In the past month, we’ve seen Nazi zombies lurch back into the popular consciousness with the release of Dead Snow. Some people heralded the idea as an awesome one not realizing that Nazi zombies have been with us at least since the seventies.

Thus, we have Shock Waves. This is a movie I’ve been dying to my hands on. I remember seeing a clip of it when I was a kid and being completely freaked out. Twenty or so years later with a lot mileage on the odometer, I’m guessing it won’t hold the same shock value, but I’m looking forward to becoming reacquainted.

Here’s what The Ultimate Zombie Guide has to say about it:

Shot in 1976 but not released until two years later, this flick brought back the old concept of evil Nazi zombies on a rampage. Yet this extremely low budget zombie sleeper somehow manages to rise somewhat above both its rickety premise and its budgetary constraints. Director Ken Wiederhorn creates an effective atmosphere of dread and obtains decent performances from veterans (including Peter Cushing from Horror Express[1973] (AWOF NOTE: also Star Wars) and John Carradine from Revenge of the Zombies[1943]), leads (Luke Halpin), and newcomers (Brooke Adams) alike.

A group of tourists set sail with a grouchy captain, played with eccentricity by the well, eccentric Carradine. After winding up stranded on a nearby island, the castaways find an old hotel inhabited by Cushing. We soon learn that Cushing’s character is … yep, a Nazi scientist stranded with a group of test subjects: undead, “invincible” Nazi soldiers. How they ended up on an island in Florida is anyone’s guess, but in the grand scheme of things it isn’t important. It seems these angry SS zombies are big on drowning their victims — really big. Shock Waves may set a record for the number of people murdered by drowning in a feature film. In fact, it becomes kind of amusing, since characters seem to always find ways of ending up near water. Swimming pools and even fish tanks all end up in the mix.

The film builds tension interestingly. Once the zombies appear, the director holds on them. They move, slowly rising and walking through the water, in full uniform, never expressing any emotion. There are some absolutely creepy shots of the soldiers appearing from beneath the water — and in one sequence, from behind a doorway — moving toward their victims and sending shivers down the viewer’s spine. The living dead look pale and withered, yet the highlight of the design is in the costuming, namely, the large black goggles that hide their eyes and give them a cool, inhuman menace.

Sure, the film isn’t a masterpiece. It was shot on 16mm. film and then blown up to 35mm. for the theatrical distribution, which lowers image quality; at times the photography is horribly grainy, especially during several dark sequences. One can occasionally see the actors holding their breath as they’re being attacked and pulled underwater by the zombies. And the story perhaps takes a little too long to get to the action. But such flaws are merely the obvious limits of low-budget production — and the climax certainly does its best to make up for them.

Alan Ormsby, makeup artist on Shock Waves, also played one of the leads and cowrote the 1972 zombie flick Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things. He also wrote Deathdrum (1974), another unusual but effective zombie flick. Director Wiederhron later returned to the undead subgenre by directing Return of the Living Dead Part 2 (1988). Zombie flicks were obviously a big part of their careers.

Have you seen this movie? What do you think?

Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide (amazon.com <- new window)
Shock Waves – Netflix (netflix.com <- new window)