Zombie Lake: Remastered Edition (1981) (Blu-ray Review)
Directed By: Jean Rollin
Starring: Howard Vernon, Pierre-Marie Escourrou, Anouchka
Rated: UR/Region: A/1X66/1080p/Number of disc: 1
Available from Redemption
In a small lakeside town, young women are disappearing without a trace. The superstitious locals blame ”The Lake of Ghosts”, because of the lake’s haunting past, but the town’s mayor (Howard Vernon) seems reluctant, or powerless to take any action. When another woman is found dead near the lake, with her throat ripped out, a reporter comes to town and soon discovers that the lake harbors a terrible secret dating back to World War II. It is then a group of local Resistance fighters take action against a troop of Nazi zombie soldiers invading their town, as they have come back from the dead. And now, whenever the waters at ZOMBIE LAKE are disturbed, the dead will rise!
Zombie Lake is a very acquired taste of a film. This is a film that clearly didn’t pack much of a budget and to see a prime example of that just take a look at our zombies. This is where we get a double edged sword with the HD transfer. The film looks awesome, but the zombies are looking all the more fake, not that they needed THAT much help. The makeup of the zombies rubs off on the other characters, it washes off when they come out the lake, and some of the gore effects are just lazy. That all being the case, the film does give off a somewhat campy midnight movie vibe to spite being very slow in nature.
Jean Rollin has made some very artsy and somewhat dirty feeling films in his day and Zombie Lake doesn’t seem at all out of place next to those. I’d by no means say this even comes close to his best work, but it has a few rare moments. It also offers up a whole heck of a lot of nudity and as a man who is into women I can’t argue with naked women on my screen. So while it isn’t the most exciting time I’ve ever had as we watch zombies come from the lake and then finally figure out what their backstory is, it could have been worse. If you like zombies or Jean Rollin it is worth a watch, just don’t expect anything on a Romero level.
– English Dubbed Version
– Alternate (Less Explicit) Versions of Two scenes
– Alternate English Title Sequence
– Original Theatrical Trailers
– Original Trailers of Jean Rollin Films from Redemption
