On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark honors fringe cinema in the streaming age with midnight movies from any moment in film history.
First, the BAIT: a weird genre pick and why we’re exploring its specific niche right now. Then, the BITE: a spoiler-filled answer to the all-important question, “Is this old cult film actually worth recommending now?”
The Bait: We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat(y McBoatface)
In 2016, Britain’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) added an exciting new vessel to its polar fleet. The impressive research ship took four years to construct and cost more than £200 million in labor and materials. Today, she’s a feat of modern engineering on voyages across the Arctic, where her specialized hull cuts into thick walls of sea ice as her passengers’ chart their paths to academic success.
Yes, that is what happened to Boaty McBoatface.
Nine years ago, when the British public was asked to vote on a name for their coast’s latest floating landmark, the goofy half-joke “Boaty McBoatface” was proposed by BBC presenter James Hand. It won in a landslide, and although council members tried to disregard the outcomes of the favored web ballot at first, phrase of a potential snub unfold and changed into outrage quick.
In the summertime of 2025, the huge watercraft from the U.Okay. is proudly referred to as the RSS Sir David Attenborough — so named for the beloved English broadcaster and nature historian. Nonetheless, the surprisingly vocal Boaty McBoatface voters secured a significantly symbolic concession ultimately.
The Attenborough measures almost 129 meters from bow to stern, and it’s dwelling to vital educational research and maritime expeditions. So, no, the ship remains to be not named “Boaty McBoatface.” However the Nationwide Oceanography Heart does have one other watercraft with that identify. The second Boaty is an autonomous underwater vehicle that’s smaller, brilliant yellow, and beloved for her becoming identifier.
The cultural affect of the NERC’s crowdsourcing mess in 2016 signifies that the Attenborough and Boaty may go on inflicting confusion ceaselessly. The same scenario has been enjoying out within the scary film world because the late Seventies, when “Night time of the Dwelling Useless” genius George A. Romero made his triumphant return to ghoulish cinema with the masterful “Daybreak of the Useless” in 1978.
Enter Lucio Fulci, the director of the gleefully grotesque “Zombi 2” (1979). Recognized by no less than a dozen different titles — together with “Zombie,” “Island of the Dwelling Useless,” “Zombie Flesh Eaters,” and extra — this poorly dubbed gore-fest rose to midnight infamy on a tidal wave of “video nasties” streaming out of the U.Okay within the early Nineteen Eighties. These excessive underground horror efforts various in high quality, however many controversial hits like “Zombi 2” earned their place in artwork historical past by circulating on the fringes first.
At 51 years outdated, Fulci had already made dozens of style motion pictures. He was well-respected for his suspense and giallo, however he’s remembered by trendy horror followers because the Godfather of Gore. “Zombi 2” is a testomony to the late filmmaker’s hair-brained dedication to weird stunts (learn that headline once more: a ZOMBIE fights a SHARK!) and rigorous sensible results, designed by the unbelievable Giannetto De Rossi.
Comfortably seated aboard the area of interest subgenre of “tropical horror” (which additionally consists of titles from 1985’s surprising “Cannibal Holocaust” to the lovable live-action “Scooby-Doo”), Fulci’s vibrant island haunting blends (regrettably) dated voodoo tropes and graphic encounters with the undead to surprisingly contemporary and provocative impact. It’s sluggish at occasions however a blast to observe in case you can abdomen the rotting flesh, writhing bugs, and sneaky director’s resolution to slyly screw over the Father of Zombies.
After directing “Night time of the Dwelling Useless” in 1968, Romero stepped again from horror for a important interval. Venturing via comedy, romance, science fiction, and different lighter fare, that break was typically thought-about good for the director. Nonetheless, he struggled to make a residing, and when Romero lastly returned to terror along with his second undead triumph a decade later, the director’s satirical “Daybreak of the Useless” was acclaimed however grew to become chum for a vicious college of copycats, together with Fulci.
Distributed by co-financier Dario Argento, Romero’s greatest film arrived in Italian theaters below the title “Zombi.” The following 12 months, Fulci named his movie “Zombi 2” to power an affiliation between the initiatives, which share some sensibilities however no actual narrative. The unofficial “Daybreak of the Useless” spinoff has flapped within the breeze as a complicated hidden gem ever since. It managed to encourage a temporary frenzy amongst modern cinephiles again then and would later spark a franchise of extra (principally) unrelated movies.
The sequel you might be about to see created a murky historical past between Fulci and Romero. Devoted zombie aficionados proceed to check the 2 filmmakers’ approaches to the undead at present — however even missing a British humorousness, you’d hope Romero can be the type of American director to vote for Boaty McBoatface… or, on the very least, not swim in her means
Lucio Fulci’s “Zombi 2” (1979) is now streaming on Tubi.
The Chunk: Wow, These Subheads Positive Labored Out, Huh?
Verify again in a feature-length. Are you watching “Zombi 2”?
