The layers of post-apocalyptic, postmodern irony in
pop culture phenomena such as the film Zombie Holocaust are thick and complex.
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| Even the opening titles of the film seem folky now. |
To being with, the film (directed by Marino
Girolami in 1979) is essentially a hybridized imitation of a
hybridized imitation. Holocaust was shot immediately following the surprise
success of Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2, which itself was an “unauthorized
sequel” to Dawn of the Dead. Zombi 2 mixed
Romero’s new zombie ideas with the aesthetic of the Italian
westerns of the 1960s and 1970s. Holocaust then took Zombi 2 and grafted
it to the "cannibal film" genre of the later 1970s. If that was not enough, a
portion of an unfinished domestic horror film was stitched to the beginning of Holocaust, to give it
more of an “American” context.
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| 1979 Italian ad art, following a very 1970s aesthetic. |
Like many such films of the era, this is as close to
outsider art as professional motion picture production can get. The story
follows its own, internal logic; the make-up effects are wonderfully abstract,
imaginative, and entirely inept; and the general tone seems primitive and
obscure.
Like most films of the time,
Zombi Holocaust played to limited
audiences in urban “grindhouse” theaters before dying a quick death. Then, by
the late 1990s, this and other films were resurrected as hip, ironic artifacts
from a lost age. DVDs were released, ad art became collectible, and now, a new
generation of artists is mimicking the apocalyptic aesthetic of the 1970s and
early 1980s. Limited edition posters are printed for single screenings, or just
for the sake of what is a complex, culturally-reflective art
form.
Reanimating dead pop culture
about fake dead bodies.
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| A 21st century re-imagining of Zombie Holocaust ad art. |
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