SHOCK WAVES
MOVIE REVIEW

My Books and Movies!

E.C. McMullen Jr.
RUMOR

RUMOR: People are dying to know the truth

PERPETUAL
BULLET

"'Some People' ... may be the standout story in the book."
- John Grant, Infinityplus

E.C. McMullen Jr.
WILLOW BLUE

"'Willow Blue' will burrow under your skin and stay there long after you've put the book down."
- Jeffrey Reddick, Creator of
FINAL DESTINATION

IN OTHER BOOKS
E.C. McMullen Jr.'s
short story
CEDO LOOKED LIKE PEOPLE
in the anthology
FEAR THE REAPER

"This Ray Bradbury-esque is one of the most memorable and one of the more original stories I've read in a long time."
- Steve Isaak,
Goodreads

HORROR 201:
The Silver Scream

Filmmaker's Guidebook
featuring
RAY BRADBURY,
JOHN CARPENTER,
WES CRAVEN,
TOM HOLLAND,
E.C. McMULLEN Jr.,
GEORGE A. ROMERO,
and many more.

And In
CINEMA
E.C. McMullen Jr.
Head Production Designer

MINE GAMES
(Starring:
JOSEPH CROSS,
BRIANA EVIGAN,
ALEX MERAZ,
ETHAN PECK)

Dept. head
Special Effects Make-Up
(SFX MUA)

A SIERRA NEVADA
GUNFIGHT
(MICHAEL MADSEN & JOHN SAVAGE).

Production Designer

UNIVERSAL DEAD
(DOUG JONES,
D.B. SWEENEY,
GARY GRAHAM)

Art Director

THE CRUSADER
(COLIN CUNNINGHAM,
GARY GRAHAM)

Review by
Kelly Parks

PETER CUSHING
AND THE
SHOCKWAVE
OF 1977

SHOCK WAVES

aka

Almost Human

-1977
USA Release: July 15, 1977
Zopix Company
Rating: USA: R

Underwater Nazi Zombies. It practically writes itself!

SHOCK WAVES was directed by Ken Wiederhorn (EYES OF A STRANGER, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD PART II, DARK TOWER) and written by Mr. Wiederhorn along with John Kent Harrison (MURDER BY PHONE) and Ken Pare.

The story opens with a short bit of narration describing the German High Command's interest in the supernatural and how SS scientists had created a squad of undead soldiers that were devastating on the battlefield but were ultimately unusable because they were very difficult to control. In other words we start with a brief description of the monster we'll finally meet much later in the film.

Rather heavy handed foreshadowing.

Cut to a girl named Rose (Brooke Adams: INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, THE DEAD ZONE, THE STUFF, SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK) adrift in a rowboat. She's found by fishermen and taken to a hospital where she takes over the narrating duties. We flash back to a few days before when Rose was a passenger on a small passenger ship in (I think) the Caribbean. The passengers are all tourists and the ship is run by Captain Ben (John Carradine: BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, HOUSE OF DRACULA, EVIL SPAWN, THE NESTING, DOCTOR DRACULA, SATAN'S MISTRESS, THE HOWLING, VAMPIRE HOOKERS, SATAN'S CHEERLEADERS, and many more).

A pleasant day turns ugly when the strange orange clouds cover the sun. Not long after the ship runs aground and Captain Ben goes missing. Passengers and the small crew take a dinghy to a nearby island to look for help and find Captain Ben's corpse, thus ending Carradine's cameo. A bit of wandering leads to the discovery of a seemingly abandoned hotel on this otherwise empty island.

But it's not quite abandoned. An old Nazi SS commander (Peter Cushing: MONSTER ISLAND, AT THE EARTH'S CORE, THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA, FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE, THE CREEPING FLESH, THE BRIDES OF DRACULA, HORROR EXPRESS, DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN, and many, many more) is living a solitary life there. He has no interest in company and demands they all leave. They'd love to if only their boat wasn't aground.

Meanwhile, as promised by the opening narration, the Nazi zombie soldiers, still wearing their spotless uniforms, begin waking up. They are lying dormant underwater in lagoons and off beaches all over and around the island. These aren't shambling zombies as in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. These are more like trained zombies, which reminded me of Bub in DAY OF THE DEAD.

Will the former Nazi guy help these people? Is there any way to stop trained Nazi zombies? Why do the zombies spend so much time under water? Will Peter Cushing's appearance earlier this same year in Star Wars revitalize his career? All good questions. Instead of answering any of them, I'll tell you this: as B movie monsters the underwater Nazi zombies weren't bad. I give SHOCK WAVES three shriek girls.