Brattle Grindhouse: Zombie and Torso

Zombie will screen at 7:30, and Torso will screen at 5:30 and 9:30 on Thursday, May 10, at the Brattle. We'll be spotlighting a few movies from the series, but you can see the full schedule here.

The Brattle is kicking off its Grindhouse series in honor of the Quentin Tarantino / Robert Rodriguez movie. They've put together a collection of some freak-flick standards, such as Escape From New York, The Thing, The Hills Have Eyes (the original!), and Return of the Living Dead.

But they're starting off this series with the movies that Tarantino and Rodriguez supposedly used to inspired their casts - two Italian '70s horror cheapies with names that just scream "I am a low-budget horror flick!" - Zombie and Torso.

The hallmark of an Italian cheapie is that it has been released under a million different names. 1979's Zombie was released as Island of the Flesh-Eaters, Island of the Living Dead, Zombie Flesh Eaters, and the rather long Nueva York bajo el terror de los zombie. (Now that's a mind-bender - an Italian flick set in New York and translated in Spanish.)

But be warned: One reviewer said, "I have seen too many horror/gore movies to count, but even so I flinched at some of the scenes here, so consider yourself adequately warned." But the movie is best known for its absolutely crackers shark/zombie brawl, which we've thrown in for our viewing pleasure:

The second Italian cheapie of the evening is Torso from 1973. Torso isn't as ambitious as Zombie's zombie vs. shark brawl, but it is a gory slasher in which a guy goes after pretty women who head to the countryside for a good time that gets real bad real quick. But it doesn't have any sharks.