How to even begin a review of 1980’s Doctor Butcher M.D.? I know, let’s start with it’s original Italian version known as Zombie Holocaust (also included in this hefty release from Severin!)…
Down Manhattan way, a hospital worker has been making a habit out of eating parts of cadavers, and when discovered takes a dive out of a window and turns into a mannequin that loses it’s arm upon impact with the ground, only to have the limb back right as rain when the shot switches back to the actor… but I digress…
Witness to the suicide is Morgue Assistant/New-Age Anthropologist Lori (Alexandra Delli Colli, who would go on to appear in 1982’s Lucio Fulci slasher The New York Ripper) who recognizes a phrase the dying man utters… a phrase common to the Maluku islands where she just so happens to have conveniently grew-up.
Before long she teams up with Dr. Peter Chandler (Ian McCulloch who starred in Fulci’s 1979 gut-muncher Zombie… or Zombi 2 depending on where you live… and more on that in a minute) who informs her that other incidents have taken place in various NYC hospitals with immigrants from Maluku on staff.
Before long, Chandler, Lori, Chandler’s assistant George (Peter O’Neal), and George’s go-getter journalist gal-pal Susan (Sherry Buchanan) are off to the island to try and super-sleuth the fuck out of the case.
Once there they meet up with the island’s Anglo resident-surgeon, Doctor Obrero (Donald O’Brien, whom you may remember from off-kilter westerns Keoma and A Man Called Blade), who provides them both lodging and a guide for their expedition in the form of local boatsman Molotto (Dakar, who was also in Zombie, as well as 1982’s barbarian epic Ator, the Fighting Eagle).
When they arrive at their destination, they are waylaid by cannibals to horrific (and awesomely gory) effect… but they are saved by some hideous zombies that moan and growl and scare the cannibals away before retreating themselves.
Of course those shambling monsters turn heel quickly and begin hungering for the remaining members of the expedition, which really throws a wrench into their entire investigation… but once the origin of the zombies is discovered our heroes chances of survival get lower and lower!
What Director Marino Girolami and Screenwriters Fabrizio De Angelis and Romano Scandariato deliver with Zombie Holocaust, is at it’s heart, a rather demented take on H.G. Wells’ 1896 novel The Island of Doctor Moreau except with zombies instead of animal-men experimentation, a ton of cannibal picture tropes (minus the on screen animal death thankfully), and some nudity.
Those last bits make it a truly enjoyable Italian gut muncher with two factions vying for our heroes on the dinner plate. And what a bloody buffet it becomes with an absolute avalanche of gore, all realized with practical effects created by artists that delight in makin’ the audience queasy to great effect.
The zombies themselves are putty faced nightmares where distortion of features takes precedent over anatomical accuracy, which increases the surreal nature of it all, and the designs, especially the main zombie that has cat-like features for some reason or another, are memorable and as iconic as those found in Fulci’s Zombie.
It all results in an irresistible zombie pic that will satisfy lovers of the genre’s Italian entries completely… but I’d wager the original cut of the film isn’t what many of us experienced when first we sat our arcane asses down to watch this in the eerie ‘80s on video cassette (myself included)… for that we have to backtrack a bit to Disc One…
So, when ol’ Zombie Holocaust came to the U.S. (or more accurately back to the U.S., as the film’s opening is set in New York City, and is a great time capsule of how the area appeared in the late ‘70s) the distributors (Aquarius Releasing if you’re keeping track at home) decided it needed a lil’ somethin’ somethin’ and tacked on a new opening and a new name in the form of Doctor Butcher M.D. (which stands for Medical Deviate naturally).
The “new” footage, taken from an unfinished horror anthology film, that none other than Wes Craven was involved in, involves the resurrection of corpses in a graveyard who’s ranks include fictitious and preposterously named Snuff Maximus. It’s implied this event and the events in the film dovetail, but the origins of both sets of zombies are completely different so absolutely nothing is gained by the footage’s inclusion, save for a few laughs from those familiar with the original cut of the picture which plays out mostly as before with some trims here and there.
So Disc One of this set contains a Dolby Vision/HDR presentation of Dr. Butcher M.D. along with the film’s theatrical trailer, a trailer for it’s VHS release, and a TV Spot (in which we are assured Dr. Butcher makes house-calls, which he assuredly does not due to geographical complications) .
Disc Two contains a Dolby Vision/HDR presentation of Zombie Holocaust, and the film’s trailer.
Disc Three is where things get spicy…
After a Blu-ray version of Dr. Butcher M.D. we take a journey through how the U.S. cut came to be, and the history of those involved.
Things kick off with an interview With Aquarius Releasing’s Terry Levene, followed by Rue Morgue and Fangoria mainstay Michael Gingold taking us through a modern day look at the various New York City locations utilized by Italian filmmakers in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
After that, we take a tour of the (formerly) notorious 42nd Street (where Dr. Butcher M.D. played in 1982) With Temple Of Shock’s Chris Poggiali and Filmmaker Roy Frumkes (Street Trash), who worked on the unfinished anthology that starts the film.
Speaking of that film, Tales That Will Tear Your Heart Out by name, filmmakers Frank Farel and Brendan Faulkner discuss the production of the piece, after which we are treated to Frumkes’ segment from the picture.
Next comes interviews with Gore Gazette fanzine creator Rick Sullivan who rode around on the “The Butcher Mobile” which drove around NYC to promote the film, as well as Dr. Butcher’s editor Jim Markovic, and an illustrated essay about 42nd Street from Gary Hertz.
The trailers and TV Spot from Disc One are included as well.
Finally comes Disc Four, which contains a Blu-ray version of Zombie Holocaust with even more bonus content!
Included are interviews with McCulloch (who returns later via an audio clip from 1964 to favor us with a song), special effects maestro Rosario Prestopino, filmmaker Enzo G. Castellari (1990: The Bronx Warriors, The New Barbarians, Escape from the Bronx, as well as the aforementioned Keoma… and the son of the film’s director), special effects artist Maurizio Trani, and actress Buchanan, as well as another “modern” tour of the film’s New York filming locations (from 2015) and the trailer from Disc Two.
As you may surmise, I love Dr. Butcher M.D./Zombie Holocaust, and have for decades; it’s a fun, brutal mash-up of cannibal and zombie flicks filled with gruesome effects done to perfection… and the absolute deluge of bonus material present here just makes this release a must-own for fans of Italian living dead flicks!
