“The sea spits up what it can’t keep down.”
A small group of tourists are aboard a pleasure boat. Captain Ben Morris (John Carradine) is having trouble with the boat. His mate, Chuck (Fred Buch), and a passenger named Rose (Brooke Adams) are attracted to each other. Also on board are the cook Dobbs (Don Stout), and three other tourists Keith (Luke Halpin), and a married couple named Norman (Jack Davidson) and Beverly (D.J. Sidney).
A strange haze appears which seems to cause problems with the navigation system. Everybody else gets a little creeped out. That night a huge ship suddenly comes out of the darkness and brushes the ship, damaging it. The next morning the Captain is missing. Realizing the boat is slowly sinking everyone rows out to a nearby island. They find the body of the Captain. He appears to have drowned. The group explore the island and find an old hotel in disrepair. At first it looks deserted, however, they soon discover that an old man has been living there (Peter Cushing). The next day Dobbs goes out to the ship to get some food. He never comes back. Rose finds his body.
They find out from the old man that he was the Commander of Nazi soldiers that had been experimented on. They were murderers turned into zombies. They were designed as a weapon. They were difficult to control. The war was ending so they sent them off on a ship so the enemy could not get a hold of them. They were at sea for weeks with no word from headquarters so the commander decided to scuttle the ship and exile himself to the island. Now the soldiers are back. And they’re still dead.
“Shock Waves” was released in 1977 and was directed by Ken Wiederhorn. It’s not one of those movies that goes for the quick cheap thrill. You won’t find any blood or gore. They prefer to drown or strangle their victims. That does make sense. Why should the undead have a desire to eat anything, brains or otherwise. Even though the zombie Nazi's are not blood thirsty they are still quite gruesome. I suppose you would be too if you were one of the undead and under water for over thirty years. The movie is far more subtle than your basic zombie movie. It is slow moving. But still it’s creepy and rather haunting.
I think you need to be in the mood to see these silent dead people rising from the ocean floor in order to appreciate them. Otherwise you’ll find it boring and pointless. I consider the film a hidden gem. I liked it, but I like Nazi zombies. Actually they are the only kind of zombies I like.
The hotel used in the movie is the “Biltmore Hotel” in Florida. It had been closed at the time.