Shock Waves
May 12, 2006
‘The sea spits out what it can’t keep down.’
As if Nazis weren’t bad enough in and of themselves.
As if zombies weren’t bad enough in and of themselves.
Shock Waves is about what happens when a group of vacationing scuba divers runs into The Death Corps(es?)–an SS squad of zombie “super soldiers” created by those paranormal-obsessed Nazis that Indiana Jones and Hellboy keep running into.
John Carradine and Peter Cushing–both of whom give brief but ripe performances–look more seriously cadaverous than the actual zombies do, especially when you consider that The Death Corps has been slumbering underwater since the end of WWII.
And I gotta wonder if the Zombie Master, himself–All hail, George A. Romero!–might’ve been referring to this film when his zombies in Land of the Dead cross one of the rivers surrounding downtown Pittsburgh by walking along the river bottom. That sequence when they surface on the other side is very reminiscent of the startling sequences in this film when the Nazi zombies climb out of tide pools where they lie hidden in the offshore reef and walk ashore. They’re delightfully creepy shots!
If plot holes trouble you, I suggest you give this one a pass. If you demand gore in your zombie movies, this one ain’t for you, either. But if you’re in the mood for a movie with underwater Nazi zombies, well, perhaps you are in need of the same medications that I should be taking.
