I don't have a lot to say about this one. It's about a small cruise of people (think Gilligan's Island) getting stranded on an island that was once used to experiment on Nazi soldiers to try create the perfect soldier that couldn't die, and could also survive/attack underwater. So yes this could quite possibly be the only film about underwater Nazi zombies, and Peter Cushing (Star Wars episode IV, Horror of Dracula, Dr. Who) is the Nazi commander who used to be in charge of the zombie operation. The only other notable names in the movie are John Carradine (Grapes of Wrath, The Howling, The Sentinel [1970s version] several dracula films), and Brooke Adams (Days of Heaven, The Dead Zone). The movie is a low
budget flick with a similar feel to a Roger Corman flick from the 70s: very gritty, limited makeup or costume effects, and film mostly during the day. The movie has some pretty good POV scenes as well as zombie stalking scenes shot underwater. The zombies are always creepy whenever they're shown too because they do everything in unison. The acting is all pretty well done considering the plot's premise and the movie's budget. The last notable thing that should be mentioned about the film is how wonky its soundtrack is. The film has a lot of very ominous unusual synthesizer tones that are at sometimes very slow and heavy, and at others super frantic and high pitched creating a near fever-dream of an atmosphere that is very effective for creating a very fitting atmosphere for this film (it's really similar to another little known classic 70s horror Let's Scare Jessica to Death[1971]). My only problem with this film though is that it does tend to drag in some spots and seem rather boring at times, so I give it a 4.25/5. You can view the trailer below:
Roger Corman's Humanoids From the Deep (1980) I've never before seen a movie of Roger Corman's (the king of the B-movie) that I would truly consider a B-movie quality wise, but this certainly fits the bill. The movie was very controversial at the time because of how Feminists thought the women were being portrayed in the sense that only the men died and the beasts went after the women to mate with them, so there was an argument that there was racist undertones to in the sense of the age old fear of "they're going to take our women!", but Corman and the writers insist they were just reading too much into it and it was a straight up monster movie, also the movie was directed by a woman. The acting and writing are pretty bad at times, some hilarity is caused by that though at times. The monsters were designed by a guy who went on to win awards and do special effects for The Fog, The Thing and Se7en, as well as having it's music composed by future Oscar winner and composer of the music for Titanic (1997) James Horner. The movie would eventually be remade in 96. The original is hard to find but is now on instant streaming on Netflix. I give it a 3.5/5. This movie is also featured in Rue Morgue magazine's book 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need to See, the book also includes an interview with Roger Corman about this film. You can view the trailer below, warning it is NSFW (not suitable for work):
