Zombie Lake

*

The opening of Zombie Lake rather interested me. Granted it was just the first two or three minutes as a naked beauty decides to skinny dip in a tad-pole infested lake with this zombie ghoul submerged emerging to surprise and capture her. It reminded me of, funnily enough, Creature from the Black Lagoon and Jaws. A beautiful woman goes for a swim and unbeknownst to her chooses a bad body of water for which to do so. A potential predator eyes her and she will not be able to escape. You get full frontal nakedness captured lingeringly by the camera and underwater photography of her for a few minutes before the zombie finally decides just looking isn’t enough. It, however, abruptly ends once the seize in the water takes place, leaving us to assume she’s a goner.

The next attack features a moment that reminded me of Frankenstein where a villager is tending to chores when the zombie from the lake re-emerges again to besiege her when she’s busy. Holding her down and taking a bite from her throat as she eventually succumbs, the zombie munches a bit until the next scene shows the woman’s body carried by villagers through town. Like the little village girl accidentally drown by Frankenstein’s monster, I was reminded of her father carrying her body through the streets as those celebrating the Baron’s eventual betrothal go from cheery joy to sheer heartbreak and outrage. The scene in Zombie Lake (I realize that using this film and Frankenstein in the same paragraph seems like sacrilege, but hear me out) has the zombie victim carried eerily the same way by a couple villagers, her arms and legs limp and lifeless, as villagers begin to congregate. They lay her dead body at the steps of the mayor (played by Franco vet, Howard Vernon) and look right at him with attentive expectation of what he must do. The first victim’s disappearance has swept across town and now a visible victim, the second, is right at the mayor’s doorstep.

The problem with the film is how the mayor addresses the problem plaguing his village’s people…he does nothing. He barely even emotionally responds to the father who laid his daughter’s body at the steps of his home. He just kind of walks the father out of his house and doesn’t even use his police to search for her killer. Just a closing moment to the scene where the father looks at his dead daughter and a shot of her throat a bloody mess with this bite mark. It is done rather undramatically and dead pan, as if those involved in the scene were drugged by Werner Herzog and told to perform the scene as if they were just as zombie as the Nazi that killed the woman. It is a scene like this that has provided fuel for the mockers for Zombie Lake. The film invites and begs for criticism. Howard Vernon, blessed with that wonderfully villainous face, is simply badly miscast here. Sympathy is replaced for abject boredom. It looks as if (and rightfully so, I guess) he’d rather be anywhere else that in this movie. If only the directors had applied a shock collar to spring him to life just to help produce a single moment of actual feeling in the character. Alas…

I didn’t want to be one of those horror fans that just massacres the film, but, woof, it is quite a dog. I have no idea who actually ultimately is responsible for the film (the likes of Jess Franco, Jean Rollin, and Julian de Laserna were all attached as directors), but in most circles I have noticed that Zombie Lake is considered an abomination and embarrassment of the zombie genre. To be honest, that’s not far from the truth. Dammit, I resist siding with a majority unless they are lavishing praise on Bava, but in regards to Zombie Lake, I can’t really disagree…this is a real turd.

There is a scene where a volleyball team of beauties decide to stop off in their van, get out, and swim in the lake, despite its notoriety and infamous history. The Nazi zombies show up to pull them under. One gets free, flees, and collapses in hysteria in the village pub. Vernon finally decides to call in the Calvary, but all he gets are two skeptical detectives who themselves go to the lake and become victims of the Nazi Zombies. Then the zombies finally decide, after spending a long period of time in the lake, to attack the surrounding village. Why it starts in 1981 (presumably, but I’m not sure when this film is set) instead of sooner considering locals from the village (resistance fighters) were responsible for gunning them down is anybody’s guess. Look, I won’t get started on Helena, the little girl and daughter of the “lead blonde Nazi soldier” and a local woman he eventually bedded in the village regarding the age flaw. When you read about this film, it is one of the chief critiques (and apt as all get out, but I digress…), while the green make-up is another.

I think this is a clear example of a film that would have perhaps benefited being lensed in B&W. The green make-up looks foolish in all its putrid color on screen. There are some great eyes on the zombies, but the make-up is a disaster. The pace is also an endurance test. The whole flashback re-telling of the soldier and the village woman does provide backstory, but it just goes on so long. The film has to remain sleazy, so you get a prolonged barn fuck between the two. Then it takes an eternity to get the zombies in the mill at the end. The zombies walk like Frankenstein’s Monster to add a level of extra cheese to the film (like it needed it…). The whole zombie father and human daughter subplot…yikes. Who, in the preliminary stages of the script, decided that was a great idea? And with a straight face and dramatic intent, going for the heartstrings, this subplot is built as a major deal. Just a head-scratcher.

I would like to give the film props for the ‘rising from the depths’ Nazi zombies popping up slowly from their involuntary (at the time they were killed) watery tomb, but Shockwaves (a film you see this compared to; this is not without merit) had already did this.

With a repetitive (but to me, not an altogether waste and sometimes does add a degree of atmosphere to the zombies as they roam about the village, underwater in the lake (many feel this looks like a pool without much doctoring to improve authenticity), and out of the lake) score that reminded me of Carnival of Souls (I think the use of B&W photography could have actually enhanced the green-faced zombies substantially), and lots of nonsense (looking for victims, zombies often luckily stumble upon women that are often sans clothes for no other reason I could see than for the titillation factor; I don’t mind titillation, per se, but I must admit to rolling my eyes at the continuation of it), Zombie Lake is a cult film I realize makes for “fun” (depending upon what your ideal bad movie experience entails) Midnight Horror viewing. I could indeed see this as one of those chiller theatre favorites…it is quite the ridiculous film with absurd plot developments, “wtf” jaw-droppingly weird moments, and cheapjack production values certain to entertain those delighted with rancid cinema.

All this said, Rollin had been unable to totally escape the stench of this film and it is considered the Oasis of the Zombies of his career. He would bounce back with Living Dead Girl, a film many consider to be his final great film.

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