I've only watched this movie a couple of times in my life and months afterward I can barely recall that I did watch the thing. On my most recent viewing I realized why it's so forgettable - there are almost no memorable scenes in this movie. The only a few scenes that even approached being memorable and they are that way because they're slightly silly. Not really silly. They never become cartoonishly funny but just remain at a constant level of mildly silly in a sort of low-budget-film, got-to-get-this-shot kind of way. These silly moments include the sight of a supposedly underwater trip via diving helmet in which the illusion of being underwater is accomplished by having a bubble machine attached to the back of the actor. It’s a not very effective attempt at convincing the audience that water is surrounding the character and it’s mildly daft. Another cheap effect is faking the firing of a flare pistol by merely turning an off-camera bright light on and having people shield their eyes and squint. As I said, silly but not silly enough to warrant more than mild amusement.
But the strangest element of this movie, and one that eventually irritates me over the course of its short running time, is that there are multiple times in the narrative when the most natural thing for characters to do is simply set fire to the zombies! Set them on fire, dammit! At several junctures there are cans of gasoline or kerosene, torches with open flames and a room full of walled-off zombies. Light those suckers up and get rid of your problem. Done. But this being a mid-50s low-budget affair (thank you Sam Katzman) what we get is something much sillier. You know - like pouring the flammable fluid on the ground and lighting it so that the zombies don't follow you. The script is such a sloppy mess that there are points where even the actors seem to have lost the thread of just what is going on. Oh well. I guess in another 10 years or so I'll have forgotten enough about this movie to be willing to watch it again. It's a shame it's not better. Maybe I should have watched it with a beer or four?
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