After Death (Italian: Oltre la Morte) is a 1988 Italian zombie movie made during the height of the zombie craze. It was directed by Claudio Fragasso (under the pseudonym Clyde Anderson) and stars Jeff Stryker (credited as "Chuck Peyton") in one of his few non-pornography roles.
The movie concerns a group of researchers who travel to the jungle in search of a cure for cancer, and instead discover that the natives are practicing voodoo and black magic. When the death of a local priest triggers a curse, the dead begin to rise and feed on the living. The only survivor is Jenny (Cristina Caporilli, credited as "Candice Daly" and given second banana on international prints), the daughter of a pair of scientists, who is protected by an enchanted necklace charm given to her by her mother.
Years later Jenny, now an adult, returns with a group of mercenaries to find out once and for all what happened at the site. Little do they know that the original curse is about to reawaken, along with its very hungry payload...
After Death was released in the United States as Zombie 4: After Death, and in the United Kingdom as Zombie Flesh Eaters 3. It otherwise has no connection to Lucio Fulci's Zombi movies, or, for that matter, to Dawn of the Dead (1978), which Zombi 2 and Zombi 3D were unofficial sequels to.
This movie contains examples of:
- Closed Circle: The mercenaries' boat dies shortly after they arrive, effectively stranding them on the island.
- Gainax Ending: Jenny and Chuck hit upon the cave where the curse broke out and find the book of death. Chuck gets violently disemboweled, Jenny somehow turns into a zombie, turns towards the camera and credits.
- Hollywood Voodoo: Voodoo = zombies. It's a rule.
- Knight Templar: The voodoo priest at the start of the film.
- My Death Is Just the Beginning: The voodoo priest issues this warning when the scientists confront him.
- Parental Abandonment: Jenny's mother sends her running away by herself. On an island full of zombies. To protect her. Granted, she did have enough brains to give Jenny a charm beforehand, and that charm does a good job by itself at keeping her safe.
- Scary Black Man: The voodoo priest, again.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The dormant curse.
- Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: The voodoo priest dares the scientists to do it, warning them that he'll continue to haunt them from beyond the grave afterwards. Only one of the scientists actually has the gall to do so. Guess what happens next.
- What the Hell, Hero?: After one of the scientists kills the voodoo priest, nobody else is as amused as he, because they know the consequences of such an act.Head Scientist: You fool! Do you realize what you've done?
