Zombie Lake [1980] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

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Customer reviews

review by: stevec date: 2008-10-28 rating:
Garbage
Someone once had a decent idea for a zombie revenge film featuring sympathetically viewed nazis wiped out in a French village during WW2.
Then they tried to make it into a film.
Clearly the only way to obtain any cash was to promise lots of naked young flesh and it was all spent on said young ladies. Clearly, nothing was spent on hiring actors, writers or even a special effects department. I have seen better at a school play (no, really! If your zombies have to crawl out of a lake, use waterproof paint which isn't going to run all over the victims.) There is nothing at all that is good about this movie. Nothing.

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review by: date: 2008-10-07 rating:
Worst film ever
Avoid this film at all costs. I bought this film as a fan of zombie films and especially Nazi zombie films (I mean what can be more scary than Nazi zombies,right?)BIG MISTAKE, The acting is terrible, special effects are not special at all and the story is a mixture of Nazi zombie film, soft core pornography and pantomime. If Nazi zombie films are your thing try 'Shock waves' or 'Outpost' which in compared to this seem like masterpieces.

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review by: s.vernon date: 2007-10-26 rating:
A ZOMBIE NAZI MOVIE
A mysterious rash of disappearances plagues a small French town, and The Mayor, (Howard Vernon) is under fire from the townspeople to solve them. When word reaches the city about the disappearances, reporter Katya, (Gilda Arancio) finds that the townspeople believe the lake is haunted from a battle that occurred during World War II, when a German infantry group was gunned down in the town after taking shelter there. When they couldn't decide what to do with the bodies, they were dumped in the nearby lake. When more disappearances are found and are blamed on the squadron, now turned into zombies, young Helena, (Anouchka) who's father was one of the soldiers in the troupe, comes forward to help them, they team together to stop the zombies before they overrun the town.

The Good News: For all that's been thrown at this one, it's really not as bad as it's reputation gives it. It's main strength comes in the fact that the zombies are on-screen early and often, resulting in them having a lot of screen-time and maybe more than any other entry in the genre. When the first zombie is visibly on-screen in less than five minutes, it lends a lot of excitement, as the film will quite fast-paced to keep up with the standards of the genre. There's hardly a moment goes by where there isn't some form of exploitation going on, either from the zombies or the sleaze, and it moves along quite quickly, never once boring through the action that transpires, a real feat. When the zombies are on-screen, it's mostly good stuff, leading to plenty of attacks. The main assault on the town, where the entire legion swarms out of the lake and shuffle off, attacking anything that moves, is a lot of small little action scenes thrown in that make the scene all the more entertaining. Seeing them deploy a fairly successful tactic, where one would slowly advance on a potential victim with one, only for another one to come up behind and take a bite out of the neck. It was a fairly successful tactic and provided some fun scenes to be had with that being deployed. The attacks in the lake are just as good. The volleyball team massacre is the highlight, as the rotting corpses are seen to be visibly stalk the unsuspecting victims, lending it some decent suspense scenes, and being that the victims are all nude make the groping and grabbing really sleazy. That is one of the reasons why the whole film feels like it was an excuse to get a lot of young, attractive chicks to take off their clothes. Very few of the actresses in this movie get to keep their clothes on. Half of the film is taken up by good, old-fashioned full frontal nudity. When the full, complete form of the nude body is seen before the film is barely a minute into it's time, and is also immediately followed by a scene where she stretches out on a convenient log and allows the camera to complete a slow and sleazy crawl up and down her body makes for compelling sleaze viewing. With the other attacks on women throughout usually accompanied with them in a state of undress, it makes the film sleazier. A lengthy sex scene doesn't help matters, and it is strangely hypnotic and erotic, a real testament to itself. The ending conflagration in the steel mill is a great conclusion, giving tons of great action, including shoot-outs, hand-to-hand fighting, and even a flamethrower brought in on the action, resulting in a massive fireball as numerous zombies are engulfed in flames and wander around for several moments on fire before consumed and falling in a heap of flames. With a few more deaths for the zombies as well, this really succeeds in ending the film on a high note. Despite all the bad reviews, this one is a really decent affair.

The Bad News: Despite all the negativity surrounding this one, there isn't a lot wrong with it. The main drawback is the downright terrible makeup for the zombies. Basically, there is a little latex slapped on to form a charming shade of green through an effect unmistakably achieved with the use of poster paint which is not waterproof, either. It chips, flakes and washes off. Above all, it stops at the neckline and cuffs and around the eyes, meaning that every time one of the zombies moves, stretches or even just blinks, we get flashes of healthy pink skin. It takes away from the attacks when this transpires, and really takes the viewer out of the movie. Another problem is the flashback, which would've worked had two big errors not occurred. The first is that there's really nothing on-screen to indicate that a battle is taking place, despite the sound effects doing their best to convince otherwise, and the whole affair beyond the erotic love-scene. The flashback also exposes one of the worst chronology errors of all time, being incredibly easy to spot and not at all that hard to miss. The fact still remains, is that the ineptness of the effects if the real reason why this is judged harshly, otherwise it's not that bad of a film.

The Final Verdict: While nowhere near the list of the worst zombie movies ever made, this is still a quite enjoyable and definitely cheesy entry. There's a lot to like and a lot to dislike, and therefore is only to be recommended for the most discriminating Euro-Horror fan or those looking for a new movie to rip on with friends.

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review by: date: 2007-10-19 rating:
Overlooked classic (well maybe not, but still fun)
This movie has not what you would call a 'good story' or a 'plot' or
'good actors' or 'a budget' or a director with 'basic directing skills', but still...
It,s fun! Somehow it manages to exude a wonderful, creepy atmosphere that kept me watching. And, let's be honest, the concept of zombiefied nazi's is very, very, dare i say unglaublichly cool.


review by: torybiker date: 2004-09-20 rating:
Storyline...?
The storyline is an utter joke. Director Jean Rollin might be able to come up with some excuse but this film is a bore. For some, the skinny-dipping ladies in a short scene may be a perk for this largely boring film. If you're after a laugh, check out the awful make-up effects for the zombies. Horror/erotic director J. Rollin must have been having a joke here.

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Similar categories

Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Horror . Zombies
Video . DVD & VHS . Special Features . Region 1
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . DVD
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Editions (feature_two_browse-bin) . Standard Edition
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Region(feature_browse-bin) . Region 1
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Release Date (feature_three_browse-bin) . 1980 - 1989
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Language (theme_browse-bin) . English

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