Shock Waves (1977) **
Despite having a great theatrical poster and a decent premise, Shock Waves (1977) is neither shocking nor does it really have many waves (though you may go through waves of boredom sitting through it). I'd seen this film before and it was just as snoozy as I'd remembered it. It wasn't the first Nazi zombie film but it may be the most lackluster.
Those hoping for a gore fest or laugh-out-loud fun will be disappointed—there is almost nary a drop of blood to be found and the film is grim but in a yawn-inducing way. What you get instead is an elderly John Carradine (resembling an elderly John Hurt) in essentially a bit part as a craggy captain, a complainy middle-aged man basically playing the same character as the Harry Cooper one from Night Of The Living Dead (1968) (which this movie is basically a variation of), a James Caan stand-in who has a sudden massive panic attack late in the game, no real sense of danger, and zombies that look Rutger Hauer (and would have been far more interesting if he had been cast as one).
There's a kinda cool, atonal though jarringly loud synth score, but the production is cheap-looking, scenes appear to recycle locations, characters flail about and seem to have something against doors (?), the whole thing is anti climatic and most frustrating of all—the zombies are super human except for an unexplained (unless I missed it—I wouldn’t blame anyone for falling asleep during this film) aversion to sunlight? This Wave isn't a total bomb but it's very skippable.
Those hoping for a gore fest or laugh-out-loud fun will be disappointed—there is almost nary a drop of blood to be found and the film is grim but in a yawn-inducing way. What you get instead is an elderly John Carradine (resembling an elderly John Hurt) in essentially a bit part as a craggy captain, a complainy middle-aged man basically playing the same character as the Harry Cooper one from Night Of The Living Dead (1968) (which this movie is basically a variation of), a James Caan stand-in who has a sudden massive panic attack late in the game, no real sense of danger, and zombies that look Rutger Hauer (and would have been far more interesting if he had been cast as one).
There's a kinda cool, atonal though jarringly loud synth score, but the production is cheap-looking, scenes appear to recycle locations, characters flail about and seem to have something against doors (?), the whole thing is anti climatic and most frustrating of all—the zombies are super human except for an unexplained (unless I missed it—I wouldn’t blame anyone for falling asleep during this film) aversion to sunlight? This Wave isn't a total bomb but it's very skippable.
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