Wednesday, August 15, 2007
GENRE-XPLOSION: UNDERWATER ZOMBIE NAZIS!
Genre-xplosion is a short, spoiler-free introduction to some of the strange and obscure movies and comics that I enjoy. Some of them are brilliant masterpieces... some of them aren't. All of them are entertaining.
SHOCK WAVES (1977)
Underwater Nazi zombies
Directed - Ken Wiederhorn
Written - John Kent Harrison, Ken Pare, Ken Wiederhorn
STYLE: ****
SUBSTANCE: ****
BLOOD/GORE: ****
NUDITY: ****
Scale built on quantity not quality.
SET-UP:
A group of tourists take a tour of "the islands" with a salty old captain (John Carradine) and his crew on a broken down boat. They become lost at sea and arrive at a deserted island where a paranoid ex-SS Commander (Peter Cushing) lives, haunted by a secret platoon of underwater zombie Nazi soldiers.
SEX AND VIOLENCE:
No sex, no nudity, very little gore and almost no violence. Very few of the death scenes appear on camera and the makeup effects are mostly icky looking dead guy skin.
THOUGHTS:
This a very neat, but slow paced flick. Make sure you've got your taxes done, a hot plate of nachos and a special someone to sit down and enjoy this with because it is not going to fight for your attention. Shock Waves is in no hurry to get anywhere fast nor does it feel the need to always explain exactly what is going on and/or why. What it does deliver is some striking (albeit low-budget) visuals, a terrific slowly mounting tension and the eerie atmosphere that such a situation would create. This is not a jump-out-of-your-seat scary movie, this is a creepy there's-no-escape, impending doom kinda film. It also benefits greatly with roles from two horror legends, John Carradine and Peter Cushing, near the end of their careers and the attractive Brooke Adams near the beginning of hers. If the idea of dozens of low-budget underwater Nazi zombies soldiers chasing tourists around a deserted island sounds like your idea of a good time, definitely check this out.
SHOCK WAVES (1977)
Underwater Nazi zombies
Directed - Ken Wiederhorn
Written - John Kent Harrison, Ken Pare, Ken Wiederhorn
STYLE: ****
SUBSTANCE: ****
BLOOD/GORE: ****
NUDITY: ****
Scale built on quantity not quality.
SET-UP:
A group of tourists take a tour of "the islands" with a salty old captain (John Carradine) and his crew on a broken down boat. They become lost at sea and arrive at a deserted island where a paranoid ex-SS Commander (Peter Cushing) lives, haunted by a secret platoon of underwater zombie Nazi soldiers.
SEX AND VIOLENCE:
No sex, no nudity, very little gore and almost no violence. Very few of the death scenes appear on camera and the makeup effects are mostly icky looking dead guy skin.
THOUGHTS:
This a very neat, but slow paced flick. Make sure you've got your taxes done, a hot plate of nachos and a special someone to sit down and enjoy this with because it is not going to fight for your attention. Shock Waves is in no hurry to get anywhere fast nor does it feel the need to always explain exactly what is going on and/or why. What it does deliver is some striking (albeit low-budget) visuals, a terrific slowly mounting tension and the eerie atmosphere that such a situation would create. This is not a jump-out-of-your-seat scary movie, this is a creepy there's-no-escape, impending doom kinda film. It also benefits greatly with roles from two horror legends, John Carradine and Peter Cushing, near the end of their careers and the attractive Brooke Adams near the beginning of hers. If the idea of dozens of low-budget underwater Nazi zombies soldiers chasing tourists around a deserted island sounds like your idea of a good time, definitely check this out.
Labels: genre-xplosion
Comments:
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This show scared me silly when I saw this as a kid in the late 70's. When I mention this movie to horro movie fans, they have never heard of thsi movie.
Slow - yes, creepy - oh yeah!
Slow - yes, creepy - oh yeah!
I rented this movie as a kid from a gas station/movie rental store. They had the best damn selection of horror movies, I was so mad when they closed almost over night. If it wasn't for them I would never have seen this or movies like 2000 Maniacs, Street Trash, or Dr. Butcher M.D.
Brent
Brent
HA!
I have not seen 2000 maniacs or Dr. Butcher M.D. I'll have to add those to the list!
I saw Street Trash a few years ago and didn't much care for it... but I'm wanting to give it another go now that I know what to expect.
Those old weird video stores were the best.
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I have not seen 2000 maniacs or Dr. Butcher M.D. I'll have to add those to the list!
I saw Street Trash a few years ago and didn't much care for it... but I'm wanting to give it another go now that I know what to expect.
Those old weird video stores were the best.
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