Rating: 
Summary: A Creepy Film Reminiscent of Hammer
Review: I purchased this DVD with much anticipation as I had read so many good reviews. After all, how can you go wrong with Nazi zombies? What I was treated to was a creepy film reminiscent of late hammer productions. As far as the story goes, a group of travelers become stranded on an island whose only inhabitant is none other than Peter Cushing. Cushing turns in his usual masterful performance as a Nazi commander in charge of the sea bearing arm of “death soldiers” created near the end of WWII. Cushing sent his men to the bottom of the sea at the war’s end and entered exile. John Carradine turns in a good, but all too short performance as the captain of the doomed tourist ship. The zombies awaken inexplicitly and are on the loose. The film makes use of atmosphere instead of gore to induce chills in the viewer. The film is not without its flaws. The Nazi’s for example rise from the bottom of the sea after 30+ years with nicely pressed uniforms. Torn and decayed uniforms would have been a nicer touch. This is perhaps a minor point. The quality of the DVD leaves a little to be desired. The colors are a bit washed out and scratches, artifacts, etc. are visible, particularly in the darker scenes. I’m sure the quality is still better than could be had on VHS. The movie gets 3 stars, but the DVD presentation would get 2 stars. I couldn’t help but think of how good a modern day remake by the likes of John Carpenter could be. This movie is sure to please zombie and horror fans alike, but the disc is a little pricey considering the quality.
Rating: 
Summary: 4 stars for the film - 1 star for the DVD release!
Review: I remember this film from when I saw it on TV as a teenager. I remembered it as being very creepy, and a memorable Zombie flick, but I couldn't remember the name of it. I ended up buying the old "Death Ship" movie with George Kennedy, thinking that was it. Not even close. Then one day I walk into this little mom & pop video store and see the cover of this film on laserdisc, and I knew that I had finally come home! I rented the laserdisc and copied it onto VHS. This laserdisc was a full screen version, not widescreen, but it was all that was available, until this DVD came out. I read one post below about how this DVD was presented in widescreen, but that the film was filmed in full frame, so a widescreen presentation actually crops off the top and bottom of the original film, instead of preserving the entire image. Well, I decided to go ahead and buy this DVD, hoping that reviewer was wrong, and if nothing else for the director commentary. That reviewer was right. This DVD stinks! I cued up my full frame VHS version neck to neck with the DVD version and played them side by side. This movie WAS filmed in full frame, and the DVD "widescreen" presentation hacks off a full third of the image information. Tops of heads are cut off, bottoms of bodies are cut off... it's aweful! When you watch the DVD widescreen version you feel like you are viewing the film through vertical blinders. Image quality is OK, although the color saturation is a bit washed out. The commentary is reasonably entertaining, but not worth the purchase price alone. If you have this on VHS, I would recommend you save your money and not buy this DVD "widescreen" version, unless you just gotta have the commentary. Heck, even my VHS copy has a highly entertaining trailer at the beginning for Tobe Hooper's "Eaten Alive" film! This DVD doesn't even have that!
Rating: 
Summary: Schlock Waves
Review: I saw this gem a couple decades ago on late, late nite TV and the site of the goggled Nazi corpses slowly emerging from the Florida surf was a creep-out that has stayed with me to this day. Obviously on a very low budget, the producers and director did a rather inventive job with what they had. You have to figure that Peter Cushing and John Carradine were probably looking for a Florida vacation, since their parts are mostly cameos. It still holds up quite well today, a rare example of the "daytime creep-out", rather a difficult thing to do, particularly in a tropical location usually reserved for Beach Blanket Bingo and the like. The sets are terrific, probably because they were using actual interiors from an abandoned hotel in Palm Beach much of the time.
A very fun movie, if for nothing else, the wonderful Peter Cushing's effortless work as a German commander, exiled in paradise.
"Zen...you are all STUPID!!!"
Priceless.
Rating: 
Summary: Defective DVD
Review: I was really enjoying the movie but it kept having pixellation problems . If you decide to buy, watch it inmediately, so you're not stuck with a defective copy.
Rating: 
Summary: I've wanted to see this movie since I was seven years old!
Review: I'm now a lot older if you didn't guess. Ever since my dad rented a horror movie from a back alley video store that had a trailer for Shock Waves before the start I've always wanted to see this movie. Later on I passed it in a video store but was unable to rent it due to my being so young and opinion not necessarily counting among the adults. I forgot what the name of it was until recently when I inquired it from online. And then it came to DVD. Oh Yes!! I've waited for so long for something I never knew was good or bad, it just intrigued me. I had watched the trailer many times and read many detailed reviews about the movie, and I just knew it was something I would love.I still wasn't sure if I would "love" it or not. Even before purchasing this dvd I was at first hesitant because of some of the negative reviews from people on this website. The reviews weren't negative towards the movie but towards the dvd itself. Like them I like my dvd movies to be of the utmost quality. After finally buying and watching the movie I can tell you that it was everything I expected it to be. It was eerie and atmospheric, and at the same time horrifying. It wasn't gory, which was okay. I dont mind gore in movies, but what I really love is a movie that comes along that doesnt rely on gore or graphic violence to deliver scares but pure atmosphere. And the Zombies!! The zombies from this movie are now some of my favorites out of the whole genre. Going back to the bad reviews for this dvd, some people had said that the widescreen presentation featured on this disc actually trimmed down the movie quite a bit. One reviewer even said that tops of heads were cut off. I have never seen a vhs or full screen version so I cant give a good comparison, but I will say that the wide screen looked absolutley gorgeous. None of the picture looked as if it was trimmed down or cut off at all. Even the heads didn't looked cut off. I had expected to see that, but it didn't exist. The only problem I had with the film visually was the massive amounts of grain featured on this film. I realize that this movie was filmed in poor quality, being shot in 16 and blown up, and according to the makers of this dvd the original negative disappeared 20 years ago, but from looking at the dvd it seems strange that this company couldn't have done more work to it. I have seen films shot in the same way and kept in worst conditions than this one, but have had a better restoration done later on. Perhaps I am wrong! Perhaps there was little they could do for this movie. Well, this is a great movie. If you love zombies you will deffinately love this one. Even if you dont love zombies you may like this one. The extras on the dvd are great, with a feature length commentary, trailer, tv spot, radio spots, and a very long still and poster gallery. What are you waiting for? Go out and rent or buy Shock Waves right now!
Rating:
Summary: Good film.....
Review: I've always been a Peter Cushing fan and a huge fan of this film. I first saw this movie on a late night horror show presenter by the name of Sammy Terry (Indiana based I think...very young at the time). I loved it from the start.....biased because of Cushing/Zombi/Nazi I'm sure. I've read some of the reviews about the screen format. From what I've read it seems as if the movie is actually Open Matte widescreen as opposed to Anamporphic like the DVD suggest. You'll see examples of this with H.P. Lovecrafts Bride Of Re-animator.....the bonus of that film was that you could still watch it full screen as an option. I've just ordered this movie and if I find my assumption incorrect I will edit my review. Later my horror fan brothers! Edit begins:
Yep as I suspected it is Open Matte.....much like the Evil Dead widescreen. Several B-movies are shot full screen and when they are shown in the theater the projectors actually have black bars at the top and bottom of the screen to make it fit the widescreen. So in most cases it is actually being show like it was originally was at the time of theatrical release. P.S. Please don't give this movie one star just because you are unhappy with the DVD release. Rate the film itself...and then as a footnote to your review put any good/bad info about the quality of the release. Take a look, this classic film is getting an average of 3 1/2 stars. I even read one review where the reviewer said he would watch the DVD over the VHS, however according to his rating you wouldn't think he'd ever watch it again.
Rating:
Summary: A 3 Hour Tour...
Review: John Carradine is a sour, crusty old sea captain on a pleasure boat for hire. He takes a group of tourists (among them, the lovely Brooke Adams) out for a cruise. They encounter a strange solar phenomenon and get lost. That night, the boat almost runs into a ghost ship. They have no idea that the derelict ship's crew of nazi zombies has risen from their watery grave! Severe engine trouble forces our merry band to flee to a nearby island. No Gilligan here! Peter Cushing is excellent as an old nazi-in-hiding who is the only one who knows what's actually going on. This is a genuinely creepy movie. There's no nudity, no gore, and very little profanity; and I still highly recommend it! ADDED BONUS: There's an extremely annoying guy in this movie! I found myself hoping for his quick demise. See if you can pick him out. Hint: He wears glasses and whines whenever he opens his mouth! Great flick! Prepare for a scare...
Rating:
Summary: Gilligan's Island With Nazis and Knives
Review: Nobody knows this movie, except for a few true late-night horror movie addicts of years gone by. And that's too bad, 'cause it's terrific. Old coot boat-captain John Carradine takes a handful of passengers on a minor-league sailing trip (everyone, together: "For a three hour tour, a three hour tour..."), all of whom suddenly find themselves in over their heads when a "ghost ship" rises and wrecks their boat. Landing on a nearby seemingly-deserted isle, they discover scarred Prussian ex-Nazi Peter Cushing, who warns them to get off the island in a dinghy before it is too late. Too late for what? (Well, I'll tell you...) Once upon a time, at the end of WWII, the desperate Third Reich undertook some heinous - but admittedly quite inventive - experiments. One of these was the creation of the Death's Head division, a collection of the most vicious and pitiless sadistic psychopaths the German military and prison system had to offer, transformed by Cushing's scientific know-how into undead, non-breathing zombies. These grotesque creatures were submerged in a ship off Cushing's island after the war, there being no further need for them - but now Carradine's boat has gone and woken the nasty things up. They're not at all controllable, pretty tough to put down, and oh boy, do they love murder... This incredible little low-budgeter works on its atmosphere and the conviction of its cast. Brooke Adams - who the following year would play another great hapless heroine in the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers - evokes tremendous sympathy as the shell-shocked survivor who tells the tale. Luke Halpin, of T.V.'s Flipper, is her tragic love-interest. Carradine and Cushing, of course, are both old horror movie standbys, and it's nice to see the two of them together. The most incredible thing about this movie is that it is all done in broad daylight. There's lots of stalk-and-slashing, but not one bit of it at night. Daylight terror is the hardest of all to pull off, and this movie does it in spades. The extras - the undead Nazis - are all brilliant, and memorable. They have a distinctly glacial look, all pasty-faced, waterlogged, gray-suited and blond-haired, with strap-on eye goggles, creepy beyond belief as they trudge along, unbreathing, along the sea bottom. They never speak, never show any expression, and in general behave like homicidally programmed robots - brutally efficient, without any emotion, their overall effect enhanced by a chilly electronic score soundtrack. Get Ginger and Marianne to safety, and watch this shuddery gem. ("Skipper - !" "Little Buddy - !")
Rating:
Summary: SHOCK WAVES
Review: On a desolate, nondescript Caribbean island, shipwreck survivors are surprised to discover that an eccentric old German doctor resides there in an abandoned and dilapidated hotel. They soon learn, however, that the old Teutonic medical man is more that just eccentric; he's a former S.S. officer who has continued with the experiments assigned to him by Der Führer. And it isn't long before the castaways find themselves battling for survival against a corps of amphibious Nazi zombies! This off-the-wall, low-budget horror film is just as goofy as it sounds, but it's still pretty good fun. And believe it or not, it actually spawned a bizarre sub-genre of Nazi zombie films that includes 1981's THE LAKE OF THE LIVING DEAD (a.k.a. ZOMBIE LAKE), 1981's NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES, and 1983's THE OASIS OF THE LIVING DEAD (a.k.a. BLOODSUCKING NAZI ZOMBIES), to name just a few. None of its cinematic offspring quite reach the guilty-pleasure or cult status of SHOCK WAVES, though. British horror icon Peter Cushing portrays the former S.S. officer, his interpretation somewhat reminiscent of his turns as Dr. Frankenstein in the films that came out of England's Hammer Studios in the 1960s and early 1970s. Actor John Carradine, a familiar face in American horror from the 1930s through the 1980s, appears in the minor role of the captain of the shipwrecked vessel. Carradine's character dies early in the film, however, so the two great horror veterans never get to share any screen time. A very unfortunate missed opportunity, as such a pairing certainly could've pushed SHOCK WAVES just a smidgen closer to notability. Actress Brooke Adams has a prominent role as one of the shipwreck survivors. (Indeed, the story actually unfolds like a sort of flashback as her character thinks back to the experience.) Genre fans will recognize her from such films as the 1978 remake of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, the 1983 film version of Stephen King's THE DEAD ZONE, a cameo in Larry Cohen's 1985 horror satire THE STUFF, and many others. The edition of SHOCK WAVES on DVD from the folks at Blue Underground is pretty good. Considering that the film was shot on 16mm and blown up to 35mm, and taking into account the fact that the disc was digitized from the director's personal copy of the film (the only complete version known to exist, according to the DVD jacket notes), this transfer--in anamorphic widescreen at the film's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1--looks quite good. In fact, when compared to the crappy video versions previously available, it's easy to forgive the minor filmic artifacts and the sometimes soft details. And the DVD has some great bonus material, too. The best is the feature commentary with director Ken Wiederhorn, make-up man Alan Ormsby, and filmmaker Fred Olen Ray. The trio are delightfully glib and candid, offering lots of humorous and informative anecdotes regarding their experiences in making low-budget horror. There's an interview with star Luke Halpin, who offers some info about his costars and some of his memories about making the film, and there are also a few radio spots, a television spot, and the film's theatrical trailer. As far as films go, SHOCK WAVES is not the best that Blue Underground has to offer, but it's nonetheless one of those fun guilty pleasures that fans of schlocky low-budget horror will want to add to their DVD collections.
Rating:
Summary: "And now they have returned"
Review: Once again, William Lustig's company Blue Underground released another cult classic film on DVD. This time around, it is the 1977 zombie flick "Shock Waves." Zombie pictures are usually quite formulaic; some unexplainable event-a plague, virus, radiation exposure, military project gone horribly awry, or some similar disaster of epic proportions-results in the deceased rising from their graves to wreak havoc on the living. Over the top gore is the usual result from interactions between ravaging zombies and their hapless living victims. George Romero started the modern fascination with the undead in his black and white classic "Night of the Living Dead." More films followed from Romero and from other directors. For instance, Lucio Fulci scored points with his ultra gooey 1979 "Zombie." Recently, Danny Boyle of "Trainspotting" fame attempted to rework the formula in "28 Days Later" by having his creatures falling victim to an extreme rage type virus. "Shock Waves" is different from these films in that there is no gore, the dead have not risen en masse to destroy humanity, and these zombies are not interested in consuming their victims. Surprisingly, "Shock Waves" carries a 'PG' rating. A group of vacationers on a charted boat encounter trouble when a strange weather condition sends the boat off course. The captain of the vessel (played by John Carradine) downplays the entire incident in an attempt to soothe his passengers' frayed nerves, but even he is slightly worried about what's going on. His navigator Keith (Luke Halpin) expresses concern, too, especially when the boat nearly runs into an abandoned freighter in the middle of the night. As for the passengers, only Norman (Jack Davidson) makes a lot of noise about being lost at sea. The other travelers, including Norman's wife Beverly (D.J. Sidney), Rose (Brooke Adams), and Chuck (Fred Bush) seem to take it all in stride. When that wrecked freighter floats by, however, the tension ratchets up considerably. For one thing, the two boats touched just enough to push our group's ship onto a coral reef. Stranded without a radio-Carradine's character inexplicably tossed it overboard when it would not work-the crew and passengers row to a nearby island. There they find an abandoned building inhabited by a threatening former SS commander (Peter Cushing) who tells them a weird story about the freighter now sitting on the rocks offshore. According to this ex-military officer, he was in charge of a special division of the SS during the war called Der Toden Korps, or the Death Corps, an outfit composed of criminal elements of society turned into some sort of living/non-living soldiers by German scientists. The results were horrific, and as the war ended Cushing's character sank his vessel rather than turn these odd hybrids over to the Allies. Now, it seems the soldiers have risen from the seabed and returned to their commander. The remaining crew and passengers of the charter boat are now caught on an island populated by zombies clad in military uniforms and wearing dark goggles that have the ability to function underwater. These very creepy looking zombies for some reason wish to destroy everyone on the island. It is going to be very difficult to get off an atoll without a boat, and phones are out of the question. The people trapped in this situation will need to use their wits if they want to survive. Nothing in this summary gives away important aspects of the movie. In fact, you will learn most of this information from the film's short introduction and from the trailer included as an extra. What the trailer will not give you is a sense of the film's creepy atmosphere and claustrophobic environment. Aside from the performances, which are all great for a low budget thriller, it is the island, the zombies, and the musical score that raises the goose bumps on your arms. Setting the story on a small tropical island completely out of touch with the rest of society imbues the film with a distinct sense of isolation, an isolation the filmmakers punch up on a routine basis with lingering shots of the vacant sea and the empty terrain of the island. Moreover, the zombies are downright ominous. This particular bunch of SS soldiers was trained to fight and live underwater, so when they arrive on the island they tend to move in and out of the ocean. There's a great shot of the Toden Korps "waking up" and rising out of the sea that recalls to some extent Nosferatu rising from his coffin in F.W. Murnau's classic film. And don't forget that music! A more brooding synth score would be difficult to find. It has that late 1970s and early 1980s feel to it without sounding cheesy. These three elements make the movie; so much so that I hardly missed the gore that usually accompanies any true zombie film. The movie has a few plot problems. How, for example, is it possible for zombies to remain underwater for thirty years yet their uniforms are still intact? Too, the Rose character figures out how to stop the zombies yet no one else seems interested. The only thing mentioned is a vague reference to the SS soldiers despising the light. If I knew how to survive in a situation like this, I would tell everyone around me how to do it. Still, these problems don't hamper the overall effect of the movie. The Blue Underground DVD contains a short interview with actor Luke Halpin, a commentary track, a trailer, television and radio advertisements, and a detailed gallery. The transfer quality, although in widescreen, isn't very good. Colors are hazy and washed out with significant grain marring the picture. It's surprising to see a Blue Underground transfer of less than stellar quality. Horror fans should pick up "Shock Waves" in a hurry. It's a nice addition to your zombies run amuck collection.
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