Union Chapel, October 28 2023

A live performance of Fabio Frizzi’s new ‘Composer’s Cut’ score for Lucio Fulci’s Zombie/Zombi 2.

Ten years ago, almost to the day, on Halloween 2013, Italian film composer Fabio Frizzi and his band performed suites from the scores of Lucio Fulci’s movies. 28 October 2023 and Frizzi returned to the venue, with many of the same band members, but this time performing the redux of his score to Zombi 2 (AKA Zombie and Zombie Flesh Eaters) (1979).

Last year, Frizzi recorded a new version of The Beyond to great acclaim, so Zombi 2 was the obvious successor. The original main themes are still there, but in enhanced reworkings, many bolstered by electric or acoustic guitar and with some scenes now scored where they were previously without music. To everyone’s delight, the film projected onto the Union Chapel screen was what Vipco Video called the ‘strong uncut version’, complete with infamous eye popping and throat rippings.

In the UK, Zombie Flesh Eaters was one of the banned ‘Video Nasties’ (even in its censored, BBFC cinema release) and it’s still a gory watch. The thudding, beat driven Main Title (AKA Sequence 8) appears across the movie, is a classic, and doesn’t disappoint when performed live. Equally welcome and familiar to fans of the soundtrack are the rhythmic Matool voodoo cues (Sequences 3, 4 and 7) and the joyful Calypso scene-setter of The Cab Ride (Sequence 1). For a film that I know very well, it was fascinating enjoying music that built on my familiarity.

After the screening, Frizzi welcomed Megan Louise from support act Desire to the stage to perform vocals on his pop song from Contraband (1980). This final twenty-minute set included main themes from The Beyond (1981) and City of the Living Dead (1980), concluding with the iconic Sette Note in Nero from The Psychic (1977). He received a rapturous applause – the audience was clearly delighted that this was a thing. In those grim days of censorship and bans in the early 1980s, who could have imagined that nearly 40 years later we could publicly enjoy the ‘forbidden fruit’ in a gloriously clean print, with live accompaniment. A message to the late James Ferman of the BBFC: I guess the fans got the last laugh.

Verdict: An Italian horror classic with live accompaniment and a selection of other Fulci favourites. Halloween heaven, and better than a stick in the eye! 10/10

Nick Joy