Night of the Zombies (1981)

User Rating:

1.8/10   

Director:

Joel M. Reed

Writer:

Joel M. Reed (writer)

Release Date:

January 1981 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

The dead are hungry... and they're coming to eat you alive!

Plot:

Investigators search for soldiers' missing bodies, and hear unbelievable rumors about zombies. Dismissing those rumors they set out to investigate...

Plot Keywords:

World Domination | Army | Soldier | Missing Bodies | CIA

Cast

Jamie Gillis	...	Nick Monroe
Samantha Grey	...	Susan Proud
Ryan Hilliard	...	Dr. Clarence Proud
Ron Armstrong	...	Police Capt. Fleck
Joel M. Reed	...	Neo-Nazi CIA Informer
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Shoshana Ascher	...	The Prostitute
John Barilla
Dick Carballo	...	Bearded Man at Bar
Michael Casconi
Richard deFaut	...	Sgt. Freedman
Alan Dellay
Alphonso DeNoble	...	Krieg, camera-store proprietor
Gordon C. Dixon
Ron Dorfman	...	C.I.A. Chief
Juni Kulis	...	GRO Officer Schuller
Robert Laconi
Charlene Matus
Lee Moore
Glen A. Pence
Lorin E. Price	...	Priest
Renate Schlessinger	...	The Madame
Kuno Sponholz	...	Apartment Doorman
Donald K. Wallace
Bill Williams
Carl Woerner
Kai Wulff

Also Known As:

Battalion of the Living Dead (USA)
Gamma 693
Night of the Wehrmacht Zombies
Night of the Zombies II (USA)
Sister of Death (USA)
The Chilling (UK) (video title)

Runtime:

88 min | Germany:75 min (video version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Germany:18 | UK:15 | USA:R | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Germany

Trivia:

Many scenes shot in the home and on the property of porn director Shaun Costello.

Not just the worst Nazi-Zombie movie... the worst movie; period!

This horror movie production of very, VERY questionable quality opens rather peculiarly, with German marching music during the opening credits and a bunch of seemingly drunk actors with heavy German accents talking incomprehensible nonsense to each other. You either have to put the movie on stop straight away or accept these poor productions values immediately, because the incoherent plotting, weak dialogs and trashy incompetence go on for the rest of the movie. A handful of researchers are investigating a remote and forestry German region because, allegedly, there was held a secretive chemical warfare battle near the end of WWII and since then the place is a breeding ground for rotting Nazi zombies. Well, with more than 30 years after the end of the War, I'd say it's about time the military decided to investigate the rumors! If you manage to get the boring and inept first hour and ten minutes, during which there's absolutely not a single zombie in sight, you'll be "rewarded" with perhaps two or three zombie attack sequences, but still they'll all be scare-free and with terribly lame make-up effects.

The term "so bad it is good" doesn't even apply here anymore, as "Night of the Zombies" is a truly bottom-of-the-barrel horrible, trashy, tasteless and imbecilic Z-grade exploitation effort that cannot even remotely entertain the most hardened fans of bad cinema. Everything about the film is hideous to percept, from the characters' ugly mustaches to the nauseating Tiroler soundtrack. And just when you think it couldn't possible get any worse, writer/director Joel M. Reed comes up with a couple of the utmost retarded plot twists. Obviously there's also some random and totally gratuitous female nudity and a couple of embarrassing attempts at humor. I have honestly no idea what Joel M. Reed thought he was accomplishing here, but it's a miserable piece of junk that can't hold a candle to that other sordid little cult effort of his; entitled "Bloodsucking Freaks". I'm a big fan of that particular movie because it's so extreme and offensive, but "Night of the Zombies" is one of the most boring and pointless waste of film I ever voluntarily endured.