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Jerry Warren made VERY cheap VERY short and VERY strange movies for the bottom of triple bills. TEENAGE ZOMBIES was still playing in my neck of the woods as late as the mid 60's under the title of TEENAGE TORTURE. ALL his movies have the same qualities, so TEENAGE ZOMBIES is as good as anyplace to start. The EXCELLENT rating in this case is NOT in comparison with something like GONE WITH THE WIND. We're discussing the last movie played at a dusk to dawn drive in, or what was on t.v. at 4 am before the days of cable. Get it? So bad it's good. Very different off beat point of view. The rating could just as easily been at the opposite end. The teenagers in this thing seem to be modelled after the characters from Archie comics. As Beetlejuice used to say:"Young and stupid." There is even an older guy at the hamburger stand in a sort of Pop Tate role. I mentioned Andy Warhol in the title because Warhol made movies showing, say, a skyscraper with a single camera shot not moving for HOURS. You get the same feeling with Warren. Time doesn't slow, it STOPS. When the teenagers go looking for their boat on the island, you feel you've gone with them. When the sheriff searches for the missing kids, you feel you've searched that 300 miles he mentions in real time..it gets exhausting. In a Jerry Warren movie, you start looking at the background...it's almost always MORE exciting then what's happening in FRONT of the camera. Nobody knows how to stage a decent fight in TEENAGE ZOMBIES, so you watch the Female Mad Scientist tug back and forth with one of the teenage girls like some sort of folk dance. You begin to wonder what the Female Mad Scientist's hideout was in REAL life...a hotel? A campground kitchen? A diner? You admire the cars which would be vintage now. Warren always has his characters spout lots of useless jargon instead of using plot...your mouth will literally drop when the Female Mad Scientist talks shop with the Two Enemy Agents. You find yourself muttering stuff like;'Oh, you're just making this all UP..." And then there are the PAUSES...when the folks run out of script, they just sort of STARE at each other...not knowing WHAT to do..these get funny after the first half dozen. The acting styles are always all over the board. The players either ham it up, or seem to be coming out of a trance. When 2 of the captured teens were turned into zombies, I couldn't spot the difference. The 2 kids reporting their missing friends to the sheriff squirm like they need to use the bathroom. Years later, when he made stuff like THE WILD WILD WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN, he tried to pretend it was all camp. NONSENSE. He was like this all along and he MEANT it. But I give the guy credit...he made the movies and got them into the theatres and they played there or on t.v. for YEARS. There is no cussing, or overt sex. The fight scenes are so phoney it's funny. Need to get to sleep quick? These movies can put me out faster then most cold remedies. This one will give you a true taste of what was playing on a Saturday afternoon at the spook show matinee, or at 430 in the morning when you stayed up all night at the drive in. Kids won't believe it.Read full review
This movie was low budget, but I liked it. It was a classic 1950's B movie. This movie was made almost ten years before Night of The Living Dead yet they had the Zomie walk down to a pat. Add it to your collection like I did. The star of this movie was also the star of "Attack of The Giant Gila Monster" another 1959 B movie hit.
This piece of trash is a complete joy to watch. The acting is so bad that you'd think it would have to be the worst aspect of the film. Then you realize that the screenplay is far worse. On my scale of stinks to high heaven, this film gets a solid 9 and a half.
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