Rating: 1.5/5
Hooptober 6.0 | 23/32 | lowest-rated film from the 80s that you can access
Treasure hunters travel to the deserts of North Africa in search of Nazi gold. After 50 years, the original Afrika Korps are still guarding the gold. But they are DESERT ZOMBIES.
Jesus Franco, under the pseudonym AM Frank, made two versions of this movie with two different casts — one with French actors for Marius Lesoeur and one with Spanish actors for himself. The Spanish version is a lost film.
The film feels hurried — the camera doesn’t bother to set up multiple shots, tracking and zooming to the camera’s limits.
Conceptually, however, the movie has some interesting ideas. Desert zombies are under-represented, usually going into mummy movies instead.
Also, the filmmakers shot on location. It may be uninspired location footage, but it beats the alternative. Plus, Franco finds the most unmotivated reasons for nudity to date.
I would be grading this movie on potential more than what it is if I gave it a favorable rating — it never comes together into a coherent story and squanders most of its runtime.
If anything, this movie proves that I can’t pigeonhole Franco.