Vengeance Of The Zombies
Venegeance Of The Zombies (1973) Rewatch: ❎
I was going to give this a rewatch before writing up anything about it because it completely blindsided me. It’s not like the film is especially out there by Tatwatch standards, but sometimes I’m just really not expecting, or prepared, for what I end up watching.
Vengeance Of The Zombies, then. Where to even start? Ok, well, yes, it has zombies! I suppose that’s a good place to start, it also has Paul Naschy in multiple (dodgy!) roles including a brief appearance as Satan. The film vaguely follows the exploits of a behatted, becloaked, masked murderer who after committing a murder, resurrects the corpse as a zombie to help them out doing … well, more murders. The selection of masks in this film are worth the entrance fee alone, they start out pretty standard horror fare but by the end, we’re in felt tip territory and no, no idea.
Largely, it’s got more in common with a Herschell Gordon Lewis film than it has most other films though, in fairness, there are plenty of moments where it threatens to look like a film with a budget but it never manages to live up to its threats for long. It’ll give you some idea of the level of coherence here, anyway. It has some. Some coherence. Mostly, it can’t stay in one place long enough to be bothered and will throw in a dream sequence for seemingly no reason or some other weird shit.
I don’t mean this as an insult when I say there’s an air of amdram to it all, the incredibly small cast all seem to be enjoying themselves and I’m sure nobody at all has any idea if the story is ever going anywhere either and nor should they care. Please do not watch this piece of absurd exploitation film making for the story, it will not end well. Watch it for an hour and a half of cheap fever dream horror!
There’s a few moments that had me laugh like a drain at the bluntness and timing of the murderings (there’s a recut from the eighties where there’s a warning before anything violent happens and I need to get hold of this, I bet it’s fucking hilarious),watch it as a film that feels shockingly confident and shockingly amateurish at the exact same time and most of all, watch it for the chaotic jazz soundtrack that accompanies the whole thing. It is fucking wild. Just instruments crashing about all over the place. It’s not the psychedelic freak out out of, say, Vampyros Lesbos, but more like if you asked Charlie Chuck to soundtrack your film … over there.
In summary: Uncle Peter’s Zombie Horror. Woof! Bark! Donkey! stab with a very green Satan. Hard not to get carried along by the sheer energy of it all, a great piece of no fucks exploitation film making.