Oasis of the Zombies (1982)

Oasis of the Zombies (1982). 1h 22m | Unrated

“With the legendary stinker reputation that this Jess Franco fable bestows (together with Jean Rollinu0026#39;s u0026#39;Zombie Lakeu0026#39;), I just could help myself to see what all the fuss was about. To tell the truth I was expecting something much, much worse when I got to the end of it, while viewable (think along the lines of a crash car taking place and you simply having trouble taking your eyes off it) I still couldnu0026#39;t deny just how uninvolved, flat and dull it was despite being compelled.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis leery zero-budget schlock never captures the premiseu0026#39;s promising idea (where it has Nazi zombies protecting the gold from anyone who enters the oasis in the African desert) and doesnu0026#39;t go anywhere we havenu0026#39;t already been before. The lack of money for the production wouldnu0026#39;t have helped, but the execution is clunky and tame on all fronts for something that needed to be more risqué (no gore or nudity). A repetitively slow-going mess with incoherent story-telling and woodenly wordy script is what comes about. Itu0026#39;s hard to get excited seeing the same lingering zooms, ponderous actions and having to listen to Daniel Whiteu0026#39;s lousy score of cringe-induced skews being dragged out.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe ultra-cheap FX work for the threatening zombies (who seem to like to croak and shuffle) look like there done up in scrappy papier-mâché, but it has a decaying quality to it thatu0026#39;s effective. Murky, washed out photography and lack of lighting doesnu0026#39;t make good use of the exotically bone-dry locations or helping to figure out just when itu0026#39;s night or day. Atmosphere is non-existent, but thereu0026#39;s one decent creepy image Franco pulls off involving zombie silhouettesu0026#39; moving down the dunes with the sun setting (or was it rising) in the backdrop and an well-organised explosive war set-piece during the sequence weu0026#39;re learning about the history of the Oasis and itu0026#39;s dead protectors. Acting is poor (but there are some stunning women about), and the characteru0026#39;s they play (mainly the college kids) are plain stupid.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA doggedly uneventful zombie film that just manages to hold a spell over you. I donu0026#39;t know how though?”