Vacationers are shipwrecked and lost in the marsh and lush jungle of an unnamed isolated island stumbling upon a nutty ex-Nazi : Peter Cushing commanding an army of seaweed-attired Zombies. The stranded tourists staying at a grim, deserted motel are the following ones : Brooke Adams, Jack Davidson, Fred Buch and Luke Halpin, all of them being really affected and pursued by the vicious, stalking stiff zombies relieved by the mad doctor. But the creepy zombies riot against their creator chasing mercilessly the affected tourists. Along the way the unfortunate and ever-dwindling group of tourists attempt to escape by a little boat called Bonaventura. It is just as stupid as it sounds, however, containing entertaining scenes and moody atmosphere enough.
Eerie terror movie with ghastly ambient , high body-count and nice use of shock images laced with terrifying events, it is more or less a standard horror yarn, somehow rises slightly above badness, deserveding its Cult Status. The zombies appearances roaming the island steal the show, they are an army of mutant-underwater-zombie-Nazi-soldiers slaying tourists. The sopping-wet zombies wear perky swimming goggles, full dress Nazi uniforms with Svatikas and stunning complement of seaweed accesoria. Being photographed in pallid color with lurid frames and acceptable results. Here appears two terror myths, John Carradine as a veteran boat pilot and Peter Cushing as the crazy Nazi scientist intenting on recreating the German glory while fails in controlling the zombies. Being one of the first films of Brooke Adams to be continued a long career as a main star and Luke Halpin's name of "Flipper" was erroneously listed as Halprin even on the original movie poster. This "Shock Waves" was the germ or seed of the Nazi zombie sub-genre, following a lot of weird B-grade films as : "Zombie lake" 1981 by Jean Rollin, "Oasis of the living dead" 1982 by Jesus Franco. And in the movie "Zombie 2" or "Zombie flesh eater" 1979 by Lucio Fulci shows up an underwater zombie fighting a shark. And recently "Dead Snow" 2009 by Tommy Wirkola and its sequel "Dead Snow 2 Red vs Death" 2014.
It packs a strange electronic musical score composed by means of synthesizer by composer Richard Einhorm. The motion picture was professionally directed by Ken Wiederhorn, though it has some pitfalls and failures. Ken is a writer, producer, director who has made a few films, such as : "A house in the hills" , "Dark tower" co-directed by Freddie Francis , "Meatballs 2" , "Eyes of a stranger" , and the successful "Return of the living dead 2" . Rating 5.5/10. Passable and acceptable. The flick will appeal to Zombie subgenre fans.
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