Zombie

I love zombie movies. I've seen more than fifty of them — including a recent stint of 31 in thirty days — and one of the best examples of the genre is Lucio Fulci's 1979 classic, Zombie. The film is famous, or infamous, for its extremely realistic gore, including a gut-wrenching scene of an eyeball being punctured by a splinter of wood. It was so gory it was banned in several countries, including Great Britain. The movie tells the story of a mysterious island haunted by the walking, flesh-hungry dead, and a reporter's efforts to get to the bottom of the disappearance of a man last seen on the island. While it doesn't offer up much, if any, of the social commentary that marked zombie-master George Romero's work, it's nonetheless a great movie. Setting aside its high level of grue, the film is a masterpiece of horror that boasts excellent pacing, a creepy, minimalist, synthesized soundtrack and several indelible scenes, such as a fight between a zombie and a shark.

The newly restored print of Zombie is showing at 10 p.m. July 11 and 12 at Starz FilmCenter in the Tivoli, as part of the Denver Film Society's Dead of Summer zombie film fest. Visit www.denverfilm.org or call 303-595-3456 for more info.