Shock Waves (1977)

I caught Shock Waves on Amazon Prime. I have never caught this one before but always heard good things from other horror fans. First, the good: the cast did an admirable job. Peter Cushing and Brooke Adams are pros, although this is early in Brooke's career here. John Carradine doesn't get a whole lot of screen time and is dead within the first 30 minutes (SPOILER ALERT!). The character of Norman (played by Jack Davidson) reminded me of George Costanza, so he was quite effective at being annoying. Fred Buch had a 70s James Caan thing going for him, while Luke Halpin pretty much took over as the film's male lead hero-type. The zombie Nazis were also quite effective, without even uttering a sound. The production values were quite low, but the filmmakers made the best out of locations, costumes and make-up. Give them an A for maximum effort.The bad: it took a while for things to build. The zombie Nazis bobbed in and out of the water for much too long without killing anyone, and when they DID finally start to stalk and kill, the results were quite...dull. Basically, they grab someone and drown them. Some uninspired killing in this horror film. I don't need gore, but I would appreciate some creativity at least.Ultimately, it's the bad that outweighs the good here. The plodding pacing and the uninspired deaths scenes really stick with me more than the tone or atmosphere. It was all a good idea in theory, and definitely a creative re-working of the zombie story, but it was all for naught when you don't really do anything with it from a story standpoint. Nice try, but falls short of expectations.

I AM SUCH A SUCKER FOR NAZI ZOMBIES. Don't ask me why, but my love was ignited when I first saw Dead Snow, and now Shock Waves has just sealed the deal (really, it's too bad I didn't see them in reverse order).A group of tourists are on a commercial boat and they start having some engine issues, naturally (because any time there is a boat in a horror movie expect some crap to go down). They see this eerie orange glow which perplexes everyone and sort of sets the mood, and soon its nighttime and they sideswipe an unknown object before spotting the apparent carcass of a huge vessel nearby. By morning they realize that not only is the captain missing but the boat is taking on water, so they escape via a dinghy to a nearby island where they find said captain… dead on the shore. They look around for help and find an old rundown hotel with a single reclusive resident (played by the awesome Peter Cushing). It turns out that the mysterious vessel they spotted had been previously sunk by Cushing, a retired SS Commander, because it contained The Death Corps, ultra-powerful aquatic soldiers that were meant to be a secret weapon for the Nazis during World War II but proved to be impossible to control. When Cushing realizes the soldiers are back, now zombified, he is convinced they are doomed… and he may be right.** SPOILERS! **The story itself vaguely reminded me of "Dagon", a short story by H.P. Lovecraft — not in all aspects, of course, but the boat landing on shore, a monster that lives in the water, and the survivor going mad re-telling the story.It is not your typical zombie movie in many senses. I mean, not only are they NAZI ZOMBIES (yesss), but they operate almost exclusively in the water. It's not nearly as gory as one might expect (or want) a zombie movie to be, but, honestly, I didn't mind that. It was just quirky and weird enough for me to not expect it to adhere to normal zombie standards. They also have a cool look to them — still the white, dead looking zombies that you expect, but with more water-logged goodness!There's a few particularly badass scenes. The glass bottom dinghy gliding over the dead body of the captain, for one. The first few scenes of the zombie soldiers emerging from the ship and walking, fully clothed, underwater… so freaking cool. Just this slow motion dread. The side shot of the zombies rising up out of the water… unnggghhh so good.The score — done by Richard Einhorn in his feature film debut — was pretty awesome as well.Overall, not the strongest plot in the world and the movie generally lacks a good deal of action (or strong character development), but it has this air of dread to it that I enjoyed — and, again, with waterlogged Nazi zombies, how can you really go wrong?

This is an underrated cult classic from the 70s, a great decade for atmospheric horror films. The eerie score, excellent location and spooky zombie makeup are all great. A few reviewers have complained about the makeup for the zombies but I thought it was good for the purposes and budget of this film. I assume these naysayers also belong to the "show us more guts" crowd. Some other complaints are about the daylight shooting. Apparently, according to some, this detracts from the movie's effectiveness to scare people. Hogwash. It takes more talent to create atmosphere and terror in broad daylight than at night. The director accomplishes this quite well and deserves to be applauded for it.The cast is solid. Brooke Adams is a young and sexy lead. Solid support from horror vets Peter Cushing and John Carradine (whose arthritic hands are painful look at and I can only imagine the poor man's suffering). The male lead is the mustachioed Luke Halpin (from Flipper) and he's very rootable.On a side note I have to roll my eyes at some of the reviewers bemoaning the lack of gore and guts. This is not a zombie movie in the Romero mold. These are reanimated dead Nazis who kill. They don't eat brains or rip out guts. Why some need to see such visceral imagery to enjoy a horror film is perplexing to me but it takes all kinds I guess.

Just watched it again today and it doesn't freak me out or scare me but still a very cool flick. The movie has some true atmosphere that so many movies are lacking now. Great electronic music score that just goes so well with the movie. Saw this movie when I was like 9 or 10 on a Saturday afternoon matinée in around the late 70's when there were only three stations in my area in my small Texas town that I grew up in. After watching it, it completely left me in a sense of dread. I can distinctly remember riding my bike to a friends house and discussing it with a friend who happened to watch it as well and we made up a game long forgotten until today of re-watching it of us being attacked by the zombies and that we had to get away. It was probably during one of my summers off from school. Crazy memory to remember but like I said a long forgotten until today upon writing the review. What else can I say, Peter Cushing is solid as always. Who else can have a scene talking about the totem corp and how they came to be and make it not sound completely nuts. The rest of the cast is good, Brooke Adams and Luke Halpin carry the movie quite well.I think what I truly take away from the picture is like I said it doesn't have the power to freak me out but still creep me out enough that it leaves me with a weird feeling afterwords. True cult movie if there ever was one....