Overrated

A Brilliant Conflict

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Jesus Franco brings us this fun exploitation film about zombies in the desert, the film has a very bad reputation as being one of the worst films in Francos filmography, but I believe that to be false, this is not that bad.The film has many good aspects to it, the shootouts in the film are pretty well done, they are very fun to watch, they are very well shot and have some very creative shots and camera angles. Another good aspect in the film are the most important part in a zombie film, the zombies, the zombies are amazingly disgusting, they are genuinely creepy, they are a bit realistic and weird enough to look like something out of my nightmares, I never get scared in horror films, or creeped out, but this was just bizarre.The film has some moments that are rich in atmosphere, just what you would expect out of Jesus Franco, there are some pretty good scenes in the film, like the shot of the zombies coming out of the sand, or the zombies in the dunes.The weird points the film are pretty obvious, like the awful dubbing, and the fact that the film has no focus, its easy to get lost in the film, almost like if it were a desert.But even with its weirdness and awkwardness, the film manages to be entertaining and give you some memorable scenes. Something that confuses me its the very last dialog, a man in a camel asks "Did you find what you were looking for?" and the main character replies "I mainly found myself", what does that even mean?, maybe Oasis of the zombies isn't just a low budget zombie film, maybe its genius, we just don't know it.

*1/2 This typical Eurocine zombie cash-in is terrible. Worse its boring, something about Nazi zombies & a quest for desert gold in the middle of an African wasteland.It's not completely without merit for the masochistically inclined- like a lot of Franco film, it's oddly appealing when you're hankering for moldy cheese of the MST3000 variety; a lot of his output (bad & good) works on the wavelength of ironic condescension after all. As a movie not intentionally running the Razzie gauntlet however it simply doesn't work well, the occasional hint of atmosphere & taste of exotic flavor unable to offset bargain basement values & a total lack of interest on Franco's part, making it one of his more painful exercises in tedium.His deliciously spacey charm is not on display & the sleaze quotient is too low to pick up the slack.Francophiles only.

Gorehounds will tune in for the blood and guts. I tuned in to see Lina Romay (Female Vampire, Rites of Frankenstein, Broken Dolls) again.I found out that there are two versions of this film, which as about 8-10 alternate names. The Spanish version has Lina Romay, while the English version doesn't. So much for my excitement.There is also some question as to whether Jesus Franco directed the English version.The zombie makeup was very good; one zombie even had a worm coming out of his nose, Yech! The zombies appeared to be more cannibal than zombie. They tended to favor guts rather than brains.There was little zombie action, a terrible script, no Jesus Franco sleaze, and it was just a big bore.

Ah, the Nazi-Zombie sub-genre... a comical combination of the fear of death and genocide-fueled hatred; or perhaps just another form of exploitation (isn't all film exploitation?).Sadly, Jess Franco's "Oasis of the Zombies" falls short of the simple parameters of its own sub-genre.This is one the worst zombie films ever made (in my humble horror vet opinion). One would think given that it's one of those rare films to cross Nazi soldiers with zombies that it would be great, but it makes "Zombie Lake" look like an Oscar contender and "Shock Waves" a masterpiece.Some of the zombie effect are so bad you can see the eye-slits in the rubber masks.The only swastika to appear in the film is clearly spray painted onto some rusted machinery in the oasis.The war footage spliced into the film is more graphic and entertaining than the zombie footage, all 6 minutes of zombie footage.I also believe this film was Jess Franco's thesis on bad day-for-night photography. Its so evidently daytime that I feel offended that one is expected to think otherwise.Once again, buy this one only if your a completest and need every zombie film in your personal collection. Don't even bother renting this 84 minute power nap on disc. Check out Peter Jackson's "Dead Alive" or Fulci's classic "Zombie" before you decide to throw your money away on this poor attempt at a horror film.This undead guilty pleasure was almost entirely shot on location at the Maspalomas Dunes in the Canary Islands, not actually in the Sahara like it pretends to be.