Zombie Holocaust (1980) **

I'll start my review by stating that I'm not into cannibal films. They've never been my thing. Most of the time they are racist, silly, and/or purposely offensive. When it comes to excuses for throwing guts up on screen, I appreciate a little more creativity behind the effort. 

I will say, within that genre, Cannibal Holocaust (1980) is a well-made film with some level of social commentary to its gore, while Zombie Holocaust (1980) is not. The latter film has a few decent splatter scenes but mostly it plays as a rip-off of Zombie (1979) (my review here), down to sharing two of the same actors (but possessing none of the technical skill of Fulci's most well-known shocker).

One of the more interesting aspects of Zombie Holocaust (or Doctor Butcher M.D., as it was retitled after it was re-edited and released in the States in 1982) is the apparent influence of H.P. Lovecraft on its story (whether intentional or not). Five years before the film version of Re-Animator (my review here), there are distinctly analogous plot points explored. While corpse experimentation and zombies had certainly been portrayed in films prior to ZH, the way that those elements are handled here is unmistakably similar to Herbert West's antics. Again though, Re-Animator—like Zombie—is a cult classic, while ZH is not.