Zombie Lake (1981)

“Better than HELGA, SHE-WOLF OF STILBERG”

         That’s not saying very much though, is it? And to be fair to ZOMBIE LAKE, a film vilified by many, it’s actually quite a bit better than that other piece of Eurocine tat I reviewed recently. Why is it better? Well, in another change to usual programming, I’m going to tell you why!

Ten Reasons ZOMBIE LAKE is better than HELGA SHE-WOLF OF STILBERG

1         In the first scene post-credits you can see a cameraman in the mirror, but he at least tries to hide. Mind you, later on there’s a bit where we get to see both the sound man and the cameraman (who doesn’t appear to be wearing a shirt).

Tiny bit scary?

2         Both films have the same composer, but here Daniel White does a slightly better job, even if he does have to import his score from FEMALE VAMPIRE for the movie’s bizarre Nazi zombie father / daughter relationship.

3         No clucking chickens! In fact the sounds effects in general are a lot better. There’s a cat that meows a few too many times but at least with this one you feel these are the kinds of noises you’d get in a rural French village where Nazi zombies have been hiding in a lake.

Eco-friendly zombies?

4         A naked French ladies’ basketball team gets grabbed by the zombies in the lake.

5         Despite the TERRIBLE makeup, director ‘J A Lazer’ (actually Jean Rollin) actually manages at least a couple of slightly atmospheric scenes.

The one on the left is going for the BAFTA

6         Jean Rollin himself appears as one of the policemen investigating the naked basketball disappearance.

7         Howard Vernon!

The police are baffled. We are baffled as to why these are the police

8         The lake location actually looks rather nice. That’s probably a swimming pool they’re using to get the underwater shots, though. The water of a lake would never be so clear that you could get such a good view of all the young ladies' nether regions.

The director is called in to solve the mystery

9         The stock footage is slightly better.

10       It is shorter.

        For my sins I have to admit I quite liked ZOMBIE LAKE. There’s a bizarre subplot that involves one of the dead German soldiers visiting his daughter, who should be at least 25 if she was born during the war but for some reason she looks about 12. Screenbound’s DVD transfer of this looks very nice and for extras we get those ‘alternate clothed scenes’ shot for territories that found the prospect of ladies with no clothes on too scary to deal with. You also get some trailers for other films in the series.

Jean Rollin's ZOMBIE LAKE is out from Screenbound on DVD as the inaugural title in their Black House range on Monday 20th March 2017