Zombie Lake (1981)

This is How Movies Should Be Made

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Let me just say that the poster of this movie has better zombie action than anything within this rather strange and bizarre zombie film. Suffice to say if I had paid more than the 6.99 for it, I would have been rather ticked off. Still, while it was horrible to say the least, it did contain some really good nudity which is the only reason I gave this one a two. I like nudity and I am not going to pretend the shots of the ladies underwater was not like totally great in an otherwise abysmal film. The story though had something going for it, I do enjoy a water setting for my horror and I like the idea of zombies emerging from a lake to kill people and drain them of blood. Just like I enjoyed the far superior "Shock Waves", now that one was completely awesome and was good enough story wise and in how it was presented that it did not have to resort to nudity. This one though was done badly, it is a car that is in need of a major overhaul and it could have worked. Heck, if they simply made it an adult film it may have worked, but they try to make it a bit to serious in places and near the end it is so bland and sentimental you almost forget the many girl basketball team that gets nude and attacked with the lighthearted music while they splashed each other. I would start by throwing out the entire subplot of the zombie reuniting with his daughter, also if you have Nazi zombies you do not make them sympathetic characters, they are Nazis make them bad like the crew from "Shock Waves" who needed no blood, or flesh for sustenance, but killed just because they could. Add more nudity, seriously there was a lot, but after this outdoor bathing scene all the nudity vanished and you were left with like twenty minutes of how to kill said zombies. Also, I would say do a better job with the makeup, seriously they have a flashback with all these explosions. Save the money on explosions and use this to enhance your zombies. There is so much more to be done to make it good, to much to list, but like I said the nudity was good, I especially liked the opening. Also, I liked the idea of zombies rising out of the lake. I can not believe in a book I read they said they thought "Burial Ground" was the epitome of bad zombie movies, and I think they mentioned this one. That movie was bad, but a very fun to watch bad. Other than the nude scenes this one was boring. The zombies were a lot better in that one too as were the gore effects. All the gore effects in this one consisted of the dudes playing the zombies having fake blood in their mouths and then drooling it upon their victims necks. Just a bad movie for the most part with its only redeeming quality being something that is not going to appeal to everyone.

Needless to say, "Zombie Lake" is no masterpiece of filmmaking. It is, however, one hilariously bad Nazi-zombie flick with a few good points.1. Decent atmosphere throughout; the French countryside makes a FINE place for a pond of undead National Socialists, don't you think? 2.Nice little romantic side-story, with the Nazi-dad and his little girl.3. Plenty of athletically-built, scantily-clad chicks who seem to have little regard for decency as they regularly disrobe to take a dip in the pond.Obviously you are not going to get the next "Dawn of the Dead" here, but "Zombie Lake" is plenty entertaining to sit around and swig a couple beers, relax and have a laugh at.High points for me are the swimming pool ladders visible in some of the underwater scenes and the green makeup that even comes off onto one of the victims arms in a killing scene. The only thing that really drags this movie down is a lack of gore. The zombie killings look more like vampires biting their victims...maybe they were supposed to be vamps? Lost in translation perhaps. (After all, the literal translation of the title is "Lake of the Dead." Maybe they were in fact vampires.)At any rate, if they had thrown some of that good ole raw meat and a little gut-munching, "Zombie Lake" would have scored higher for sure.6 out of 10, kids.

Zombie Lake (1980) ** (out of 4) Jean Rollin/Eurocine naxiploitation/zombie hybrid about a lake full of dead Nazis who rise to attack beautiful naked women who dare go swimming there. This is one of the most legendary Euro flicks of its era due in large part to how bad it is. However, as bad as this sucker is, for some reason it has me going back for repeat viewings. The quality is a huge step down for director Rollin but there are plenty of naked bodies to look at. This film has the same mood, feel and pace of Oasis of the Zombies, which was released a few years later and credited to Jess Franco. For the life of me I feel these two films were directed by the same person and for a time Franco was rumored to have directed both and then it was rumored Rollin had directed both. The highlight of the film is when seven sexy females decide to go skinny dipping in the lake. Howard Vernon stars.

Le Lac des Mortes Vivants, or Zomie Lake as it's more commonly known amongst English speaking audiences, is set in a small French village during the 50's, it starts with a girl going missing. Local pipe smoking, beer swilling, silly mustachioed fat-boy villager Chanac (Youri Redionow) becomes worried & reports his fears to the local Mayor (Howard Vernon) who is convinced that it has something to do with a nearby lake which is supposedly haunted after a bunch of German soldiers were killed & unceremoniously dumped in it during World War II. The Mayor calls the police & they send in Inspector's Morane (Robert Foster) & Stiltz (director Jean Rollin) who don't believe the local legends & end up paying for it by being killed by German zombie soldiers, the villagers are on their own & must find a way to send the German soldiers back to their watery graves for good!This French & Spanish co-production was directed by Jean Rollin who replaced Jesus 'I have no talent' Franco at short notice when he disappeared, the production company went on to make Franco direct Oasis of the Zombies (1981) instead & the very fact that Oasis of the Zombies was made prevents Le Lac des Mortes Vivants from being the single worst European zombie film ever. Don't get me wrong because Le Lac des Mortes Vivants is still terrible & the second worst European zombie film ever, it's just that Oasis of the Zombies is even worse. Anyway, the script by intended director Franco under the pseudonym A.L. Mariaux is simply awful, there's barely any dialogue, the character's are awful, the story is rubbish, the pace of the film almost left me in a coma & Le Lac des Mortes Vivants is quite simply one of the worst films your ever likely to see. The spoken English dialogue is laughable, the English dub is full of awkward broken English that you understand but at the same time know people simply don't construct sentences or talk the way these character's do. There's virtually no violence, the story makes virtually no sense & tries to have some bizarre romantic angle between a zombie & his daughter where when he's not terrorising & eating the local villagers a German zombie visits his young daughter which just comes across as laughable, there's no explanation given as to why the zombies come back to life in the first place & there's just very little, if anything, here to enjoy.It's obvious Rollin's heart wasn't in the project, the continuity is terrible, the camera work & cinematography are awful as well with really jerky pans & zooms. The German zombie soldiers uniforms dry out incredibly quickly once they are on land & that one who visits his daughter might have been stuck at the bottom of a lake for 10 years & have pale decomposing features but at least he combs his hair & keeps it looking nice! Seriously, the production values are rock bottom & you can sit there & literally tear it to pieces, nothing works, nothing is thought out & we are basically talking amateur hour here. A World War II battle sequence is achieved using one vehicle & about four German soldiers in another embarrassing & amateurish scene. There are so many things wrong with Le Lac des Mortes Vivents I started to feel sorry for the filmmakers & actor's stuck in it. There's some nudity but not as much as you would expect & there isn't any gore at all apart from two very tame neck bitings & a bit of fake blood. A few decent gore scenes might have made Le Lac des Mortes Vivants watchable but alas the filmmakers didn't even have the budget or enthusiasm to buy some animal intestines from the local butcher. The zombie make-up sucks too, it's just green face-paint randomly applied to the actor's face, you can clearly still see patches of pinkish human flesh where the makers haven't applied the green paint evenly!Techhnically the film is a disaster, I hated the music, I hated the photography, I hated the special effects as well as the lack of them & Le Lac des Mortes Vivants really does have rock bottom production values. Filmed on location in France the picturesque village where it was shot & the surrounding countryside looks quite nice actually & is the only thing the film has going for it. The acting is awful, sure everyone's dubbed but you can just tell it's awful.Le Lac des Mortes Vivants is awful, only Oasis of the Zombies saves it from being just about the worst zombie film ever made. Even if your a die hard European horror junkie your going to have a hard time watching & enjoying this, one to avoid.