Night of the Zombies

Joel M. Reed has The Touch Of Trash! This zombie-obscurity (zombies are talking, eating normally in restaurants, smoking cigarettes...) is one of the best trashfilms I have ever seen.

Jamie Gillis is just the right guy for uncommunicative detective and the script is superb (in trash standards.)

If you say that you are a trashfan, don't miss it! No, I order you to watch it! It shines like a dirty diamond..

Fun to watch- I love it!

Reed himself has a significant role in this flick.

Zombies in a trashfilm= Poetry!

My late wife, Debbie Jackson, was an assistant editor on NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES. Several years later, I found it in - of all places - a supermarket. I brought it home, but for some reason, Debbie refused to watch. That always puzzled me, but I guess the memory was just too painful. Years after that, the tape disappeared from our house. I can only assume she threw it away. My only memory of the movie is a chase scene shot in Europe, with pickup shots in Greenwhich Village, in an area that sorta looks like Europe.

Debbie told me stories about meeting Jamie Gillis and how the producers were always running out of money and bringing new investors to the editing room. There was a similar movie called SHOCK WAVES, also about revived Nazi Zombies, and according to Debbie, there was some talk that their priceless idea had been ripped off. Oh well.

Well, I guess I am the second person to say this movie is kind of good. This movie gets boring a lot. I think the advantage of this movie is the gore. The gore was great. The zombies moved really slow unlike other zombies I have seen in other zombie movies. The most bad part about the movie is that it is dark at times and you can't see what is going on. I give this movie 2.5 stars out of 5 stars (average).

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.

Filmed in 1979 as "Gamma 693", Night of the Zombies is a failed horror film that has an unusual premise but not enough budget to carry it out. Writer-director Joel M. Reed (whose earlier gore opus "Bloodsucking Freaks" continues in release) has included oddball humor but doesn't deliver the scares. Picture displays an "R' rating, but has never been rated according to the MPAA.

C. I. A. Agent Nick Monroe (Jamie Gillis) is sent to West German to investigate the murder of two NATO officers and to find missing canisters of Gamma 693, a U. S. experimental gas developed in 1944. Teaming up with scientist Dr. Proud (Ryan HIlliard) and his niece Susan (Samantha Grey), her ventures to a remote, snow-scaped Bavarian village where local legend claims zombies now inhabit the site of a W. W. II battlefield.

Far-fetched science fiction premise maintains that the missing Gamma 693 was invented to put wounded soldiers in a state of suspended animation, attempting to prolong their lives. In practice, it has been used to extend the lives of unaging U. S. and German W. W. II soldiers, who prey on human flesh in order to counteract the decaying side-effect of the gas. The opposing troops are supposedly still fighting the war, a corny gimmick that reflects "Zombies" having originally been set in the Far East about an isolated Japanese regiment before a budget-induced rewrite switched locale and lessened story credibility.

Disarmingly silly dialog and spoofing of the international intrigue genre makes this slow-paced picture watchable. Cheap makeup on the soldier zombies plus too-bright lighting renders fright scenes ineffective. Reed's conception of light-hearted zombies, who lack the expected catatonic stare and like to joke around, bears little connection to earlier screen versions, though an expert notes authoritatively: "Zombies don't devour human flesh -ghouls do".

Location lensing in Germany is attractive, but lengthy, static exposition scenes and lack of convincing action footage betray the film's low budget, financed by legit theater produce ("George M.", etc.) Lorin Price. Familiar porn star Jamie Gillis is physically right as the tough-guy hero bht too laid-back for the role. Supporting cast is unimpressive and features many of the behind-the-camera personnel doubling as performers.