Teenage Zombies

Four youths take a boat trip to a remote island where they encounter terrorists developing a gas designed to turn the American population into mindless zombies (insert obvious gag here). The foursome are captured and held prisoner, but their plucky pals Morrie (Jay Hawk) and Dotty (Nan Green) realise that something is wrong and attempt to find their friends.

As the title suggests, this is one of those quickie B-movies from the '50s that was targeted at a teenage drive-in audience. It's a cheap and amateurish film, with a dumb plot, dismal direction and dreadful acting that makes American International's teen horror films (I Was A Teenage Werewolf, Blood of Dracula etc.) seem like great works of art by comparison.

Of course, a film this awful actually proves fairly entertaining as a result: Jay Hawk puts in an excruciatingly bad performance that has to be seen to be believed, there are some poorly executed scuffles between the kids and the baddies, and writer/director Jerry Warren even throws in that mainstay of old B-movie horror films, a wild ape on the rampage (played by a man in an unconvincing gorilla costume).

Honestly, I really shouldn't rate the film any higher than the 1/10 it deserves, but I enjoyed its complete and utter ineptitude enough to give it a couple of extra points.

If I were a millionaire, I would pay the staff of MST3K to reunite JUST to rank on this movie. It is perfect! It has everything!

Zombies 1950's teenagers A Gorilla Communist Spies Bad Rock and Roll Corny dialogue

This movie is so BAD it's GOOD. If you like "Plan 9" or "They Saved Hitler's Brain", you'll love this one!

"Teenage Zombies is a must see for the simple reason that Katherine Victor stars,the number 1 creep lady.The head zombie is hysterical and it,s fun to see victors cool calm demeanor in dealing with the frantic teens.The plot is typical and there are a few scary scenes but other than that it,s silly and fun.Lots of denim and bad acting but watch it anyway for its typically B movie style.

Director Jerry Warren chooses to tell his story "Teenage Zombies" via the master shot. There are about two close ups in the entire film. This allows Warren to fully exploit and reveal the mise- en-scene of every scene. This technique also allows the actors to roam the frame and use their body language to develop their multi-dimensional characters. In particular, Chuck Niles is able to portray a fully fleshed out Ivan because of Warren's deployment of the master shot. It's a brilliant performance that overshadows all the other actors in the movie. Mitch Evans also gives us a subtle and nuanced performance as the gorilla. My one complaint about the film is that we don't see any water skiing. I like films with water skiing in them and I suspect Warren could have cut together an intriguing water skiing montage if he had been so inclined.

Outrageous teen/horror movie about a bunch of young people kidnapped by this gang of spies led by a Dr. Myra and her obedient zombie slave Ivan on an island off the US coast.

Dr. Myra is working on this serum together with her two hoods Wrof & Brandt to put into the US water system and make everyone in America become a mindless zombie. This will make it possible for the country that she's working for an unnamed Eastern European power, the Soviet Union?, to take over the USA without firing a shot.These four teenagers who end up on the island Reg Skip Pam & Julie and are quickly captured by Ivan and put in a cage to be experimented on by Dr. Myra.

The teenagers friends Morrie and Dotty go to the island looking for them but are told by Dr. Myra that there's no one there but later go to the local sheriff for help. The sheriff turns out to be working with Dr. Myra and her gang but when he and Morrie & Dotty arrive at the island he has a change of heart.

The sheriff supplied Dr. Myra with drunks and criminals from his jail house and felt that innocent teenagers being used in Dr. Myra's insane ventures are a little too much and refuses to work with her and her hoods thus getting a bullet in his chest from Wrof killing him. Meanwhile the two girls Pam & Julie are exposed to the serum/gas and lose their brain-power and become zombies.

Rag and Skip together with Morrie and Dotty break into Dr. Myra's lab and force her to gave the girls and antidote to give them back their minds after having Dr. Myra lose her with the same gas she used on the girls. It's then that a fight breaks out between the teenagers and Dr. Myra and her two hoods Worf & Brandt as well as Ivan with the monkey/gorilla, one of Dr. Myra's failed experiments, breaking out of the cage killing Brandt as everyone runs for their lives to the boat by the beach to escape.

Having it out on the boat the teenagers overpower Dr. Myra and Worf and take them prisoner to the police and US military authorities on shore thus saving the USA from a covert takeover by a hostile power; as for Ivan he completely disappeared right off the radar screen.