Directed by Jack Bravman
Cast: Adam West, Jon Mikl Thor, Tia Carrere, Frank Dietz, Linda Singer
Scorpion Releasing / Region 0 / Rated R / 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen / ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Mono / 83 minutes / BUY FROM TLACULT
Disc Extras: Audio Commentary with Writer John Fasano, And Stars Jon Mikl Thor & Frank Dietz / Remembering Zombie Nightmare: Interview with Writer John Fasano, Director Jack Bravman, Stars Jon Mikl Thor And Frank Dietz.
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Have you ever been in the mood to watch Troll 2, but you’ve seen it one too many times? I see you’re drinking a beer. You’ve got your buddies hanging out in front of the TV. There’s that feeling in the air. Everybody’s in the mood for a chuckle at the expense of trash cinema. The butt of the joke, well, that would be Zombie Nightmare. Zombie Nightmare is completely inept, including the story, camera work, logic, make-up, and atrocious ’80s fashion. And it’s funny as hell!
The movie only has one zombie, and they screw that up too. The same zombie was played by two different people, and it’s incredibly obvious when one actor plays the walking corpse over the other. Add Jon Mikl Thor’s excessive muscle flexing and crotch bulges. Drop in Adam West and his over-the-top mustache. Orchestrate the dumbest kill scenes, including baseball bat impalement. Add cheesy voodoo ritual with even cheesier voodoo priestess. Throw in a band of bad fashion ’80s punk/greaser style kids who deserve to die from the get go. Temper it with an old school ’80s heavy metal soundtrack that will have you air guitar-ing throughout the duration, and you’ve got yourself a toxic brew of bad B-movie cinema. All of this is an argument to see the shit out of this, by the way, if you love funny, turkey style films.
The plot? A man saves a voodoo priestess’ daughter from an attempted rape, but the father dies in the process. The kid’s father, John Mikl Thor, grows up, and we’re shown in the second scene how great of a baseball player he is during a cheesy game. Later that day, Thor saves a convenience store clerk (a cheesy fake Italian guy) from being robbed, via hammy fist fight. Thor leaves the place after being thanked, then is hit by a car full of ’80s greaser kids and left for dead. Thor’s mother cashes in a favor long overdue (remember how her husband died preventing that rape, the one involving the daughter of a voodoo priestess?) and goes to the local voodoo priestess to bring Thor back from the dead to get vengeance. The greaser kids get 86′d one by one. Adam West helps a detective round up the culprit. The ending has a twist involving Adam West and the voodoo priestess that is pretty awkward, and yes, dumb.
Zombie Nightmare comes courtesy of Scorpion Releasing. It’s full of extras, commentaries and interviews that range from interesting to flat-out boring. The transfer looks clean during the day scenes and a tad grimy during the night scenes, but it’s a top-notch transfer overall. This is another movie you’ll need to crank the volume to get the full effect, not to mention the complete impact of the heavy metal soundtrack. This is purely for the laughs. Many deride Zombie Nightmare because they expected a real zombie movie. Nope, not here! So pop that tab and slug another beer, because I recommend this cheese fest if you’re in the mood for an unintentionally funny horror masterpiece.
