Zombie 4: After Death (1988)

First of all, I know the title is just After Death, but I used the Zombie 4-version in the headline because it’s a title that many recognize easier than just After Death. So no whining please! ;) This is the first time I’ve seen Claudio Fragasso’s masterpiece since the golden age of really bad VHS-bootlegs in the beginning of my career as a movie-collector. After Death begins with a bang, a voodoo priest doing some rituals in a cave and sacrificing his wife to hell! A couple of inhabitants on the island, scientists trying to find a cure for cancer, shows up and get’s killed. The only survivor is a little girl – and twenty years later she’s back in the company of Nick Nicholson and Jim Gaines!

I watched it yesterday, but I can’t remember what they’re gonna do on the island again, but they have to stop anyway and take shelter in the only house. At the same time Massimo Vanni and good old gay porn star Jeff Stryker is running around in the jungle, finally finding the cave and wakes up all the zombies again by reading from “The Book of the Dead” (yes, Evil Dead…). And hell breaks loose, as usual…

What strikes me first with After Death that this feel more like a sequel too Lucio Fulci’s Zombie Flesh-Eaters than Zombi 3. It begins with some survivors finding the cause for the zombie-invasion, some violence and gore occur and the jump forward in time to a peaceful world with no zombies – until some morons read those four cursed words again. The zombies looks more like bumfight-ninjas, but they raise from their jungle-graves just like in Fulci’s classic!

If we ignore all those who claim that Claudio Fragasso is a shitty director, this is actually a well-paced movie with a lot of cheap style and clever b-movie making. Fragasso and his team make the most of the little budget, and even of the English dialogue are extremely silly it works in the context of the style of the movie. What could make a lot of people, even me the first time, disappointed, is the lack of excessive gore. But that don’t mean it lacks gore, absolutely not. It has a couple of exploding heads, a nice hand thru body, a face-ripping and a little bit of that and a little bit of this. It also has a lot of squibs and blood-spurts, even if I don’t count that as gore.

When I saw After Death the first time I didn’t know Nick Nicholson, but after his passing last year, it feels fantastic to be able to see him so full of energy as in this movie. His part is quite big, and he’s ruling every scene he’s in. Love the beard, Nick - wherever you are…

But I guess After Death is most famous for the presence of a Mr Jeff Stryker, here working under the alias Chuck Peyton – which sounds even more like gay porn name than Jeff Stryker itself! Because Stryker was, and still is, a famous gay porn star who happen to star in one single Italian horror movie, and that was After Death. How? Well, this boyfriend at his time was German acting-legend Werner Pochath, who worked as a uncredited producer on this movie (so I’ve heard anyway). And the rest is history. Jeff Stryker came to Stockholm some years ago, did some unauthorized wanking in public and hasn’t been here since. But if he shows up again, I will force him with violence to sign my After Death-DVD!

After Death is a lot of fun and recommended viewing to exactly everyone in the world.

Jeff Stryker before death...

Jeff Stryker during death...

...but sorry, nothing... AFTER DEATH!!!