| Product: |
Shock Waves (DVD) |
| Date: |
08/02/08 (100 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Peter Cushing is good
Disadvantages: The film is poor
A review of just the film - this doesn't seem to be available on DVD in the UK at present.
This was made in 1977, and for some reason everyone seems to have really fond memories of it. It's difficult to see why. It's a weak, low-budget horror movie. It's what you might call high concept: 'Underwater Nazi zombies versus Peter Cushing!'
A few annoying tourists and sailors have their boat wrecked and end up stranded on a vaguely tropical island. The only other inhabitant is a retired SS commandant. Soon they all find themselves being menaced by zombies developed by the Nazis during the war. And that's the plot.
The tourists are generally forgettable. Leading lady Brooke Adams is sexy, but no one has a personality to speak of. I tended to think of them as 'the kind of obnoxious one', 'the less cute woman', 'the one with the moustache' and 'that guy'. The only members of the cast who manage to make anything of their underwritten roles are the veteran horror stars: Peter Cushing and John Carradine. Both look worryingly skeletal, but at least they're worth watching. This was almost Cushing's last horror role, and he's his usual classy self as the SS commondant (and surprisingly energetic given how ill he looks). His German accent isn't so hot (it's always weird hearing him do accents), and he isn't wearing his usual toupee, but he's at least taking it seriously enough to bring a bit of gravitas to proceedings. Carradine is less interesting as the captain of the boat, having the less flashy role, but still has enough screen presence and experience to out-act all the younger cast members by a mile whenever he appears.
The zombies are kind of impressive and kind of silly. It's quite fun to see blond zombies in German army outfits and goggles, but they never really do anything, and it's obvious there are only about five of them. The shots of them slowly rising from the water have none of the iconic resonance that was presumably intended, and they just aren't that scary. They're also not in the least surprising, since a lengthy voice-over segment at the beginning of the film explains why and how they came into existence. Given that we learn the exact same information later through dialogue, I've no idea what the point of the voice over bit is, unless it's just there to add an extra minute or two to the running time.
The story doesn't really work. It feels like it's had whole chunks of exposition removed - characters move from location to location with no sense of how they get there (and in a film about trying to escape from zombies, little details like that are important). At the start, especially, important plot developments seem to happen without the viewer noticing. And, unforgivably, most of the deaths take place off screen.
This is, in fact, a big let down on the horror front. Apparently it has an 18 rating, although I honestly can't imagine why. There really is no gore or even blood in it - in fact it feels more like a slightly grim kiddie matinee adventure movie than a zombie flick. The supposedly scary bits are just too cack-handed, usually because some absurdly clumsy bit of plotting draws attention to itself at the point we're supposed to be suspending our disbelief. Above all, it's dull - endless scenes of people running through forests trying to remember to look frightened just don't do it for me.
Anything good at all apart from the two veteran stars? Hmm, well I quite liked the soundtrack, although it's very typical low-budget 70s synth stuff. Some of the underwater shots are quite nice. And, er, that's about it. It's weird, I remember enjoying this when I was younger, but I honestly can't imagine why.
A shame, too, as the idea has such great potential. A DVD can be imported for about £7; the British DVD is out of print right now, so is overpriced. This might show up on TV, in which case you might as well satisfy your curiosity. But otherwise I really wouldn't bother.
Summary: A pretty terrible zombie movie
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