“We’d better face the fact that the zombie’s have declared war.”
During WWII the Nazi’s invaded France. A small group of Nazi’s was housed in a small occupied village. During a bombing raid on the village a Nazi soldier saves the life of a French girl. In gratitude she has sex with him. She gives the soldier a necklace. Something called a finger rosary. She gets pregnant and has a baby girl she names Helena. Then she dies. When the Nazi’s are leaving the village they are killed by the French resistance. The Nazi’s are then thrown in the lake.
Ten years later the lake is referred to as the “Lake of the Damned”. A young woman goes skinny dipping in the lake. A Nazi zombie pulls her under and drowns her. Apparently all it takes to raise a zombie is a naked woman. A reporter Katya Moore (Marcia Sharif) has come to the village to learn the story of the lake. The Mayor (Howard Vernon) tells her the story and how the zombies got there.
A female volleyball team goes skinny dipping in the lake. They are attacked by the Nazi zombies and drowned. The zombies begin to leave the lake and attack women within the town. The Mayor finally calls the police. Two police are sent to the town to find out what happened to the women. They do not believe the town’s people that there are zombies in the lake. They investigate the lake and are killed by the zombies.
The zombie daddy is roaming around town and sees his daughter. They develop a zombie-daughter relationship. He gives Helena the finger rosary that her mother gave him before he died. The Mayor has no idea what to do about the zombies. He tells Helena that her father will not be a peace until he is turned to dust. Little Helena comes up with a plan. Apparently when your dad is a zombie you inherently know what to do.
“Le Lac Des Morts Vivants”, affectionately known as “Zombie Lake” was released in 1981 and was directed by Jean Rollin and Julian de Laserna. It is a Spanish/French horror film. And it’s a love story. And a sexploitation movie, and a melodrama.
There are two versions of the movie out there. The French one, which is very French. And by that I mean lots of naked women running around. And the tamer version where the nude and topless portions were re-shot with the women wearing underwear and such.
It’s got quite a following. For many people, it is a, so bad its funny movie. It’s extremely low budget. The script, the acting, the special effects, and plot are bad. Everything is supposedly so bad it’s good. I will agree that it is in no way good, but I’m not in the fan club. I found it actually kinda boring. I don’t have a problem with bad movies. Some of my favorites are really bad, but, outside of the movie actually having zombie Nazi’s, which is actually cool, there was nothing else there for me. I was hoping for at least a little more gore and a lot less romantic overtones.