Atomic Thrill

Well, I've seen TONS of bad reviews for this movie... for no apparent reason. Did people expect a serious movie? On the old VHS copy of this tape I have, it even says on the back of the box "this is a movie for people who like some laughs with their gore." And it certainly delivers the laughs and is just an overall good time. It's not REALLY a horror movie, persé, but it's definitely worth checking out and is pretty easy to find at old mom-and-pop shops across the country.

The minute this movie starts with a long shot of a lake and the hilariously bad rockabilly/swingin' song "I Was a Teenage Zombie" (by the Fleshtones -- I am so lucky to have this song on MP3), you know you're in for a treat. The characters are absolutely priceless: We have a guy that looks like Lars Ulrich (who gets his tongue ripped off, I believe). Then, the main character, who looks like Doogie Howser and is basically a huge geek. Then, there is a Mexican pimp selling some bad weed, and he is just amazing. In one scene, he rips a guy's hilarious and shocking Playdough face off and says, "Yeah, I'm the weedman! I got some WEED!" I was rolling on the floor laughing.

A good b-movie's weight can be measured in how many scenes you will want to show to your friends, and this film certainly delivers. Whether it's the hilarious rape scene (the Mexican zombie pimp is raping a girl and drooling and then breaks her legs in half or something), the decapitated head basketball scene, or the hilarious Troma reference (LLOYD KAUFMAN JUST FELL INTO A CONTAINER OF TOXIC WASTE!). However, the most amazing part of the movie has to be in the first half-hour of the film: One of the characters changes into a baseball uniform JUST to hit another character in the head with a baseball bat and then changes back in the next shot. It's all very humorous.

I'm guessing the people who gave this a bad rating were expecting a Fulci classic or something. All in all, it's definitely a good time, up there with Monster High and Rock N Roll Nightmare as the most amazingly underrated and wonderful B-Movies of all time. See it.

"I Was a Teenage Zombie" follows a group of teenagers who kill a drug dealer at their high school and dump his corpse in a toxic river that turns him into a zombie. Chaos ensues in true eighties teen film fashion.

One of the weirder offerings of the late 1980s, "I Was a Teenage Zombie" is borderline-"so bad it's good," but it has several things going for it that make it at least semi-interesting. I have seen some compare the film to those of John Waters, and the comparison is most definitely warranted. The film has the kitschy, gritty edge of Waters' early work, with a dash of John Hughes, resting in the framework of a solid horror movie.

The film certainly stands out among the crop of late-eighties horror films, when the slasher was in its death knell between 1987 and the post-"Scream" landscape. It is aesthetically on par with the greatest of eighties teen cult films, and boasts some economical yet serviceable special effects. It's quite clearly low-budget, but rather charming in all its ridiculousness. The acting is by and large quite poor as well, punctuated with bad delivery and bad dialogue. The film has the distinguishing feature of boasting a wildly memorable soundtrack, including a title track by The Fleshtones and other songs from the Violent Femmes and the late and great Alex Chilton. Are you interested yet?

Overall, it's easy to see why "I Was a Teenage Zombie" has become a minor cult hit, though at the same time, it's surprising that the cult hasn't grown over the years. The film's niche audience sees in it precisely what it was striving for, and expects no more and no less of it. It's an absurd film, humorous and utterly inane, but ceaselessly amusing. Fans of low-budget cheese will have a ball with this one. 7/10.

I was in the video store back in the eighties (probably 1987) and I was just a kid mesmorized by the horror video section. Now, parents let me rent horror films just as long as the cover was not gruesome or had a guy with a chainsaw on it. Boy were they fooled. I saw the cover to this movie and instantly it looked like a cool movie. My parents looked at it and saw nothing objectionable about it, so I rented it. I remember the movie itself was silly and childish but what really stood out for me were some of the gore scenes in the movie. When your a 7 year old kid and you see someone getting their face viciously ripped off that kind of thing sticks with you. Now, going into present day, I had one hell of a time finding a copy of this movie but, thanks to Ebay, I found an original copy just as I remembered it. Boy, was this a jem for me. So, I got some beer, sat down and popped it on. I was not disappointed at all. Basically, the story goes like this. A group of teenage friends are looking for some weed to smoke at high school dance. They can't find it anywhere but through a low life called Mussalini (Moose for short). The weed turns out to be really bad and they go to get their money back but off course Moose plays it like a jerk. So the teens kill Moose by accident and through his body into a local river that has been heavily polluted. Needless to say, Moose comes back to life to seek revenge and soon starts killing the teens. Well, the few that are left decide to fight fire with fire and throw one of their dead friends into the same polluted water and hope that he comes back. This is a great low budget film that brings back a lot of memories from the eighties. For gore fans, don't expect anything to vicious but the movie does have its moments, just very low budget moments. 8 stars

One of the best movies I've seen in a while. No wonder it is in the Criterion Collection. Yes, of course its stupid,but so what? Does stupid necessarily equal bad? I don't think so at all.. This movie had almost everything I admire about zombie and more generally, horror movies: the camp (poor video/audio quality and dialogue in this regard) action, raunchiness, some gore yes, and laughs. I thought the plot was entirey original and well thought out. The film had many likable characters and includes great performances by the drug dealer and the two main heroes. In fact they were most all endearing. There were one or two particularly gross scenes which I could have done without. Awesome soundtrack also. Highly recommend to any zombie fan. Bravo!

Maybe it was because I was a teenager when I rented it, but, I don't think this flick is all that bad. The basic element is dumb, naturally: some sort of toxic, polluted marijuana turns a dealer and a teen into zombies who must, for some reason, battle each other. But, there are some okay moments. The guy who gets his face torn off and then has his face rubbed in... well, his face. And, the odd rape scene on the car hood, with our resident dealer zombie, who tears off her legs, apparently to the victim's delight, is just plain odd enough to make you laugh inquisitively.