"Mindsnatchers" with "Shockwaves" Coming Attraction

When I went down to Atlanta for Christmas, I went to the Goodwill nearby – three days in a row. One of the things I got there was this videocassette of the movie “The Mind Snatchers.” It was made in 1972 starring a very young Christopher Walkin. He’s really good in it. Of course I always like watching him chew the scenery, but in this movie he gives a youthful performance that’s natural, and muscular and fragile at the same time. The movie itself is a bit silly, but still, because of Walkin’s work, I can wholly recommend it. What’s great about this tape, though, is that after the requisite “from such and such entertainment,” there is a preview for movie called “Shock Waves.”

It’s a movie about underwater nazi zombies*.

And it has both John Carradine and Peter Cushing in it.

I HAVE to get a copy of it. During the preview, the voiceover guy gets off the following gems:

- From beyond the dead. From beneath the living. From the depths of hell’s ocean. Everything they touch will die in the deep. SHOCK WAVES!
- Now the total horror has begun. Now there is no way out. Now the ocean becomes a graveyard!
- The faster you run, the quicker you die! Because once they were ALMOST HUMAN! SHOCK WAVES! The deep end of horror.**

*Two questions here: "Shock waves" was made in 1977. Was that really enough time after the Holocaust to start making goofy movies starring nazi zombies? And second, how the hell did they come up with the idea for the movie? I’m guessing it went something like this: “Ok we’ve decided that we’re going to make a zombie movie, but we really need to mix it up. Ideas?” “Um, well we could make it down by the lake. It could be that they’re . . . underwater . . . zombies?” “Underwater? Why would they be underwater?” “’Cause . . . they’re . . . nazis?” “Right. Get me a script by Wednesday.”

**And I might be splitting hairs here but I’d just like to point out a few things: First, they’re really not coming from the depths of hell’s ocean, so much as from the depths of hell’s shallow lake. And two, I don’t understand the connection between the “faster you run, the faster you die, because once they were almost human.” But like I said, I’m splitting hairs here.