As much as I appreciate the films of Jess Franco, he sure does knock out some terrible films at times.
Oasis of the Zombies is terrible, but it is watchable and a bit cheesy in places, but this isn't a serious film so can't hold that against it!
During the Second World War, the Nazis are transporting gold and tracking down some Allied troops that are in the desert. However, the allies have the upper hand and ambush them, and a fire fight happens where, the allied Captain is wounded but manages to be saved by a local Sheik. The Captain recovers and has a child (which he does not find out to later) with the Sheik's daughter, however she dies during childbirth.
Forward twenty years later, the Captain is working with some treasure hunters to locate the Oasis where he was wounded in hunt of the German gold, however he is betrayed and killed by his friend who runs off with the information the Captain had to the whereabouts of the Oasis and the gold. When the Captains friend and his group come to the Oasis, they are greeted by the corpses of the Afrika Corps who are now the undead and protecting the gold....
In the meantime, the Captain’s son learns of his death and decides with his friends to go seek the Oasis after reading his dad's letters and journals. He also encounters his grandad, the Sheik for the first time. They also meet another group that are filming around the area and both groups join to find the gold.
And as in most cases with films like that, they are hunted down by the undead, until only the Captain's son and his girlfriend are left and they figure how to destroy the undead. They are rescued by the Sheik and despite not finding any gold they do leave with their lives...
Oasis, as I say is bad but watchable. I did think there could have been some explanation to why only the Nazis that died at the Oasis became the undead and not any of the dead Allied soldiers!
Some of the zombies make up are laughable, one kind of looks like they cut a ping pong ball in half and used them for his eyes and they look like they are popping out his head!
I have read that when Franco filmed this, he also filmed bits at the same time for a Spanish language version. In which he replaced two of the characters with other actors, one being Franco's later wife Lina Romay. Though this version of the film is lost, though would not be surprised if in years to come it is found. Though the Spanish version is supposed to be slightly longer and has a bit more gore to it, but until it is found we will probably never know!
No comments:
Post a Comment