Shock Waves (1977)

Lack of good storyline.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Directed by Ken Wiederhorn (who directed Meatballs II and Return Of The Living Dead II!) the film relates how a group of people are stranded on an island that gets invaded by dead Nazi super soldiers who have come from a lost ship pulled from the bottom of the sea by.....am not sure what. It sounds good but it isn't exciting. Going for mood rather than tension it should have been more full blooded. The dead Nazis have a habit of emerging out of water in no logical way and doing their worse, which involves little gore if any. The group of people act in the usual stupid way that people do in films like this.The acting is mostly bland apart from genre stalwarts John Carradine as the old salty captain and Peter Cushing as a German officer connected with the super soldiers. Mr Cushing is not his usual elegantly dressed self and has a slightly disfigured face for some unexplained reason but he is the best player in the film.The old hotel location is atmospheric and there are some eerie moments like the first appearance of the soldiers but overall it is ho-hum. Being a gentleman I hesitate to say that Brooke Adams looks very picturesque in a yellow bikini....but she does.

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?

I don't want to say that I hate this movie because I didn't. I didn't like it either though. It was so middle of the road in all ways possible that you don't dislike, but you don't particularly enjoy it either.The zombies, to use the term loosely, are people in SS uniforms that walk in and out of the water to somber music. The violence is not existent in the context of zombie films. The special effects are less than special. I understand that this is low-budget and I have much admiration for low-budget films but this is just such a run-of-the-mill zombie film that I really can't recommend it.The screenplay leaves a lot to be desired as does the direction. However this is not a bad film. Watch if you must but I wouldn't waste much time seeking it out.

A group of passengers charter John Carradine's boat for a little pleasure cruise and find themselves on a mysterious island where an old SS Commander Peter Cushing is keeping an old experiment going from World War II. Back in the day when manpower was getting scarce the Nazis started creating zombies out of dead soldiers. A few even got into combat as legends tell. But it was too late and now Cushing sits out on Caribbean island waiting the day when the Reich shall rise again.The only surprise here is that John Carradine is not the mad scientist, but merely an eccentric old sea salt. The whole thing is fun and quite campy. But in an unintentional way.