While a little later than when I watched this last year (Shock Waves), nonetheless, my children (my son, 9, and my daughter, 11) were totally invested in Shock Waves, a little, small-budgeted Nazi zombie genre film from 1977 (right before Cushing would join the cast of Star Wars; Shock Waves was actually made in 1975, but not released until 1977) I had rented because I wanted to revisit it. I had no idea that when I started watching it, my kids would be interested in it as well. It doesn't have a plot with a pace that doesn't catch a breath, or feature superheroes, or offer a catchy pop soundtrack. Instead, director Ken Wiederhorn's film is devoted to creeping you out and atmospherically shooting the Nazi zombie soldiers who rise from the watery depths where their downed ship was located before it is unearthed as a yacht carrying tourists passes through.
I thought I'd see if they wanted to continue this annually, because not long after we watched it last year, they were talking about when we would watch it together again. I was pleasantly surprised. While last year was more in the beginning stages of Mississippi's long, hot summer, this year I didn't decide to revisit it until August. Maybe we'll return to this next year for an early summer watch.
The zombies really get them going, and when characters are in the water, my kids are just screaming at them to get out and away. I like that this island has all these areas of wilderness and water, including a resort abandoned, for the zombies to emerge. I think I covered the film well enough in the previous review last year, so I'll just say that it was neat to see such genre stalwarts / legends, Cushing and Carradine involved in this. It is such a rather modest 70s horror show, with a Richard Einhorn score that needles the nerves as the zombies can be seen sneakily thereabouts, in close up, slightly hiding behind trees, or on the sandy ocean floor, sometimes in packs while other times singularly alone so each one can pick off the protagonists when they accidentally separate.
Independent horror and silent film histories are often fascinating. How prints vanish or are supposed to be destroyed, sometimes found in the oddest places or fortunately a director has a copy of a negative in a collection of his...that is why we can see Shock Waves today. Seemingly lost was the original print (or is it? I think it is part of some collector's private stash, shown to a select few he or she brags to about), and so thankfully a negative existed and voila Blue Underground releases Shock Waves on dvd and the rest is history. I have read my share of negative and rather hostile even reviews on this film, more or less calling it boring and unexciting. Zombie fans want their bloody red meat and flesh ripped from bodies, but this isn't that kind of film.
That is why I think fans of that distinctive 70s mood--where the most is made with next to no money, as filmmakers capitalize on lucky accidents (the resort used for the film being closed down at the time, later to be reopened, was a godsend for a low budget horror flick that this is set), specific locations, still-alive (and easy to pay) horror icons not above starring in films like this, and the film stock at the time (that no longer is being used, which seems to only add value to 70s films where low budget producers/directors used whatever they could afford)--seem more attracted to this than the Romero/Walking Dead zombie flesh eater cult.
The plot is kept simple (try to survive and get off the damn island before *they get you*), and the characters are allowed to determine the best course of action when they are stranded and needing a means to transport back to civilization.
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