 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Oasis of the Zombies Starring Manuel Gelin, Lina Romay and Javier Maiza
Between the most popular directors for the Eurociné company, Jesus Franco and Jean Rollin, numerous pseudonyms were used. Among those pseudonyms, A.M. Frank, J.P. Johnson and J.A. Lazer were the most popular. Films such as Oasis of the Zombies and Zombie Lake were the root of much debate and great mystery over the years as to who really directed these films. Oasis of the Zombies, in particular, was the center of debate over the decades as to who was the director. Many "experts" claimed that A.M. Frank was Jesus Franco (aka Jess Franco), or even crew member Marius Leseur. Thanks to the liner notes on Image Entertainment's DVD release of Oasis of the Zombies, the mystery has been cleared, and Franco has been named the undisputed director of the film.
Captain Blabert was a soldier in World War II. After surviving a brutal battle in the deserts of Africa, he is cared for by a Sheik and his daughter, Ayesha. The captain and the sheik's daughter have a son and Ayesha dies after giving birth. After over 20 years, an old friend of the captain, Colonel Kurt Meitzell, visits Blabert regarding information leading to a treasure buried in the desert oasis. Meitzell murders the captain after retrieving the information, and makes his way into the desert.
The captain's son, Robert, is a student in Europe. He receives word that his father has died, and returns home with his friends. After researching his family roots and his father's history, he learns that there is a legend behind the treasure buried in the oasis. The fabled treasure is allegedly guarded by flesh-hungry zombies. He sets out to the desert location with a group of friends, disregarding the legend's warning. Meanwhile, Colonel Meitzell sets up camp with his wife and a few workers in the oasis. However, the whole group is devoured by zombies.
Robert arrives with his friends and meet up with a few people who have survived a nightmarish ordeal with the living dead. They make plans to dig for the treasure in the morning, but are awakened by the onslaught of hordes of zombies. The majority of the group perishes at the jaws of the living dead. Robert and his girlfriend remains, only to fight off the zombies until dawn..... Oasis of the Zombies has been released in several versions, as Franco had filmed the movie in French and Spanish, using alternate footage for parts of the film. Alternate titles and title cards have been used for film and video versions over the years, but the casual viewer would barely recognize the difference. This film contains some beautiful desert landscape shots and tropical location footage. However, some of the day-for-night shots are less believable.
Image Entertainment presents Oasis of the Zombies 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen. The visual presentation is not entirely perfect, but is sharp, bright and colorful. Though there are some scratches on the print, this is the best that this film has looked in any previous video version. The only gripe some fans may have with the presentation is that the credits are appended with a video overlay when the director is credited. Directly under "A.M. Frank," the video overlay reads "Jess Franco" in parenthesis. Some may find this a bit excessive and unnecessary.
Being one of Image Entertainment's earlier DVDs, the audio is in Dolby Digital 1.0 English language mono. The sound quality is decent for a film of its age, but the overall sound is not very strong, prompting to the viewer to boost the volume on their sound system. The only extra included on the disc is an alternate English language title sequence. However, this is not exactly an extra, as it is part of the film presentation itself. Unlike Image's release of Zombie Lake, alternate language tracks and footage are not included.
Fans of European zombie films will enjoy this release and will hopefully be inspired to pick up its companion piece, Zombie Lake, as well. They can now also rest that, once and for all, the director of this film has been determined. |
||
