Le Lac des morts vivants

Jean Rollin “excels” on the same basis as Jesús Franco. Slow pacing, primitive dialogue and acting, a lot of nude bodies, a kitschy romantic melody (which we’ve heard before in another, similar film) and exemplarily ineffective suspense and horror. The first half-hour of the film is generally entertaining; in particular, the action-packed battle scenes look like the work of Ed Wood. The last one, however, is seriously excruciating, as it brings boredom together with the viewer’s state of hallucinogenic intoxication and stupefaction. Still, I have to praise the guilty pleasure of the supporting motif involving a zombie’s relationship with his daughter, whom he meets after many years (since he was alive and last saw her as a toddler in her crib). (04.08.2005)

European trash in its purest form. In the beginning, you'll be treated to unconcealed nudity, only to have zombie Nazis regularly crawling out of a lake, probing the surroundings with their claws and murdering women by sucking their blood. For a while, Jean Rollin flashbacks back to World War II and tries to do some serious mythology development, only to have lots of nudity and a bunch of zombies dumping screaming women into the lake again. There isn't even a shortage of feelies, what with the zombie dad visiting his daughter every time he comes out of the water, petting her and giving her presents. I felt bad for the little girl. She was the only one who was acting conscientiously, and she didn't fit into that world of adult perverts. Rollin even attempted some more ambitious with her character, and overall I got the impression that he took everything on camera at first glance and was completely resigned to what would come out of it. There are tears at the end, but I couldn't help being moved myself. (29.10.2023)

I refuse to believe that someone could mean this seriously. There are several moments that almost made me burst out in laughter, because what I was seeing on screen felt like a self-parody, but an unintentional one, unfortunately. If it was like this intentionally, the screenwriter would deserve an award for genius, I doubt anyone could come up with, for example, the scene of “the reunion after many years”. I also realised that the pond where the water sprites live mysteriously changes its depth, you can see it in the scene where the zombies attack the bathing girls. From the coast, the water barely reaches the girls’ waist, but when the camera captures them from under the water in that same moment, they are swimming and the zombies reach for them from even deeper. Interesting. Zombie Lake is such a bad film that I’m sure someone will like it. I just hope that Romero’s upcoming Something of the Dead (also with water zombies) won’t be similar. (30.09.2008)

The combination of Nazi zombies, the French countryside and Rollin's melancholic poetics has something to it, but the stupid dialogue, terrible make-up and sound effects make it extreme trash. The film was originally supposed to be directed by Jesus Franco, who left the project due to the low budget. Rollin took over from him at the last minute. He read the script on the way to the set, and if he had known how bad it was, he said he wouldn't have bothered with it at all. Zombie Lake is a harrowing but at times fascinating mess, jumping from unabashedly exploitative scenes (naked volleyball players swimming in zombie-infested water) to tender, sentimental moments (an emotional zombie visiting his daughter) in which Rollin manages to stamp his unmistakable signature. (06.09.2023)