Rent Shock Waves (1976)

On Even Stranger Tides - Shock Waves review by Count Otto Black

Yes, it's another "classic" horror film, in that very special sense of the word "classic" they use around here meaning the exact opposite of what you, me, and the Oxford English Dictionary think it means! The plot concerns the usual gaggle of cardboard stereotypes getting into trouble in an isolated place, as usual, and being killed one by one until, as usual, only the traumatised Final Girl lives to tell the tale. That's not a spoiler, since the rest of the characters are so expendable that the film begins with Final Girl's rescue in circumstances that obviously mean no-one else made it, and their fate is revealed in flashback. And a laughably avoidable fate it turns out to be! From the moment early on when the captain throws the ship's radio overboard for no reason at all, it's obvious that these bickering nincompoops are their own worst enemies.

Which indeed turns out to be the case. Their undead Nazi adversaries may be unable to drown, but apart from that they don't seem to have any special powers, they're slow and stupid, they hate sunlight, and there appear to be only six of them. If our heroes hadn't been so good at repeatedly foiling their own attempts to escape, the soggy stormtroopers wouldn't have posed much of a threat. On the plus side, the monster makeup is effective, and the sight of the zombies' expressionless goggled faces rising from beneath the waves is genuinely nightmarish. Well, it is the first time you see it. And maybe the second time. The third, fourth, fifteenth times, not so much. Trouble is, that rising-creepily-from-the-water schtick is all they've got. Otherwise it's just a bunch of terrified tourists in a derelict building being menaced by waterlogged morons.

Brooke Adams gives a more or less competent performance as the least annoying piece of zombie fodder, but she isn't required to do much more than wear a bikini and look scared. Ultra-prolific B, C, and Z-movie veteran John Carradine does his scrawny, overacted best to add a touch of class, but you know an actor like him who's been in films you've actually heard of must have cost too much to be on set for more than a day or two, and sure enough, his character doesn't last long. Top-billed Peter Cushing, who really could act and must have cost a lot more than John Carradine, is on screen for even less time, in the thankless rôle of a Nazi Robinson Crusoe, whose sole function of explaining why the lagoon's full of pasty-faced ghouls in SS uniforms isn't strictly necessary, since the opening narration's done it already. It's one of the very few occasions when Cushing's professionalism falters and you can sense how little enthusiasm he has for the job, but you can't blame him.

This film is very cheap indeed, the characters are dull and annoying, and the action, what there is of it, is clumsy and repetitive. It's also probably the least gory modern zombie movie ever made, since the zombies don't eat their victims and kill them by drowning. The nastiest injury in the whole film has nothing to do with zombies - it's caused by a sea-urchin! Seriously, if you can't afford gore effects, why would you make a zombie movie? Maybe they underestimated the cost of hiring Peter Cushing for the afternoon and had to take it out of the blood budget. If you spend a couple of minutes right now watching the trailer on YouTube, you really have seen all the best bits and you don't need to rent this movie.

Cheap but effective - Shock Waves review by sb

FILM & REVIEW Zombies! Underwater Zombies! Nazi Underwater Zombies….created by Peter Cushing!- thought that might get your attention. Group of tourists boat gets rammed and sunk by a ghost ship. They make their way to an apparently deserted island where they find a decaying hotel with one inhabitant- Cushing with a clipped German accent surrounded by Nazi flags. It’s revealed at the end of the war having created super soldiers he escaped but as they were out of control he scuttled the ship….but now they are back…. I expected a piece of 70’s exploitation trash but this is really well made considering how cheap it cost. Relying more on brooding atmosphere and a haunting synth score this is lacking all the normal zombie gore but the zombies are really effective all dressed in identical SS uniforms with peroxide hair and sinister wrap around goggles - they way they emerge from the waves in quite sinister. Add in Carradine as the grouchy captain and Sheils in a very fetching bikini and you have something a lot better than I expected - so 3.5/5