Shock Waves (1977)

dir. Ken Wiederhorn cast Peter Cushing, Brooke Adams, John Carradine, Luke Halpin

In a decade that saw Last House on the Left, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Hills Have Eyes, as well as Dawn of the Dead, and Zombi, this is one zombie film that cuts against the grain . Instead of gut-munching corpses, this gives us undead World War II German soldiers who drown their victims, rather than devouring them. As such, it eschews gore for less bloody thrills. Interestingly, it's set in the Caribbean even though these zombies have nothing to do with voodoo.

The film begins with a couple of Caribbean boaters picking up a lone woman from a life raft, then tells the story in flashback. Rose (Adams) was a passenger on a small tourist charter captained by cantankerous Ben Morris (Carradine). After encountering some sort of strange phenomena on the ocean (it's never really specified what this is; a weakness in the film), the boat's navigation equipment doesn't seem to be working correctly. During a pitch-black night, the boat nearly collides with a ship that suddenly emerges out of the darkness. Next day, the passengers discover that the boat has been damaged and is taking on seawater. To add to their troubles, the Captain is missing. However, they find they are near an island next to which rests the rusting hulk of a grounded ship.

The passengers and remaining crew member use the life boat to ferry themselves to the island to seek help. However, all they find is an abandoned resort hotel. Eventually, they discover that an old man (Cushing) is living there, and has a fantastic story to tell. During World War II, he was a member of the German SS and Commandant of the "Death Corps"; a unit of unkillable Nazi zombies created by reanimating dead soldiers. The zombies were effective fighters, but proved impossible to control. Just before Germany's final defeat, they were sent away on a ship to keep them out of Allied hands. When the Commandant learned that the war was over, he sunk the ship, hoping to rid the world of the zombie menace. However, the disturbance encountered in the beginning of the film has awoken them, and they are converging on the island. Being undead, with no need to breathe, they can survive underwater and walk on the sea floor. There is a boat stored on the island, but can the survivors get to it and get away before the zombies finish them off?

Viewers looking for something like the George Romero zombie films will probably be disappointed. The zombie attacks simply consist of holding their victims underwater until they drown. In fact, one wonders what would have happened if the potential victims had simply stayed away from water. The humans in the movie don't really try to fight the zombies; they just hide or try to get on a boat and leave the island. They're unarmed and don't try to find something heavy and bash the zombies' heads in. The zombies all wear dark goggles, and at one point a zombie seems to "die" after Rose accidentally rips the goggles off its face. However, the movie never really follows through on this. There are long sequences of the survivors running or walking through the jungle.

Still, the movie does have several strengths. The Aryan zombies with their scarred faces, German SS uniforms, and dark glasses certainly do look scary. Several scenes of them slowly rising out of the water are very effective. Wiederhorn also does a good job of making a spooky locale out of an unconventional setting (a tropical island) and of building up a feeling of looming danger and dread. The run-down hotel was especially well-used for this. It's also great to watch Cushing, doing a great job and putting the same kind of care into a very small part that he put into his roles as Van Helsing or Baron Frankenstein. Despite some plot holes and the fact that it's relatively slow, the film is suspenseful. I did really find myself caring about the fate of Rose, who is well-played by Adams.

One of the comments made about this film by nearly every source I encounter is that it's the best of the sub- sub-genre of Nazi zombie films (or at least of underwater Nazi zombie films). I'm sure that this is right; though I haven't seen them, other Nazi zombie films like Zombie Lake and Oasis of the Zombies don't have good reputations. I don't think Shock Waves is a lost classic, but it is an entertaining low-budget genre effort that can be enjoyed straight, rather than ironically. It's worth seeing.

Cronos (1993)

dir. Guillermo del Toro cast Frederico Luppi, Ron Perlman, Claudio Brook, Margarita Isabel, Tamara Shanath

Jesus Gris (Luppi), a Mexican antique dealer, discovers a strange mechanical insect in an old statue. We know from the prologue that this is the Cronos Device, invented by a 16th-century alchemist who used it to prolong his life into the 1930's. The device promptly "attacks" Gris, digging its legs into his arm and drawing blood. Over the next few weeks, Gris feels rejuvenated and finds that he feels compelled to make frequent use of the device. Unfortunately, the device has a nasty side effect; it causes Gris to crave blood. Gris soon discovers that a reclusive, dying industrialist, De la Guardia, has the instructions for the device and desperately wants to get his hands on it. De la Guardia sends his nephew Angel (Perlman) to get it from Gris by any means necessary.

Cronos is more a film of ideas and images than plot. The movie avoids horror cliches. Gris, the film's "monster" is easily the most sympathetic character in the movie. He's a loving husband and is especially close to his nearly silent grand-daughter, Aurora. He never resorts to attacking anyone for their blood; in one cringe-inducing scene, he actually licks blood off the floor of a public bathroom after a fellow partygoer suffers a nosebleed. De la Guardia, on the other hand, is cold and unfeeling, insulting and even violent towards Angel, who returns his contempt. Angel (somewhat inexplicably) is perfectly willing to hurt or kill Gris to get the Cronos device. Del Toro does include one cliche that really works in this context: Aurora, the innocent child, seems to be the only one who really knows what's going on.

Cronos is startlingly original and like nothing I had seen before. It might be short on explicit horror content and lacking a conclusive ending, but its fascinating to think about and to look at, and Luppi is great. Del Toro is now a major Hollywood director. This is the film that put him on the map, and rightly so.

Plague of the Zombies (1966)

dir. John Gilling cast Andre Morell, Diane Clare, Brook Williams, Jacqueline Pearce, John Carson

Residents of a late 19th-century Cornish village are dying mysteriously and the local doctor, Peter Thompson (Williams), seems powerless to find the cause of the deaths, much less stop the "plague." In desperation, he writes to his mentor, Sir James Forbes (Andre Morell), in London for advice. Sir James decides to pay an unexpected visit to Cornwall, bringing along his loyal daughter, Sylvia (Clare), who is a friend of Dr. Thompson's wife, Alice (Pearce). One there, he finds that the local tin mines, abandoned for lack of workers, seem to be operating again, and that the local squire, Clive Hamilton (Carson), is just back from a sojourn in Haiti. Gee, I wonder what could be happening?

Hammer Film's only foray into the zombie sub-genre and one of the last major zombie films before George A. Romero changed the game forever, this is fun if not a certified classic. Like most Hammer horror films, it is well-acted. Andre Morell is the epitome of the capable, level-headed, upper-class British professional. I think he's great as a sixtyish hero (he was 57 when the film was released); he exudes gravitas, but also compassion. Carlson is effectively ice-cold as Squire Hamilton, who can be charming, but is the polar opposite of Sir James, in that Hamilton has no compassion for anyone "beneath" him and is perfectly willing to exploit the working classes for selfish ends. Most reviews pan the performance of the beautiful Clare (supposedly, a direct descendant of Buffalo Bill!) while praising that of Pearce. I think both actresses turn in fine work. Character actor Michael Ripper, who had small parts in dozens of Hammer films, has a medium-sized role as the local policeman. As always, he's great.

The script, sets, and costumes in "Plague of the Zombies" are superior. I especially liked the masks and robes worn by the voodoo cult members. Like most Hammer films, this looks much more expensive than it actually was and easily lends itself to suspension of disbelief. The green-skinned zombies don't really look like dead bodies, but the look is pretty effective all the same.

This film also one of the great sequences in zombie history. After watching a zombie rise (only to be quickly dispatched by Sir James), Dr. Thompson faints. He then dreams of awakening alone in the misty graveyard and watches in horror as the inhabitants of the graves claw their way out of the earth and surround him. Shot mainly in Dutch angles, it's a great, scary scene.

On the negative side, there are lots of plot holes if you care to look for them. Also, the film is structured as a mystery. However, as Bruce Lanier Wright points out in his excellent Nightwalkers: Gothic Horror Movies, this is laughable, as the solution to the "mystery" is obvious by the time the film is a few minutes old. This is one of many, many British and American horror films that equate voodoo with devil worship. At least here, most of the villains are white, though Hamilton does have a couple of black servants/followers.

Still, if you can get past these weaknesses, and don't require your zombies to be of the flesh-eating persuasion, this one is very entertaining.