After years of watching this on VHS and later on DVD as ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST(which really should have been called something like CANNIBALS AND ZOMBIES HOLOCAUST) I finally got a chance to see a battered 35mm print of this 80's splatter classic on the big screen with a surprisingly packed house of maniacs and misfits. The great thing about DR. BUTCHER is that it takes cannibals and adds in some zombies(although these zombies are more of your classical voodoo-style maulers(one fella even uses a knife as his weapon of choice)than the more modern gut-munching variety) and of course you get the titular mad doctor(Donald O'Brien) on this crazy island of madness. The gore is plentiful and guts are spilled. In one amazing scene the great Ian McCulloch(who was also the star of Lucio Fulci's ZOMBIE, which is a movie this borrows quite a bit from) creatively uses an outboard motor to make mincemeat of a zombies cranium. All in all a great film to catch with a crowd of gorehounds, especially, as in this case, in a theater that serves food during the movie. I mean who wouldn't want to munch down a nice greasy burger while on the big screen cannibals similarly munch on some human entrails? Good times!
Another added attraction at the screening I attended was STREET TRASH writer and producer Roy Frumkes, responsible for the strange opening title sequence on the American released version of this film, who was there to regale us of tales of 42nd Street and how they had a flatbed truck driving around back in 1980 made up as a Butchermobile to advertise the movie. Amazing!
Played back in the day on a "twin terror" bill with an Italian crime film:
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