Sunday, October 5, 2014

Horrors of October - Zombie Lake (#5)



Zombie Lake (1981)

Well, since the previous four days had review scores of a 5, 2, 3, and 4 respectively, I of course had to end this streak with a big ole fat 1, and I found quite a doozy one to spotlight. In a small unnamed French town, the villagers have quite a problem on their hands: a group of Nazi zombies keep walking out of their cursed lake and giving bloody hickeys to all of their victims. Make no mistake, ZOMBIE LAKE is the 2nd worst zombie movie ever made. Let me describe some of its severe disadvantages: The zombie makeup is nothing more than a splatter of green paint, which often doesn't cover up all of the skin; The zombies aren't cannibals and only drink blood like vampires; The Nazi heartthrob's daughter, born in 1945, somehow is still a tween during the 1970's; Underwater shots of the lake are clearly filmed at a community center pool; Dead bodies routinely twitch or breathe and several extras corpse in front of the camera; All of the actors do a piss-poor, wooden job, even with the awful French dubbing; Every scene is shot on a clear sunny day, including those set at night; Full conversations are often entirely one-sided; The editing is a chopped-up mess; That goddamn annoying bird chirping is included in every sequence, etc. This dreadful, amateur movie is made even more sad when you realize that it was crafted by Jean Rollin, an accomplished horror director. He had a prime project, able to generate easy buzz with the delectable concept of Nazi zombies, which were never put on screen before except for the little seen 1977 film SHOCK WAVES, and he churns out this fiasco. Don't be swayed by the copious displays of full female nudity, this is a very hard sit.


FINAL REVIEW: 1 / 5

No comments:

Post a Comment