I can at least say that Oasis
of the Zombies (1982) was better than Zombie
Lake. Slightly. Prolific writer/director Jesús Franco was originally supposed to
direct the latter as well, but didn’t.
Unlike Zombie Lake,
Oasis of the Zombies attempts a plot,
with Nazi gold lost for decades in the desert at a “damned” oasis (and this is
the only explanation we get as to why there are Nazi zombies there). The North African setting, with dunes,
camels, and mustached adventurers, is inviting, but Franco fails to fully
deliver.
After some backstory, a carefree group of students travels
from London to hunt the treasure. They
progress toward it at a snail’s pace, and once arrived they are awfully
nonchalant when they find the zombies’ last victims, burying them in shallow
graves and then having a good laugh. But
soon, the laugh will be on them.
Franco wisely chooses not to reveal the zombies until well
into the film. The zombie makeup is not
great, but it is at least sporadically creative (with worms!). The same could be said of Franco’s
cinematography and script, only without the worms (and, perhaps, the
creativity). There are a few hilarious
lines, though (“They came from the sand!
They came from the sand which is here!”; “Did you find what you were
looking for?” “I mainly found
myself”).
The exotic scenery in Oasis
of the Zombies is nice, but the zombies-beneath-the desert sands idea isn’t
really put to good use. In the end, the
zombies plod around and take forever to get anywhere, like this film and many
others of its ilk.
