Shock Waves
One of the best cinematic bumps a movie maven can receive is when you discover a previously unknown movie. Not only that, but the previously unknown movie is also a benchmark, like the first film of a sub-genre.
How many people can name a mockumentary before Fellini’s Roma (1972)? Likewise can you suggest the first time the Nazi Zombie genre came to fruition?
Shock Waves (1977) has a lot of elements that when combined add up to a powerful flicker experience. The cast seems to combine a bit of the old with a bit of the new, remember this is the late ‘70s. There’s John Carradine as the captain of a luxury yacht and Peter Cushing as the lone resident of an uncharted island. For the new school there’s Luke Halpin (from the ‘60s television show Flipper) and Brooke Adams as the femme. Adams would go on the next year to star in Days of Heaven (1978) one of the great American films of all time.
Shock Waves, the first film to introduce the concept of Nazi zombies, will be unwinding in an exclusive engagement at the Alamo Drafthouse Vintage Park on Monday, November 24 (http://drafthouse.com/blog/entry/underwater-nazi-zombies-return-to-the-big-screen-see-shock-waves-this-monda).
The thing is, Shock Waves doesn’t telegraph the obvious. Yes, there are Nazi survivors in a sunken ship that resurfaces years after the war. Yes, some of these said Nazis are dead and pop up out of the ocean. But the film is concerned with establishing the milieu of the situation.
There were a couple of Italian films made in the ‘80s with the concept of Nazi zombies and a whole slew of films in the last decade that mines this genre. None do it as well as Shock Waves. By the way, the film Iron Sky (Nazis on the Moon) will also appeal to you if you dig Shock Waves.
There’s a handsome ship’s mate, the crusty yet benign captain, and a couple of babes along for the cruise. The yacht runs aground on a reef and the survivors make it to said island.
From here things start to get scary. You may not feel the chill down your backbone that you felt during The Conjuring, but you will willing participate in the joyride as the survivors realize what’s happening and try desperately to get the heck off the island.
— Michael Bergeron
