In Zombie 4: After Death, a group of scientist on an island form a community to research a local drug used by voodoo priests as a cure all for diseases like cancer and leukemia. After the voodoo priests daughter dies of leukemia in their care, he opens the door to hell and the dead spill forth to reap his revenge for the loss of his daughter. The island communities only survivor is the infant daughter of the head scientist who wears an amulet that it the key to the gates of hell. 20 years later, the daughter, Jenny, returns as a groupie for some mercenaries on R&R. While joyriding in a speed boat around the island, the hear the voices of the dead crying out just as they are running out of gas. Though terrified, they dock to look for gas. Upon docking their mood immediately lightens as if they are on spring break, not desperately searching for gas on an island that they mildly believe is inhabited by the living dead. One of the group sees someone in the jungle and runs off after him, without so much as a “Hey guys!” to warn them. Once he catches up to the person, he punches him and says, “Why are you running?” In the scuffle he is bitten by what turns out to be a zombie. Meanwhile another group of scientists has come to the island to research what happened to the last group of scientists on the island. They find a cave wherein they find a book entitled “The Book of Death” that they always refer to as “The Book of the Dead”. The book tells them not to say a certain 3 words because they would raise the dead. So one of them does it and is completely surprised when he is attacked by zombies and killed. The sole survivor of this group joins up with our group of mercenaries who are holed-up against the shambling dead in an abandoned hospital which is conveniently stocked with M-16s and grenades. The bulk of the movie takes place in this hospital as random appearances of zombies occur without rhyme or reason as our protagonists make ridiculous decisions that lead to their own death or undeath as it were.

Zombie 4: After Death is excessively bad. The acting isn’t great, basically on par with most soap operas, but looks even worse because of the cheesy English voice-overs. The basic problem with this movie it seems that it was written with a children’s cartoon kind of mentality, yet with a subject matter that is definitely not suitable for children. The way zombies seem to just jump off a table that it slightly out of frame whenever it is deemed that they should; the way all the zombies are clothed in dirty green or black gauze pajamas; the way that zombie got kicked and then, seconds later, jumps as if he is recoiling from the blow, all shows that a great lack of care went into making this movie.The zombies are pretty crappy looking in Zombie 4: After Death. They are all clad in these black or olive drab pajamas with a matching swatch of gauze drooped over their heads. The have this cheap looking gray and black face paint with maybe a hint of pink texture on the featured zombies. The main characters that turn into zombies don’t actually have to turn-in their clothing for the required zombie uniform though. Their make-up is a little better, with more emphasis on having an eye gouged out and a fresh drip of green blood out of their mouth at the beginning of each shot. The main characters gone zombie don’t actually look half bad.

The title Zombie 4: After Death is obviously an after market addition as the beginning credits tout it’s name as simply After Death. While the zombies look as bad as the ones in Zombi 3, the is absolutely no connection whatsoever with the earlier works of Lucio Fulci or Bruno Mattei.

Zombie 4: After Death would most likely go over real well as an easily derided party movie with beer…lots of beer. But, overall it is a completely crappy time marked by low production value, slow pacing, poorly choreographed action sequences, bad English overdubbing and a generally retarded sense of reason to the film. Unless you love BAD cinema, avoid it like the plague.

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