Night of the Zombies

The plot of Joel M. Reed's "Night of the Zombies" concerns a group of investigators searching for the bodies of missing soldiers.They encounter a group of undead WWII soldiers who've apparently been kept alive by some chemical gas called Gamma 693 or something like that.Deadly dull and uninteresting horror film that is as dreary as they come.The action is utterly lifeless and there is not enough blood-in fact the film is pretty goreless.I can't believe that the same director directed outrageously sleazy "Bloodsucking Freaks"."Night of the Wehrmacht Zombies" is far from the worst horror movie ever made,but I was bored senseless whilst watching this low-budget atrocity.You have been warned.3 out of 10.

The first time I saw this picture was during the era of "Elvira: Mistress of the Dark's Movies" in the early eighties.(around the age of 13 or so) It really seemed a lot more interesting and suspenseful at the time but I guess THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME COMMERCIAL BREAKS ACTUALLY ENHANCED THE VIEWING OF A FEATURE FILM ON TV!!!! After buying the movie for a few bucks in a drug store a couple years back I have to say that this film has a lot going AGAINST IT. Bad European actors, bad special effects, and Jamie Gillis. (Boy, I don't know how this guy NEVER became the next Bruce Willis!)This movie started with a great idea but never developed anything cohesive out of it. If you're really bored or drunk or just want to watch a bad piece of cinema check this one out, if you want a good scary German zombie flick check out "Schocktroops".

Well, I guess I am the second person to say this movie is kind of good. This movie gets boring a lot. I think the advantage of this movie is the gore. The gore was great. The zombies moved really slow unlike other zombies I have seen in other zombie movies. The most bad part about the movie is that it is dark at times and you can't see what is going on. I give this movie 2.5 stars out of 5 stars (average).

My late wife, Debbie Jackson, was an assistant editor on NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES. Several years later, I found it in - of all places - a supermarket. I brought it home, but for some reason, Debbie refused to watch. That always puzzled me, but I guess the memory was just too painful. Years after that, the tape disappeared from our house. I can only assume she threw it away. My only memory of the movie is a chase scene shot in Europe, with pickup shots in Greenwhich Village, in an area that sorta looks like Europe.

Debbie told me stories about meeting Jamie Gillis and how the producers were always running out of money and bringing new investors to the editing room. There was a similar movie called SHOCK WAVES, also about revived Nazi Zombies, and according to Debbie, there was some talk that their priceless idea had been ripped off. Oh well.

This horror movie production of very, VERY questionable quality opens rather peculiarly, with German marching music during the opening credits and a bunch of seemingly drunk actors with heavy German accents talking incomprehensible nonsense to each other. You either have to put the movie on stop straight away or accept these poor productions values immediately, because the incoherent plotting, weak dialogs and trashy incompetence go on for the rest of the movie. A handful of researchers are investigating a remote and forestry German region because, allegedly, there was held a secretive chemical warfare battle near the end of WWII and since then the place is a breeding ground for rotting Nazi zombies. Well, with more than 30 years after the end of the War, I'd say it's about time the military decided to investigate the rumors! If you manage to get the boring and inept first hour and ten minutes, during which there's absolutely not a single zombie in sight, you'll be "rewarded" with perhaps two or three zombie attack sequences, but still they'll all be scare-free and with terribly lame make-up effects.

The term "so bad it is good" doesn't even apply here anymore, as "Night of the Zombies" is a truly bottom-of-the-barrel horrible, trashy, tasteless and imbecilic Z-grade exploitation effort that cannot even remotely entertain the most hardened fans of bad cinema. Everything about the film is hideous to percept, from the characters' ugly mustaches to the nauseating Tiroler soundtrack. And just when you think it couldn't possible get any worse, writer/director Joel M. Reed comes up with a couple of the utmost retarded plot twists. Obviously there's also some random and totally gratuitous female nudity and a couple of embarrassing attempts at humor. I have honestly no idea what Joel M. Reed thought he was accomplishing here, but it's a miserable piece of junk that can't hold a candle to that other sordid little cult effort of his; entitled "Bloodsucking Freaks". I'm a big fan of that particular movie because it's so extreme and offensive, but "Night of the Zombies" is one of the most boring and pointless waste of film I ever voluntarily endured.