If ever there was a film I should have seen before being in my mid-40s then Shock Waves is it. Underwater Nazi zombies that seem to be powered by their goggles. A big “ghost ship”. Peter Cushing in a small role. A lead turn from Brooke Adams. There’s nothing here that I dislike.
The feature directorial debut of Ken Wiederhorn, who only has a handful of features to his name (although all of them seem designed to appeal to me), Shock Waves is fully explained by my first paragraph. You should already know whether or not you want to see it. It’s ridiculous, but it’s ridiculous AND well handled.
Things begin with some general spookiness. A boat is struck by another, larger, boat, during the night and everyone is bemused the next morning by the disappearance of the captain. Heading off to a nearby small island, because action is required due to the small boat being damaged, people start to wander around and get themselves noticed by a threat they could never have imagined - underwater Nazi zombies.
Aside from the small roles for Cushing and John Carradine (as the captain who goes awol), the main recognisable star here, for most people, will be Adams, playing a woman named Rose. Adams has to be bemused and afraid for most of the runtime, Cushing provides the explanation for all of the horror, and everyone else is there to be stalked and (possibly) murdered by the waterlogged baddies.
The screenplay, credited to John Harrison and Wiederhorn, works much better than you would think. The central idea is treated in a straightforward way that allows the movie to avoid feeling campy, and the expository moments are kept to a minimum, leaving plenty of time and space for the effective sequences that show characters being terrorised.
Alongside the script and eerie visuals, and kudos for keeping the eerie atmosphere throughout a film set largely on a sun-bathed island, there is an enjoyably odd score from Richard Einhorn. The entire soundscape helps to maintain the consistent spookiness, and I will keep my ears open for the other soundtracks that Einhorn worked on (not many, but he did work on Don’t Go In The House, which I will revisit one day with the aim of being more attentive to the score, and fans of Blood Rage and The Prowler will already know some of his work).
As odd as the premise is, I struggle to think of any part of Shock Waves that I disliked. It’s a brilliant little horror movie, and one that I suspect many people, like myself, may have decided not to prioritise on any viewing list. If you are one of those people, please change that situation. You won’t (or shouldn’t) regret it.
8/10
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