I don’t remember when I first saw Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971) on the CBS Late Movie. Forget Jessica, this movie scared the be-jabbers out of me! Even thirty plus years later it still delivers the goods and is an inspiration to writers and film makers today. I can sense echoes of this film in the works of Stephen King and M. Night Shyamalan with it’s small town setting and languid pacing with a healthy dose of paranoia. The imagery of the movies ending has been copied multiple time most notably at the end of Friday the 13th (1980)

Jessica (Zohra Lampert), recovering from a nervous breakdown retreats to an old country farm house with her husband and his best friend. The fact that they drive there in an old hearse and she stops along side of the road to do rubbings of headstones in the cemetery is probably not what the doctor prescribed for her R & R.

Shortly after their arrival the trio are confronted by a strange, sexy, girl squatting in their house, strangely unfriendly townies, and all of the old men exhibiting strange marks on their bodies. As more strange events begin to occur Jessica with Jessica and the audience questioning her sanity. Is it vampires? Satanists? Ghosts? Jessica losing her grip on reality, or her husband trying to push her over the edge?

Let’s Scare Jessica to Death is on a lovely, but bare bones DVD from Paramount. I’m thrilled to have this on DVD in a great widescreen transfer, but would have been even happier if the disc had some extras especially a commentary track.

There was a famous quote about the Velvet Underground’s that I’m paraphrasing: Only a thousand people bought the Velvet Underground’s first album upon it’s initial release but every one of them started a band. A similar sentiment could be applied to Equinox a.k.a. Equinox…A Journey into the Supernatural. This film originally made in1967 but not released until 1970 has its influence felt in films like Evil Dead and Phantasm as well as inspiring special effects artists. Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead movies come close to being direct rip offs of Equinox. The makers of Equinox, Dennis Muren, David Allen, and Jim Danforth all went on to successful effects careers, with Muren being one of the most celebrated effects men since his idol Ray Harryhausen. Muren’s work can be seen in Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Terminator films just to name a few of his credits. The special effects are clearly inspired by Harryhausen’s work only a big scarier, and gorier.

The plot, such as it is, concerns a group of teenagers(including WKRP in Cincinnati co-star Frank Bonner) who venture out into the woods to meet up with one of their teachers. While in the woods they encounter a disappearing castle, several monsters, a giant cave man, and when they uncover a mysterious old book, they unleash the devil himself. The plot is just there to hang the special effects sequences on, but it still provides for some creepy moments and the film is so much fun you really don’t care if the plot makes much sense. Everything about Equinox is just a joy, if you really love older, creaky horror films and fairy tales you should be captivated.

The film is out on DVD from Criterion, so you know you are getting it the best it can be presented. On this 2 disc set you get the original 1967 version: Equinox…A Journey into the Supernatural and the 1970 Equinox which was re cut with new footage by producer Jack Harris. Each version of the film comes complete with really involving audio commentaries and a full disc of other supplements.

Equinox truly is a film that has to been seen to be believed. It works both as a low budget horror film, that makes no apologies for it’s naive charms and as a look at the formative years of some great special effects artists. If you are lucky enough to be caught in it’s spell you will not be disappointed.

www.criterionco.com

Quick! Hands up everyone who has not seen George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. That’s what I thought, but for the uninitiated, NotLD tells the story of a small group of people holed up in a Pennsylvania farmhouse, trying to survive the night while zombies try to get into the house. The zombies are being created by radiation from an exploded space probe that had recently returned from Venus. The film, which is at times slow, builds it’s unease from the opening scenes and continues with healthy doses of claustrophobia and paranoia. The viewer never knows more than the characters on the screen know up until the shock ending.

Night of the Living Dead is the blueprint for most horror and nearly every zombie movie made since 1968 even those films that don’t take some inspiration from the film are intentionally trying to not show the influence. The film has been sequeled, parodied, re-made by rarely bettered. It has also been seen as an allegory for the Civil Rights Movement and/orthe Vietnam War. Of course any film made between 1967 and 1972 could be seen as addressing one of these issues. The racial element is pretty obvious and makes some sense especially in the closing scenes. An allegory for the Vietnam War? I think that’s a stretch by people trying to read something that isn’t there.

Night of the Living Dead has a weird history on DVD. There are countless releases of edited, public domain prints on discs that sell as low as one dollar. Trust me, save your money and get a good quality disc.

The recent DVD from Legend Films would be a good place to start. The disc features a really nice, un-cut, restoration of the film complete with 2.0 mono and 5.1 Dolby Stereo sound. There is also a Rifftrax commentary from former Mystery Science Theater 3000 alum, Mike Nelson. Ok you aren’t going to get a lot of inside information or a film theory lesson, but the tracks is quite funny, and even die hard fans of the film will get some chuckles and some handy Zombie cocktail recipes during the slow spots. The disc also has a colorized version of the film. Without getting into any of the merits of colorization in general, the results on this film look good, far superior to the mid 1980’s attempt, although I always imagined Johnny’s car to be blue, not red. Plus you’ll need to watch it at least once to hear the commentary track. Plus Legend Films have given the purists a great black & white version as well, and all for a very affordable price.

www.legendfilms.net

Nazis are scary. Zombies are scary. So zombie Nazis should be extra scary, not always. It seems that the evil of the Third Reich might has some lingering effects and has popped up a different times and in differing quality through out the years.

Revenge of the Zombies (1943)

Revenge of the Zombies is not only the earliest Nazi Zombie movie, actually made during World War Two, but is also high on my list of under-rated zombie films. It was, of course, made long before the gut munching gore fests of George Romero and Lucio Fulchi so gore is not part of the equation. Plot wise it is similar to White Zombie (1932), mixed with the standard spy/detective films of the time with the stalwart hero, his affable sidekick and a wise cracking black chauffeur, investigating the death of his sister, only to discover his brother in law is a Nazi scientist trying to create a zombie army in the swamps of Louisiana. THe film is highlighted by spooky locales, and shuffling zombies. The comic relief of Mantan Moreland is actually humorous and doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the proceedings. The leading man is wooden and John Carradine chews the scenery quite nicely as Dr. Max Henrich von Altermann. With a name like that who couldn’t know he was a Nazi???

Revenge of the Zombies is available in a cheap 3 film dvd called Horror Classics, from Edi Video.

Night of the Zombies (1981)

Not only my personal favorite Nazi zombie movie, but also the best zombie flick starring porn star, and good friend of Penn Jilette from Penn & Teller, Jamie GIllis. The plot revolves around a CIA agent (Gillis) in the German Alps investigating the murders of some historians researching a mysterious lost battlefield, where the undead soldiers are still fighting the battle. The cause of the zombieism is the chemical Gamma 693 that the US was transporting through the region in WW2. The whole thing has a charm and isn’t shy on the gore, which should be a surprise to anyone familiar with the work of director Joel M Reed. Reed is best known for the barf bag classic, Bloodsucking Freaks.

Be careful as Bruno Mattei’s Hell of the Living Dead has been released on DVD as Night of the Zombies, and bears no relationship to this film and is nearly unwatchable.

My big question on Night of the Zombies is: Why, why, why is this not on DVD?!?! Can anyone give me an answer?

Shock Waves (1974)

Easily the most popular Nazi Zombie film of all time. Plenty has been written about this film so I’ll give it less space, but I do love the underwater zombies coming to the surface, although it was done better in The Ghost Galleon (Dir: Amando de Ossorio, 1974). The film features John Carradine (also the star of the original Nazi zombie flick, Revenge of the Zombies), Peter Cushing, and the lovely Brooke Adams. The film is an effective bit of fear cinema, light on the gore, and a lot of fun. It’s nice to see two old horror legends like Cushing and Carradine work together.

Shock Waves is available in a great DVD from Blue Underground

Zombie Lake (1980)

Possibly the worst movie ever made. Shockingly direction is credited to Jean Rollin, the French director who made some great surreal vampire films in the 60′s and 70′s.

If you think you need to see this for laughs or to say you’ve seen it, please don’t. Do you really need to have a root canal without anesthesia to know it’s painful? This is a film without plausible special effect, a story, acting, and it features lots of nudity, but it is ugly and repulsive at every turn.

Zombie Lake is available as part of Image Entertainment’s Euroshock Collection.

Oasis of the Zombies (1981)

Unwatchable dreck from Jesus Franco, about a battalion of Nazi zombies in the Sahara, or something like that. The film never goes anywhere and probably killed the Nazi zombie sub-genre. But it is still better than Zombie Lake.

Oasis of the Zombies is available as part of Image Entertainment’s Euroshock Collection.