5.3 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
In a small village, somewhere in France, German soldiers, killed and thrown into the lake by the Resistance during WW II, come back.
Starring: Howard Vernon, Pierre-Marie Escourrou, Anouchka, Antonio Mayans, Lynn MonteilHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.64:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
French: LPCM 2.0
English: LPCM 2.0
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
On February 26th, Kino-Lorber and Redemption Films—as part of their ongoing distribution partnership—are releasing two of the shabbiest low-budget zombie films to have ever shambled into the cinema, 1981's Zombie Lake and 1982's Oasis of the Zombies. Besides a few minor differences in plot and setting, they're essentially the same movie, both involving cursed locales, flashbacks to World War II, illegitimate children fathered by soldiers, and Nazi zombies that rise from their mass graves to feast on sexy ladies. The similarities are no accident. Eurocine Productions initially hired cult horror/skin-flick filmmaker Jesús "Jess" Franco (Exorcism, Female Vampire) to helm Zombie Lake, but when he dropped out due to time-commitment issues, the directorial reins were passed to fellow euro-sleaze artiste Jean Rollin, the oddball sub-surrealist known for his many, many, many lesbian vampire movies. The following year, Franco would return to the premise and make his own version, Oasis of the Zombies. Both films are utter garbage—boring, poorly made, and prime examples of the kind of low-budget zombie knockoffs trailing in the wake of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead—but they're somehow guileless and almost charming in their awfulness. I wouldn't say so bad they're good, but so bad I'm glad, in some perverse way, that they exist at all.
Teenaged Mutant Nazi Zombie
Like most of the Kino/Redemption titles released thus far, Zombie Lake is essentially presented "as-is," with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer of an archival negative that hasn't been digitally cleaned up or significantly doctored in any way beyond—presumably—some light color correction. This means you'll notice some semi-frequent specks, light scratches, and small bits of debris, but considering the film's age, budget, and reputation, the damage here is quite minimal. I've previously seen Zombie Lake on VHS and DVD—some might say that's two times too many—and now seeing it resurrected on Blu-ray is a revelation in clarity. The 35mm photography resolves nicely in high definition, allowing for sharper lines and more detailed textures, most noticeably in the atrocious zombie makeup. Color seems accurate too, with good image density and contrast. Of course, the upside of an "as-is" transfer for a film like this is twofold: 1.) the picture is untouched by digital noise reduction and edge enhancement, and 2.) you feel like you're sitting in some dingy grindhouse theater, watching a naturally battered 35mm print. I don't know if I'd want a spotless version of Zombie Lake.
Kino/Redemption have given us two audio options for Zombie Lake, the original French track and an English dub, both presented in uncompressed Linear PCM 2.0. Now, I'm typically an advocate for listening to a film in its original language, but I can't say that it matters much here; the film was shot silently, and all sound was dubbed in later, so both tracks have a boxy, artificial quality, and even the French lip-syncing is slightly off at times. So pick whichever you'd like. There are some small differences in the two tracks, though. Flipping back and forth between them, I noticed a few instances where a line would be spoken in French, but there would be silence in the English track, despite the subtitles still showing up. There are also some tonal discrepancies, with the music in the French track sounding a bit more muffled and lowered than in the English mix, where it's brighter and cleaner. In both, high-end sounds can get somewhat peaky and harsh, but that's not exactly unexpected for a film of this caliber. At the very least, both of these tracks are functional, and free of any significant hisses, heavy clicks, or dropouts. The disc includes optional English subtitles in easy-to-read white lettering.
Is Zombie Lake the worst zombie movie of all time? Hardly. I can think of a dozen more modern, more obnoxious undead movies I'd rather see napalm-scorched from the face of the earth. (Like, say, the insipid Day of the Dead remake.) That said, Zombie Lake is unmistakably awful—slow, un-scary, and devoid of the expected horror genre thrills—and this is one of the few reasons people still watch it today. It's become one of those bad movies that fans of bad movies are basically required to see at least once. So, have at it—Kino's high-definition transfer means the zombie make-up looks more comically inept than ever.
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