Shock Waves, (1977)

       A dilapidated pleasure boat with a few passengers has a collision with a sunken wreck off of an island, deserted except for an old abandoned hotel and its sole occupant - an accented and scarred Peter Cushing.

It isn’t long before some undead S.S. arrive, (NAZI ZOMBIES!!!,) up from the waters to wreak havoc and general unpleasantness as our rapidly-dwindling-in-numbers stranded castaways look for a way off of the island.

As Cushing’s Former S.S. Commander character explains, these ‘undead’ are the result of a Nazi experiment attempting to create perfect, unstoppable soldiers- an experiment that has obviously gone slightly wrong. His division was designed for underwater service, for submarines that would never need to surface. However, before their deployment, the war ended and he scuttled his ship, (the aforementioned sunken wreck,) hoping to entrap his cargo of “Death Corps” among the wreckage. He stayed on the island in a self-imposed exile awaiting the inevitable.

      End synopsis.

      So, first things first: The Nazi Zombies! Silent, emotionless and creepy as hell! The always-worn goggles do a lot to assist with the lack of humanity on their very Aryan look, and the zombie make-up, (done by Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things’ Alan Ormsby,) is subtle and effective.  

      Water is the element of these reanimated antagonists and as such, drowning appears to be their preferred method of dispatching victims. This leads to a fairly bloodless film. Neither a good nor a bad thing, but just another difference Shock Waves has from your average Living Dead film. Whether a fan of such a gore-free movie or not, the Death Corps rising up from the water is right on par with the emergence from the graves scene in Return of the Living Dead, (ALSO directed by Ken Wiederhorn, by the way!!!)  

      Acting is top notch, as one would expect from such horror veterans like John Carradine and Peter Cushing, as well as other seasoned actors, and the story is different and engaging. It is really only in pacing where Shock Waves suffers - and then, really only in the first half. It is very slow to get going. But patience really pays off, as Shock Waves delivers a classic and scary entry into the whole Zombie Horror genre.

      Graded on my Zombie Movie Rubric, Shock Waves walked off with a 3.556 out of a total of 4 points. But check out the YouTube trailer here for yourself:  SHOCK WAVES.

I realize that Nazi Zombies aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. But me? I dug it. I highly recommend this one for fans of that whole sub-genre and of horror flicks in general!

Shock Waves, 1977

Oh, and check out this cool scan of the “Blue Underground” DVD itself. How cool is this!?!

Right!?!