Dark Echo

I don't know of the Argentine VHS release but I own an original Japanese VHS release on the TCC Video label. It's not even that good of a film. Rather hokey but perhaps enjoyable for fans of trash cinema (like myself). I doubt that any major U.S. video companies will be jumping at the chance to put this one out on DVD. However, it would be nice to see it in a nice widescreen transfer. The Japanese VHS is full screen (pan & scan) with only letterboxed opening credits. I don;t know much about the director but was wondering if he did any other horror flicks or if this was just a cash in attempt at the zombie craze of the late 70's into early 80's.

What we have here is an extremely hard-to-find Austrian/Yugoslavian 'underwater ghost/zombie' flick that, to my knowledge, was never released legitimately on DVD or VHS anywhere other than Argentina (who had a video released many years back through TVE), Japan and Poland. I also can't find any verification online about whether it ever played theatrically or not. There's almost no information about this title even here at IMDb. It's very slow-going and probably of minimal interest to most because of that, but still has some merit and parts of it are interesting. And since there actually weren't that many zombie movies released during the 1970s (LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE, DAWN OF THE DEAD and ZOMBI 2 being the three major ones), it's probably worth a look for die-hard zombie movie completists.

Watching a combination of American, British and European (French, Hungarian, German...) actors filling out the cast, all of whom speak English with varying degrees of success, makes it a bit hard to get a feel for the location. The plot (which reminded me of THE FOG with a little SHOCK WAVES thrown in) involves a series of mysterious murders plaguing a small, lakeside village in Austria. The local police (headed by Wolfgang Brook) are aided in their investigation by American psychic Bill Cross (Joel Fabiani), local writer Lisa Brueckner (Karin Dor) and others. The killer turns out to be a skull-faced zombie/ghost sea captain who resides in wreckage at the bottom of the lake during the day but sneaks up to the village at night to kill off the descendants of those responsible for his death years earlier. There's also some old backwoods witch with a raven on her shoulder who secretly leads a cult of young villagers. These scenes didn't seem to have a lot to do with the main plot line but they're colorful and do provide some gratuitous nudity.

First, the negatives... It takes about an hour to actually get a good look at the killer, and the first introduction of it (which should have been jarring) is a bit fumbled. ** It's extremely talky and some of the dialogue is terrible. ** The 'idiot plot' syndrome rears its ugly head quite a few times, especially when Dor's character - one of the killer's targets - is left alone out in the middle of a field while a mob goes off into the woods chasing after the killer. ** It's lacking in blood/gore aside from one underwater stabbing and a surprisingly gory decapitation complete with brains oozing out of the top of a head.

Now on to the better stuff... The acting is decent. ** It's well photographed, including some decent underwater photography. ** The village setting is atmospheric, and good use is made out of crumbling old churches and other buildings. ** The music score is excellent. ** The zombie design (from John Chambers and Tom Burman) is rather good. ** Despite the fact the zombie is kept off screen until near the end, the POV camera-work of a growling, heavy-breathing killer is well done and creepy, and good use is made of shadow on several occasions. ** Several of the deaths, while lacking in blood, are still effective and somewhat brutal, including a woman pushed out of a building and landing on a rocky embankment below.

There are certainly worse films out there, but there are also better ones. Still, if you're like me and love older zombie films or finding obscure films few people have seen, this is worth a watch. Director George Robotham is best known as a Hollywood stunt double for the likes of Rock Hudson, Clark Gable and John Wayne. DARK ECHOES marks his first and only film as director. He was married to lead actress Dor from 1988 until his death in 2007 from Alzheimer's complications.

It's always a bad sign when a film was produced in 1977, but not even officially released in its home country until 1986. That means the producers of DARK ECHOES had a finished product, but thought it would be a waste of everyone's time to even release it. Ouch! Indeed, DARK ECHOES is pretty much a complete waste of your time; it's not scary, not entertaining and a much, much inferior version of THE FOG or SHOCK WAVES.

Many moons ago in a small lakeside Austrian town, Captain Manfred Gohr led a failed voyage which ended with his ship at the bottom of the water. The townspeople have always blamed the captain for the sinking, and as fitting for a man named Manfred Gohr, he comes back as a zombie with excellent swimming skills and terrorizes his old home. It's up to the police chief and a martini-swigging detective who can see the future for some reason to save the day!

If you decide to unearth DARK ECHOES from its deserved obscurity, prepare for an endless stream of badly written conversation scenes for the first hour of the film. Watch a detective get a ride from a nice teenager! Watch the mayor discuss the town with the local barkeep! Listen to a bunch of people with radically different accents all speak English in an Austrian town! Not only are the scenes dull as dishwater, they are poorly written as well, so you get plenty of wonderful lines like, "You may be the world's worst reprobate, but you're loyal!"

The deaths are almost all off-screen, there's a random cult subplot that never explains itself, and the climax is a dull whimper of an ending. While you do get one fun decapitation, a gooey villain and some wonderful lakeside scenery, it's hard not to spend most of DARK ECHOES' running time daydreaming about a Balkan vacation. It's probably better than ZOMBIE LAKE, but so is gouging out your own eyes.

Skip it. 3 out of 10, +1 for a sick score that deserves a vinyl re-mastering!

Video Search of Miami lists the film as one you'll never find in reference sources and until they laid that challenge down you didn't. Between the time they offered it for sale and when I bought it it appeared on IMDb.

The movie was tonight's offering...

Its a strange European film co production made in English by two Balkan countries. It concerns the return of a ferry captain from the dead to get revenge on the descendants of the people who had laid blame on him for the ferry accident in which he died along with 86 other people. There's no question he's doing it since you see him during the opening credits.

The film isn't bad. Its by no means scary or even tense, but it is interesting, the sort of film they don't make any more... or even when it was released, which was 1986. I would have sworn it was made no later than say 1981 or 1982 and more probably in the late 1970's. This is after all a movie about a zombie in a rubber mask and a pea coat going around killing people in a nice quiet mountain village.

Who made this film and who thought they could release it in '86? I have no idea. This had to be someone's idea to make a quick buck,but I can't see this being made as late as 86 unless the people involved were completely out of touch with world wide trends.Unless of course it was made earlier but sat on the shelf until someone thought they could do something with it. The clothes lead me to believe that was the case. This is a movie that even in say 1982 was on the edge of being eclipsed by films like the Thing or Friday the 13th and any of the gore films. This is mostly a gore free movie, except for a rather badly done mid-head decapitation- watch where the axe hits the head and watch where the head comes apart...they are not the same place... nor is the monsters head ever the same size....

This is in its way a rather sweet movie. Possibly too sweet and nice and gentle... which is an odd thing to say, its as if the film makers didn't want to really scare you. If it wasn't for the blood it could be a a kids film.

Did I like it? Yes I did.

Do I need to see it again? No, no I don't. However it would make an excellent double feature with Spirits of Jupiter another lost drive-in horror film from the early 80's. All I need now is some popcorn a few friends and a game to play while watching and we're set....

First addressing the issue of availability: It's not on DVD, but it's online, in full. However, it's a little hard to find, since it's under its Japanese title (but the movie is in English, and without subtitles or anything, and the quality is quite good.) Best google it as 'Dark Echoes 1977', and it'll direct you to the youtube link.

As for the movie itself: It's a strange but enjoyable little piece. A mixture of travelogue and horror movie. It has some gorgeous settings (the lake, the castle ruins, the cave), a distinctly European flair (the Austrian village with its pub and church, the strange local customs ("What's he doing?" - "He's the village artist. He paints the skulls for us." - "Paints the skulls?! What for?"), etc.), some nice underwater photography, and a very leisurely pace (you'll need some patience and a bit of an attention span).

It also has a likable hero and heroine: the American psychic Bill Cross (Joel Fabiani, "Department S"), who somehow manages to digest quarter-liters (!) of dry martini and still stay sober for the ghost-hunt, and the local journalist Lisa Bruekner (Karin Dor, "You Only Live Twice"). Actually, the mysterious sinking of the boat (no witnesses, no survivors, no explanation ever found) would make a good case for "Department S". And "You Only Live Twice" is certainly true for the zombie captain of the boat. There's also the rather fascinating character of the witch (Hungarian actress Hanna Hertelendy, "Raid On Entebbe"). The acting is decent, the story is solid, and apart from its slow pace, it's really not a bad movie. It definitely has its moments, even if he horror is rather subtle.

On the other hand, it also has its involuntarily comical moments, like the weird cult's clandestine meetings in the cavern, and especially when some of he minor characters sound as if these were the only lines in English they ever uttered in their lives. Come to think of it, that may actually be the case... But then again, you could see that as part of he movie's unique charm.

All in all, if you like strange European horror flicks, by all means, give it a try. At best late at night (like, around midnight, perhaps), with a snack and/or one of the hero's favorite martinis, and when you're in the right mood, it should make for a rather enjoyable experience. So, on a good day - or rather, night - eight out of ten, for the sheer fun of it.