan is very familiar with, stopped working with George Romero in the mid-seventies, his career in film has been tenuous at best. In the mid-eighties, he attempted a directorial career, starting off with a messy adaptation of John Russo's The Majorettes and ending with Zombie Nosh (aka Flesh Eater), a sort of alternative sequel to, or remake of (or both), Night of the Living Dead. Hinzmann's best-known role is, of course, as the original zombie in Night of the Living Dead, and he reprises that role here.

It's some time later (say, twenty years?), and unlike in Romero's world, the rednecks at the end of Night did the job pretty well, since life has gone on. That original zombie, however, somehow got himself buried under a rune-carved stone up on old Spence's Farm. It seems that no one ever bothered to tell old Spence this, though. One Halloween he digs up a stump and uncovers the stone. He pulls the stone out of the ground and, whoa, coffin! Being a rational human being, he does the rational thing--he opens the coffin and allows the zombie to kill him and escape. Meanwhile, a group of teenagers are spending the night in the woods...

You may wonder where this movie is going when the first batch of teen buffet has pretty much been dispatched of after the first half-hour. Don't worry, the movie uses the oldest trick in the book; it gets episodic. The survivors go fleeing through the town with the zombies pursuing them, allowing the director (and writer; yep, Hinzmann) to introduce many more characters, simply for the sake of killing them and exposing as many breasts as possible along the way. Now, I'll admit, given the (admittedly tenuous) Romero connection and those same exposed breasts, I would have thought this movie was the bees' knees when I was fifteen years old. Blood, breasts, and beasts, as Joe Bob always put it. However, I'm forty now, and I like a little story and character development with my blood, breasts, and beasts. This is just bad from front to back, from the standpoint of the script. Not that the actors who are attempting to bring this script to life are helping any. The scene that everyone who's seen this movie most remembers from it (the barn scene, which occurs roughly fifteen minutes into the movie) has some of the worst acting I've ever seen, and I've spent about a quarter of the past year watching movies that range from no-budget to negative-budget (crap someone shot with a handheld video camera in their backyard). All of it had better acting than there was in that scene. Yes, including the monstrously awful Zombie Gore. Hinzmann, who plays a zombie, conveys emotion better than the stiffs, no pun intended, he found to play those idiots.

Worth watching for Romero completists who want to see all the ancillary stuff as well only. *

I love to watch cheesey horror films. It's always a great laugh. I love Flesh Eater it's everything I wanted to see in a campe horror film. The acting sucks and the music is a horror film all in it self. I have to say this is on the top of my list of great zombie flicks to watch and say to you self " I can make a better film then this ".

This film is timeless, I cant wait for the 2 disk set to come out !

Richie Moschella

I've known about this film for quite some time now , it has garnered an infamous place in zombie movie lore partially because of the appearance of Bill Hinzman , Zombie number 1 in the original Notld .

He not only plays the lead zombie in this film , but he manages to wear three other hats for this production , that of producer , director and editor .

At first , this venture reeks of someone trying to capitalize on their cult classic stature and of someone ripping off a genuine classic . Although i admit that it borrows heavily from the original Night , it has a mind and an enthusiasm for the genre all it's own .


The blood flows freely in this , they didn't seem to hold back when it came to the grue that fans of these films enjoy , it's in abundance here and most of it is excellent . There are some moments when the budget with regards to the makeup fx becomes obvious , but overall , kudos to the makeup crew , more of the " gags " work than don't . And for them to fashion such effective fx on an obviously small budget is more of a revelation . We have death by pitchfork , numerous headshots , noses being bitten off , a hook in a leg , burnt bodies , it's all here , and for people who love z grade horror films and exploitation , you'll enjoy yourself immensely with this .


I was surprised at the amount of zombies that were in this film , because i've read some reviews about how there is hardly any to speak of , let me put your apprehension to rest , there are plenty to go around , especially in the bravura final 30 minutes . Now , granted , the zombie makeup is admittedly sub par , but the excellent gore fx and the amount of zombie action more than make up for it , it's a minor deficiency that didn't bother me at all .

Then for you cheap Italian exploitation film fans , there is gratuitous nudity . yes this is an American production , but with the amount of skin on display , you would think you were watching a Fulci film , if anything this has more flesh on display than some of those films .

If that isn't enough , the acting is overall atrocious , overacting , underacting , non acting , it's all here , and the film is dubbed for some reason , adding to that cheap Italian horror movie atmosphere even more . Some the dialog is classic , and i wouldn't doubt if the makers of Shaun of the Dead stole a scene right out of this film . Oh boy , there are some groan inducing lines spouted in this film , but i loved it all the more because of it , it was endearing .


I have to mention that there is just about one musical track that plays for almost the entire film , and it's too good for a film such as this , but i'm glad it's here , it makes everything seem more menacing , it creates an appropriately suspenseful tone even in light of all of the silliness .


I highly recommend this hidden gem , it delivers on all fronts in the zombie genre . It may be somewhat derivative , but it does what it set out to do , and that was entertain like only a z grade zombie movie can when done " right " . BH has made his own little legend , because this thing is a classic now in my opinion .

I wouldn't buy the single disc though , it's a bit expensive , i would buy the zombie pack 2 , it will only work out to about 6 dollars or so and you'll get two other films in the package . JV