Posted in: Movies | Tagged: Brooke Adams, entertainment, film, John Carradine, Ken Wiederhorn, nazi zombies, Peter Cushing, Shock Waves

Shock Waves – The Movie That Introduced Nazi Zombies…'Nuff Said

By Octavio Karbank

Meet the film that birthed Nazi zombies! Released in 1977, despite its completion a couple years earlier, zombie movies were by no means new to popular culture. But Nazi zombies? That was a completely different matter. With the movie getting released on Blu-Ray for the first time next week, and since I was privy to a special midnight showing featuring the appearance of director Ken Wiederhorn, I figured now would be a good time to take a quick look back at this cult classic.

Odds are, most folks reading this article probably haven't seen Shock Waves, much less heard of it. Truth be told, neither had I until fairly recently. My first exposure to the film was via an awful trailer that made the movie out to be majorly campy with little to no redeeming qualities. You can check out the trailer below, but don't let it mislead you. I've come to the conclusion that "good" trailers are a recent phenomenon, and that back in the late seventies, the people who constructed trailers weren't entirely sure what they were doing; that's a discussion for another time.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUemv6hW2S8[/youtube]

Featuring horror movie veteran Peter Cushing, along with John Carradine and Brooke Adams in her first credited movie role, Shock Waves, and it's painfully low one hundred thousand dollar budget, was able to grab some major star power. Yet problems arose at the get-go, with Cushing and Carradine's contracts only permitting Weiderhorn four days to shoot with them. However, just because said movie was done with a very limited budget and even greater time restrictions, filmed in just thirty-five days, doesn't detract from Shock Wave's magnificence.

Filming despite a myriad of hardships that went beyond time restrictions, including sharks, Florida's unpleasant swamplands and hordes of mosquitos to name a few, Wiederhorn took on every challenge, finding increasingly ingenious ways to film quickly and beautifully. The end result was a movie that, despite falling victim to years of obscurity, would come to be fondly remembered and embraced.

Shock Waves' plot is as follows: The gang aboard a mini cruise ship run into a "ghost" ship, forcing them to flee to a nearby island to scavenge for supplies. Unfortunately, their crash awoke Nazi zombies underneath the water, and despite the warnings of the island's lone inhabitant, Peter Cushing, the motley crew take too long getting their act together. As a result, they find themselves in a desperate fight for survival against, you guessed it, Nazi zombies. However, not much fighting actually occurs, with our heroes learning that the zombies are all but unstoppable, leaving them with one option: running away.

While every instinct might tell you to avoid Shock Waves, you'd be well advised to do just the opposite. It should be said that the music, orchestrated by Richard Einhorn, who was brand new to the filmmaking industry at the time, is at the top of his game here. Working primarily through a synthesized keyboard, eliciting a bone-chilling effect, Einhorn's music helped boost Shock Waves from a run-of-the-mill generic B-movie, to a legitimately scary wonderland of horror. Due to the budget, the tension comes from the dread in your own head. There is little to no gore, with the zombies taking to their traditional roots, emulating Plan 9 From Outer Space, and drowning/strangling people, rather than eating them. There are also virtually no special effects to speak of. This is a movie where subtlety works best and the scares operate at their finest when you allow yourself to get wrapped into the story.

Any filmmaker can make a horror movie, but not every filmmaker can make a "scary" horror movie that relies primarily on the musical score and the audience's imagination, rather than visuals, to bring the chills. In the hands of anyone other than Weiderhorn and Einhorn, Shock Waves would probably have fallen flat. Yet though sheer force of will, they created a modern cult classic that deserves respect and plenty of viewing. Beautifully shot, the zombie make-up gorgeous, the movie is a sight to behold.

Presenting Nazi zombies to cinema merits plenty of credit as Shock Waves helped pave the way for many movies to come. The film's revival and upcoming release on Blu-Ray is only a testament to what a little elbow grease, 100K and an indomitable will can accomplish. Whether you take the movie seriously or decide to invite a gaggle of friends over and poke fun at it the whole time, I doubt you'll be disappointed. Do yourself a favor and check out Shock Waves.

Octavio Karbank is a writer and bona fide Whovian. Living in Massachusetts, you can find him on Twitter @TymeHunter and his blog www.cozmicventures.com

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