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[BD Review] ‘Zombie Lake’ has a Slow Pace and Dull Story

Movies
Posted by David Harley on March 03, 2013 @ 4:55pm
Category: Movies / Reviews

Reviewed by Patrick Cooper

French filmmaker Jean Rollin left behind a legacy of fantastique films with his signature poetic flourishes, such as The Rape of the Vampire. His 1981 film Zombie Lake, however, is devoid of any creativity or poetic trimmings. It is simply a cheap zombie movie with lots of t&a peppered throughout. Kino/Redemption released Zombie Lake the same day as Jess Franco’s Oasis of the Zombies. That’s certainly no coincidence since they’re pretty much the same movie in different makeup. Both feature Nazi zombies, a bastard child, and World War II. Both movies are crappy and terribly slow, but I did enjoy Zombie Lake a bit more thanks to its frequent zombie attacks and colorful small-town characters.

The story goes back to Nazi-occupied France. The German forces are stomping their ugly boots through a small village when one of the soldiers saves a local woman from a mortar attack. Because love knows no allegiance, the French woman and the Nazi solider make love in the hay. When he returns with his troop nine months later, he discovers that the French woman he banged has suffered complications during childbirth. On her deathbed, she gives the soldier a terribly cheap looking necklace as a token of her appreciation. “You Nazis rolled through my village and killed a bunch of people. Then we banged and now I’m dying from giving birth to your bastard. Here, take this necklace.” Before the Nazis can leave the village, a force of French resistance fighters slaughtered them all and rolled their corpses in the lake.

The village’s mayor tells this convoluted yet tender tale to a journalist interested in writing a story about the “damned lake.” Ever since the incident the lake has been supposedly cursed. We already know it is because the film opens with a Nazi zombies emerging from the lake and killing a naked woman. They seem to have a taste for females who are either naked or in their bikinis. It’s their comfort food. So they bumble around town eating women in various stages of undress and that’s basically the movie.

There’s a tortuously corny subplot involving the soldier from the flashback who’s now a zombie. He finds his illegitimate daughter who recognizes the cheap necklace he’s wearing from a picture of her mother. They hold hands and look fondly at each other. He probably smells awful but that doesn’t seem to bother her. Seeing his daughter brings back the humanity in him and he helps the townsfolk defeat the undead horde. But, let’s be honest, it’s really about naked girls getting eaten.

Rollin’s zombies are some of the most hilarious I’ve ever seen. They’re all painted turtle green but they all have the same heads of hair they dead when they died. The contrast looks absolutely ridiculous. The paint isn’t waterproof either, so when they slog themselves outta the lake it’s all runny and patchy. Because of the heavy makeup around their eye sockets, their eyes look enormous like they’re surprised all the time.

What the movie does have going for it is that it doesn’t feel remotely like a standard zombie movie that’s simply biting Romero. This distinctive vibe could’ve originated from Rollin’s own style, but it feels more like he just had no clue how to make a zombie movie. It was a departure for him that didn’t pay off. I also like the villagers, who have a surly authenticity about them. The pace and dull story absolutely kill the film for me though. Zombie completists will definitely want to check out, but for those hoping for a scare, look away.

A/V

Kino/Redemption Films presents Zombie Lake in a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer. Like with their Oasis of the Zombies release, there is no digital correction – the minimal amount of dirt, specks, and scratches were left in tact. The colors look great and all of the imperfections serve to enhance the film’s sliminess. The 2.0 audio is free of any noteworthy disturbances and sounds fine.

Special Features

ENGLISH VERSION OF THE FRENCH TITLE SEQUENCE for some reason.

ALTERNATE SCENES: two scenes that were edited for television in which bikinis were added to the females who are nude in the uncut version.

TRAILERS for Zombie Lake, Oasis of the Zombies, Rape of the Vampire, and Demoniacs.

[BD Review] ‘Oasis of the Zombies’ is an Absolute Bore

Movies
Posted by David Harley on March 03, 2013 @ 4:40pm
Category: Movies / Reviews

Reviewed by Patrick Cooper

Jess Franco was a prolific erotic horror director who has made about 200 films since the 1950s. I can’t imagine that Oasis of the Zombies is one of his more beloved films. He’s best known for his softcore sleaze-fests starring his wife and muse Lina Romay. Even while working within the genre he was known for he was barely capable of making a coherent film. Venturing into zombie territory was a departure for him (possibly why he used the pseudonym A.M. Frank) – there’s no immature zoom-ins on female private parts or uncomfortably long takes of women writhing around on beds. The film did make me writhe around on my couch though, itching the fast-forward button.

Oasis of the Zombies begins with two girls lurching around the titular oasis. They’re holding hands, so you’d think Franco would have them be lesbians out for a romp in the sand. Instead he just zooms-in on their butts and as they stumble across a bunch of human bones and Nazi helmets. There are only a couple of dead ferns covering all of the Nazi paraphernalia, so you’d figure someone would’ve discovered these historically important artifacts by now. There’s even a cannon sticking out of some brush and an exposed swastika! Maybe it’s all an elaborate booby-trap set by the undead Nazi soldiers? In my mind it is.

The film then mechanically goes through a bunch of flashbacks and obligatory exposition. Back in WWII, a convoy in the desert lost $6 million in Nazi gold during a British raid. The battle is shamelessly made up of stock war footage from a different movie. The only survivor is an English soldier, Blabert. A creepy local sheik and his daughter, who Blabert later impregnates, take him in. His illegitimate son, Robert, is sent back to England and Blabert goes native.

Jump to the present and a German veteran tricks Blabert into showing him where the oasis is so he can steal the $6 mill. Also looking for the gold is grown-up Robert and his group of rich university friends. Basically the protagonists we’re supposed to be rooting for are a bunch of privileged rich kids looking to get richer. Get outta my face – I hope they all die slow. When they arrive at the oasis, both parties awaken the undead Nazis and you see where this is going.

More than anything, Oasis of the Zombies is an absolute bore. Like most low-budget fare, it’s edited poorly and takes are always several seconds longer than they need to be. Excruciatingly long scenes are devoted to plot points of absolutely no importance. The acting is typically hokey but at least the zombies are kinda cool. Their makeup is so carelessly thrown on that they’re almost hypnotizing in their shittiness. You sort of have to admire the DIY spirit of the film. It’s not a good zombie movie but as with other Franco films there’s no self-importance behind it. It is what it is, man. Zombie enthusiasts should check this film out, everyone else stay the hell away.

A/V

Kino/Redemption Films presents Oasis of the Zombies in 1080p 1.66:1 widescreen with 2.0 audio. The film has been remastered for the first time, but a lot of its scratches, dirt, and random warps are present. The imperfections are appropriate for this type of low-budget film though and I don’t think they’re necessarily distracting. The colors and details look great and there’s no oversaturation.

Special Features

Trailers for other Kino/Redemption Films releases: Zombie Lake, Female Vampire, and Exorcism.

[BD Review] ‘Female Vampire’ Kind Of… Bites

Movies
Posted by David Harley on October 27, 2012 @ 12:10pm
Category: Movies / Reviews

Reviewed by Patrick Cooper

The folks at Kino and Redemption Films have been showing the maestro of soft-core sleaze Jess Franco some love on Blu-ray lately. They released a humble disc of his 1975 sadomasochist horror film Exorcism with no features besides the alternate cut (Demoniac). For his 1973 film Female Vampire, they’ve included some special features as well as the less-explicit alternate cut. It’s a nice package for his fans, but the film itself suffers from the drawbacks of nearly every Franco film.

The filmmaker’s muse and late wife Lina Romay stars as the Countess Irina Karlstein, a mute woman who lives with her family’s curse of having to drink bodily fluids to survive. Not blood, cum. Both male and female. She feeds by going down on her victims and once they orgasm she drains them of their fluids and they die. It’s not explained how this kills them, but this isn’t the type of film to sweat over details.

The Countess returns to her ancestral home on the Portuguese island of Madeira, making the locals wary and the men horny. There she lurks around all sexy like, usually with just a cape and boots on, engaging in sexual relations with men and women alike. She finishes them off in more ways than one, if ya catch my drift. She even has a dopey assistant who lures victims to her home. That’s really about it as far as the story goes. There is a weak sub-plot thrown in concerning a writer (Jack Taylor) who falls in love with the Countess, but that flaccid emotional story quickly finds its boner and devolves into a round of deadly oral sex.

The erotic scenes in Female Vampire are excruciatingly long and make up about the first hour of this 100-minute movie. There’s one solo scene with Lina where she’s writhing around on a bed for something like seven minutes. This is after she performs fellatio on the bedpost. Franco films these scenes very clumsily. He erratically zooms-in on crotches and butts like he just hit puberty. As sexy as Lina is, these scenes are nothing but tedious.

Luckily Redemption has included the 70-minute cut of the film, titled Erotikill. This version cuts out much of the sex in exchange for more violence. This version also seems to imply that Countess Karlstein feeds on blood like a normal ass vampire.

For Franco fetishists, this disc is a must-have. It’s a well-made package with some brief, but well-produced features. For those unfamiliar with Franco, you might want to check this out via your preferred method of rental.

A/V

Redemption Films presents Female Vampire in 1080p from a print containing an abundance of scratches, specks, and sporadic brightness fluctuations. No digital tampering has been done, which honestly may have weakened the film’s foggy, natural look. There are audio tracks in English and French, both in lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. The English dubbing sounds silly, so I recommend watching it in French with English subtitles.

Special Features

Erotikill – a 70-minute, less explicit cut of the film.

Destiny in Soft Focus: Jess Franco Remembers Female Vampire (13:00) – Franco reminisces on the film and his relationship with Lina.

Words for Lina (13:00) – a nice tribute by co-star Jean-Pierre Bouyxou. He tells some anecdotes about Lina, always stressing how great her sense of humor was. He calls her a “guttersnipe.”

Trailers for Franco’s Exorcism, The Nude Vampire, The Rape of the Vampire, Female Vampire, and Requiem for a Vampire.

[BD Review] Jess Franco’s ‘Exorcism’ Brings the Black Mass to Blu-ray

Movies
Posted by David Harley on October 24, 2012 @ 9:37pm
Category: Movies / Reviews

Review by Patrick Cooper

Jess Franco is an iconoclast of European trash who has made about a zillion films so far in his lifetime. Nearly all of them have heavy doses of eroticism and light-horror thrown in, with mixed results. He’s garnered a cult following over the years and while he may not be the most capable director in the world, there’s no denying his enthusiasm for filmmaking and naked women.

Made during Franco’s creative eruption of the 1970s (he made over 50 films in that decade alone), Exorcism is a tale of pseudo-Satanism filled with loads of sex, sleaze, and stabbings. Set in the underground world of Parisian sadomasochist performance art, the film stars Franco’s exhibitionist muse and late wife, Lina Romay. The very first shot of the film is Romay tied to a cross, being whipped and having blood smeared on her by a blonde. It’s pretty much the antithesis of an opening establishment shot from a helicopter. A crowd of elderly creeps watches this whole bloody spectacle, apparently getting their rocks off.

Turns out it’s just some S&M performance art and Anne (Romay) does this all the time. She’s an assistant or an intern or something at “Garter and Dagger” magazine and her and the editor Raymond (Pierre Taylou) stage these phony torture sex shows for material. Sometimes the audience participates and that’s when things get real gross.

Franco plays Mathis, a former priest who now writes short stories for “Garter and Dagger.” He was kicked out of the church for being too extreme in his devotion to the nastier parts of the Old Testament. One day at the office he covertly overhears Raymond and Anne talking about a black mass they’re going to be having. It’s just one of their slimy humpfests where people pretend to be sacrificed, but in Mathis’ twisted mind he believes they’re planning a legit occult ceremony for the dark lord himself. Mathis dons his priest’s robes again and starts stalking and killing everyone involved in the black mass. Every swinger, slut, and mustached Satanist falls under Mathis’ holy blade.

Franco plays a great creep. He spends most of the film peeping out his window into Anne’s loveden across the street, but when he gets down to abducting and “exorcising” people (stabbing them) he’s a menacing little sicko. There’s only one scene of impressively realistic looking gore. The rest of the killings are more about naked women screaming than any kind of real horror. None of the nudity is erotic and I found myself fast-forwarding some of the time devoted to writhing naked bodies. These scenes are more boring than anything else.

If you want to skip the sleaze and get down to the film’s more horror-influenced elements, Kino Lorber’s Redemption Films has included the alternate cut of the film, called Demoniac. This cut is nearly 30 minutes shorter than Exorcism and features none of the lengthy sex scenes. Franco also reshot some of the expository scenes for this cut, this time with everyone wearing clothes. Both cuts of the film sadly contain Franco’s novice camerawork and total lack of depth in both character and story.

The final minute of the film is completely baffling and hilarious. The tone (whatever minute trace of tone there was) completely changes to a buddy-cop film. The two detectives working the Mathis murders have a laugh and one of them delivers a line of dialogue resembling “You’re alright with me, rookie.” It’s amazing and so out of place and it might be the only entertaining moment of the film.

If you’re a fan of ‘70s sleaze for the helluva it then you’re going to love Exorcism. If you savor character, story, and skilled camerawork, stay far, far, away from this one.

A/V
Exorcism probably looked grungy from the start and on Redemption Film’s Blu-ray release there are loads of scratches, specks, and frequent fluctuations in brightness. The 1080p transfer doesn’t clear up any of these hiccups. Franco didn’t concern himself with petty annoyances like focusing the camera, so nothing looks sharp. Nothing seems to have been digitally corrected, which some people might dig. The only audio track is a 2.0 mix with English dubbing. The volume fluctuates throughout the film but at least the eerie soundtrack sounds nice.

Special Features
Trailers for Franco’s Exorcism, The Nude Vampire, The Rape of the Vampire, Female Vampire, and Requiem for a Vampire.

Demoniac – a 69 minute, less explicit cut of the film.