Oasis of the Zombies (1983, Review)
aka La Tumba de los muertos vivientes
Director: Jesus “Jess” Franco
Cast: Manuel Gélin, France Lomay, Jeff Montgomery, Myriam Landson, Eric Viellard
Image Entertainment / NTSC R1 / Unrated / 1.66:1 Widescreen / English / 82 minutes / PURCHASE
Captain Blabert and his men of the Allied Forces of WWII ambush German soldiers who are carrying a large amount of gold in an oasis in the desert of North Africa. The Captain is the only one to survive and is rescued and nursed back to health by a Sheik and his daughter. The Captain and the daughter end up having a child together and she dies giving birth.
Fast-forward 20 years or so where we meet Robert, the son of the dead couple. He finds his father’s diary of the whole ambush and the events that followed and gets the bright idea to take some friends and find the oasis so they can get rich by finding the buried treasure of gold. The only problem with that is that the oasis is swarming with zombies! EEK! On their way to find the treasure, they encounter Colonel Meitzell who knew Robert’s father and he gives them directions and a warning to stay away. But do those silly kids listen? Hells no! So away they go. Off to willy-nilly dig in the sand, make a little love, and basically just get down with some latex-faced Nazi zombies.
From director – and bad cinema favorite – Jesus “Jess” Franco, this inept piece of shite isn’t just bad, it’s BORING. There is very little of Franco’s trademark nudity/sleaze factor. It could almost be shown on basic cable. Also there is a scant amount of gore, save one crappy gut-munching scene that I remember. I will say that I was impressed by a couple of the zombie make-up jobs. They looked nicely decayed complete with worms! On the other hand, one of the zombies was just a fake skull/zombie head shot close-up.
Evidently people from North Africa all dress in monk robes too. Talk about saving on wardrobe! And speaking of saving money, the war/battle scenes weren’t even shot for this movie, they were spliced in from a movie called Heroes Without Glory. And do zombies usually dig themselves into the ground? These did. Every time they attacked someone they rose from the sand! These undead must have been good at hide-and-go-seek.
Don’t even get me started on the end. I guess ol’ Jess didn’t know how to end it, so they just…ended it. They are fighting the zombies one second. The next the zombies disappear (literally while the camera is still on them) and Colonel Meitzell rides up to greet Robert with “Did you find what you were looking for?”. The reply was my favorite line in the movie that made me laugh out loud, “Mainly I found myself” (!?!?!?). Anywho, this movie was really hard to sit through but I did it just for you’se guys because I love you and wouldn’t wish this poop on anyone. So see it at your own risk of dying from boredom.
Boring? Holy crapmuffins, how could all those zombies be boring?
Gads.
Actually, “La Tumba de los muertos vivientes” was the original film that Jess Franco made(and has never appeared in English language to the best of my knowledge), while “Oasis of the Zombies” is a different movie that liberally lifted footage from “Tumba”. However, to the best of my memory, the bulk of “Oasis…” is NOT directed by Jess Franco despite the deceptive packaging claim on the DVD box. (Shame on you Image!) While “Tumba…” is the better of the 2 versions (kinda’ like snot is better than puke), I still wouldn’t really recommend it but to the most forgiving Jess Franco fans. Supposedly Lina Romay is briefly in the “Tumba” version somewhere.
I have the shittiest print of this flick and it just adds to the low budget exploitation feel of the flick. I actually like this snooze fest.
I felt the same as you about this one. I can forgive a movie any amount of silliness, any amount of insanity, any amount of technical ineptitude, as long as it adheres to the Vicar’s Golden Commandment: THOU SHALT NOT BE BORING! In this case, just a mind-numbing snooze-fest.
I want to see more Franco, because so many people whose opinions I respect say he’s got something going on, but even his fans would counsel any and everyone to avoid this one. And so do I.