Professor Ayres, an archeologist researching the re-animation rites of the Etruscans, is hard at work chiseling away at a nearby tomb when some unexpected undead guests arrive. Soon after Ayres’ fate is messily sealed, a group of partygoers (including a family and two young couples) arrive at a neighboring mansion for a raucous weekend. Predictably, the freshly awakened zombies catch a whiff of the fresh meat and migrate to the mansion for an all-they-can-eat buffet.

That’s really all that needs be said. Director Andrea Bianchi’s (director of the seminal giallo STRIP NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER) zombie jamboree is an exercise in genre savvy. The film’s 85 minutes positively hum with spilled zombie juice, maggots, worms and, of course, blood. Barely a half-hour goes by before an unlucky cast member is gruesomely disemboweled in the grandest zombie chow-down fashion. And, most surprisingly, this feverish pitch doesn’t let up until the final credits.

Largely responsible for such a brisk pace is the survivalistic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD scenario. The bulk of the film is mostly comprised of the handful of survivors frantically barricading the mansion and fighting off the rotting army. And what an army it is! Special effects man Gino de Rossi obviously had a field day with his zombies, taking a page from Fulci’s tremendously influential ZOMBIES 2 (1979). Yes, the living dead featured here sport the fresh-from-the-grave look that so typified the genre. De Rossi manages to trump even that film by adorning the flesheaters with hollowed eyesockets (complete with maggots and squishy worms), crumbling cheeks, and crackled skin. Viewers are often unable to gawk at such grotesqueries for long, however, as the zombies’ heads prove to be rotting piñatas, spewing maggots and worms when crushed by various members of the cast. Bianchi also allows these zombies to be a most resourceful bunch, as they use axes, projectiles (and, at one point, a battering ram!) to break open doors. The zombies are also impressively agile, easily scaling walls and columns to claim victims!

Spliced between the grue are some truly awful performances and even worse dubbing that can only be described as surreal. When one couple first encounters their rotting foes, Mark, the boyfriend, utters "whatever it is, it’s not human!" Easily the strangest feature of the film is Michael (Peter Bark), the son of one of the families. Inexplicably, Michael does not resemble the young, innocent son he certainly sounds like, due to his decidedly adult facial features. This strange quirk seems almost a joke Bianchi isn’t quite sure of letting the audience in on. Things take a turn for the perverse when in one scene Michael actually begs his mother to breast-feed him like an infant! When she refuses, Michael attempts to coax her by caressing her and even goes so far as to feel her up! No explanation is given for this bizarre, unnecessary development, and the film’s lackadaisical atmosphere intensifies because of it.

Further boosting the film’s happy-go-lucky sentiment is a quirky logic so typical of such films. After a particularly frenzied zombie confrontation, Mark volunteers the hypothesis that perhaps the zombies are not after them after all, but some other object in the house! He goes on to convince the group of the plausibility of his conjecture by admitting that the zombies are slow enough to fight off (one must keep in mind this is being said directly after a particularly close call between the survivors and the zombies)! But here, like so often in the film, the dumb logic is a welcome bridge to gory thrills and chills. Because the zombies are let loose in the mansion courtesy of Mark’s deliberation, a thrilling chase sequence ensues (as well as a few very red deaths). Many viewers will undoubtedly find much to find fault in, but few can complain about the dearth of gory mayhem. Lastly, there is the score by Elgio Mancuso and Burt Rexon. It isn’t surprising that the score required two individuals, as it is an ambitious blend of Dave Brubeck jazziness and Brian Eno-esque synth, strangely pertinent to such a loose, unpredictable film.

While it’s quite apparent ZOMBIE 3 largely plays by its own rules, there are some none-too-subtle Fulci rip-offs. One scene borders on plagiarism, where Leslie (another member of the troupe) is suddenly grabbed by a zombie and pulled through a glass window. She is slowly pulled towards a glass shard, gouging her eye. The "tribute" to ZOMBIE 2’s most famous "splinter through the eye" scene is obvious. The film also borrows liberally from tried-and-true zombie know-how. Characters instinctively go for the zombie’s heads, crushing them or blowing them off in spectacular fashion. And, of course, there is the unspoken rule of "zombie contamination"; that is, a zombie’s bite spreads the zombie syndrome.

Such derivations are par for the course, though. What separates this zombie entry from countless others is its frenetic pace undoubtedly constructed to please audiences. Few zombie films aim to please with such a gory assault on the senses, and even fewer actually succeed as well as this one.