Zombie Nightmare (4 Stars)

This is a film that I have trouble rating. It's cheap, it's cheesy, the acting is sub-par. Normally that would mean a poor to average rating. However, the film is good fun. It didn't bore me for a second. That's why I've given it four stars.

Tony Washington has a tragic life. As a young boy he witnesses his father being stabbed to death when he protects a teenage girl from a racially motivated assault. As an adult, in his 20's, he's knocked over by a hit-and-run driver and dies on the spot. That's to say, he almost dies. The girl whose life his father saved has become a voodoo priestess. She casts a spell to keep Tony's soul in his rotting body until he's gained revenge. For the next four days Tony lies in his coffin in the daylight, but when the sun sets he rises up and staggers around the town with his baseball bat, killing the car driver and the four teenagers who were travelling with him.

Were the other four guilty? That's a matter for the courts to decide, but Tony takes the law into his own hands. He sees them as accessories to murder, so they have to die, either strangled to death or battered by his baseball bat. He also takes revenge on the two men responsible for killing his father. Couldn't they have been dealt with by the law years ago? Maybe, but then the film would have had less of a story.

Tony stumbles around the graveyard with ridiculous over-acting. He must be looking for his baseball bat.

Adam West was one of the men who killed Tony's father, and now he's become the town's chief of the police. What! A racist can become a policeman? They can't expect us to believe that!

Tony is played by the Canadian musician/actor/bodybuilder Jon Mikl Thor. His band Thor contributes to the film's soundtrack. I'd never heard them before, but the music is pleasant, a typical 1980's rock music sound. I'll have to listen to more of their music. That's what Alexa is for. Apart from that, there are several exciting songs by Motorhead and Girlschool.

The film is available on Blu-ray in Germany, but it's out of print in most other countries. Luckily it's available on Amazon Prime. That wouldn't be down to luck. I consider it the duty of the big streaming services to offer films that aren't available elsewhere.