Revenge of the Revenant Review 29: The one with Mexican wrestlers vs. zombies in a helicopter

 

Title: Invasion of the Dead aka Invasion of Death

What Year?: 1973

Classification: Unnatural Experiment/ Anachronistic Outlier

Rating: It’s Okay! (3/4)

 

With this review, I’m in the final countdown for this feature, and I already know I’m going to end up going way over sooner or later. Under the circumstances, I might as well go with a first, a movie I only watched specifically for the present review. It also marks the first time I’ve reviewed a foreign-language film without an English dub, and on top of that, the first representation of a subgenre that simply never caught on in the US. That’s as good a point to dive into Invasion of the Dead, a relatively late example of the Mexican wrestling movie genre… and if you’re wondering what this could possibly have to do with zombies, you lucky bastard.

Our story begins with a monologue about the vastness and indifference or active hostility of the cosmos that makes Criswell in Plan 9 From Outer Space look remotely sane. Also, If you’re watching this under the circumstances of this review, you’re going to be hearing this in Spanish with English subtitles superimposed over other subtitles. In short order, we’re introduced to the Blue Demon and Professor Zovek, two real-life Mexican folk performers who in this cinematic alternate universe are called upon by the police and other authorities to investigate a mysterious meteorite that crashes in what looks like northern Mexico. (Knowing anything about Latin American geography is not going to help…) Naturally, it turns out the meteor is the center of an entity or force able to reanimate the dead. But these aren’t your ordinary shambling cannibals, but cunning and ornery attackers who can plan ambushes, hide between rampages, and even hijack a helicopter, all directed by the malign cosmic power of the matte-black orb. Can Zovek and Blue Demon save the day, or will the zombies’ air superiority win the day?

Invasion of the Dead was a film from the egregious Mexican filmmaker Rene Cardona, featuring Mexican lucha libre star Blue Demon and daredevil Professor Zovek. It was one of an estimated 25 horror/ fantasy films to feature the Blue Demon in the 1960s and 1970s. The film was reportedly planned as a sequel to Zovek’s 1972 debut film The Incredible Professor Zovek, then completed as a Blue Demon adventure after he died in an unrelated accident during filming.  German model/ actress Christa Linder appeared as Erika, the daughter of a scientist who becomes zombified. Limited information exists on the contemporary release or later distribution of the film. An English-language poster with the liberally transliterated title Invasion of Death appears to have been created for US/ North American distribution, but does not include a copyright or MPAA rating. While the film has reportedly been released on Spanish-language DVDs., it remains inaccessible for US audiences except through online videos, possibly based on European VHS recordings.

For my experiences, I heard of this one as usual from Dendle’s Zombie Movie Encyclopedia. Even that dedicated scholar of the genre describes it with astonishment and every sign of awe. I looked into it on and off, and considered it for this feature. I was finally and reluctantly ready to set it aside as I planned out the reviews that would bring the count up to 30 reviews. In the middle of it all, I gave it a go to fill a little time. It turned out that the video that was easiest to find was a video of bootleg-quality resolution with German subtitles that must have come with the source recording. (I know just enough Spanish to be dangerous.) It was the strangest and somehow most fitting viewing experience I had had for this feature since Horror Express. That alone was enough to convince me that the lineup wouldn’t be complete without this one. So, I set aside an entry from a popular series aside to review it. I’m going to dry to do this quickly because it’s getting late and again, too much analysis isn’t going to help matters.

Going in, the strangest part of this movie is simply that its assumed world is taken completely at face value. We have Zovek, a sort of hippie hunk, following Erika and her father where armed soldiers and police have already vanished. Even more surreally, we see the Blue Demon wear his mask without comment while solemnly consulting with various authorities and even examining evidence at his own proto-CSI lab. Things get still more curious when they do battle with the undead. Zovek manages to grapple with small groups of the revenants, before spending most of the final act running from their impressive numbers. By comparison, the Blue Demon mostly faces limited numbers of opponents, including several goons in vaguely ape-like stock makeup. His main fighting technique proves to be a sort of slap that usually stuns or disables individual attackers before they can gang up on him. Again, the odd part is that this is done with utmost seriousness. These are revenants that clearly aim to kill, and the protagonists react accordingly.

That leaves the zombies themselves. In appearance, these are even more no-tech than Sole Survivor, and almost as malevolent. Like many of the more creative zombies, they don’t appear cannibalistic, nor is it entirely clear that their condition is contagious. There’s old-school horror shots of the first wave rising from the graves (a conceit that George Romero moved the genre away from), and a mist-shrouded, eerily-lit cavern or quarry where they congregate. At the same time, they freely congregate in broad daylight in perhaps the film’s most impressive sequences, which must have been filmed about the same time Romero brought us the fully-lit hordes of The Crazies.  By comparison, the spark-throwing meteorite that gives them life never quite comes into its own, all the more unfortunate given the unearthly shots of the pit. There’s an extra pile of random in their seeming fascination with vehicles, which only comes up again in City of the Walking Dead. It supplies the most unique moments of the movie, yet to me doesn’t offer a lot for further comment. The ones I will give mention are a scene where Erika’s father collapses, drawing the protagonists to land the helicopter, and an entirely inexplicable moment where they are actually picked up by what proves to be a zombified driver.

In all this, you might be thinking I would be at a loss for the “one scene”. In fact, after a little more time than usual to think this through, I quickly came back to one sequence in particular, unlike many featuring the Blue Demon rather than Zovek.  A little past the one-hour mark (in a 78-minute movie), we see a power surge from the meteor, and a trio of soldiers who fell victim to an earlier attack rise to their feet. Meanwhile, Blue Demon and his sidekick lose their car to a zombie who actually runs over the sidekick (and yes, it does not look fake). While Blue Demon and his injured companion are recovering from the shock, the soldiers approach. The wrestler looks up from dealing with one of the undead, and freezes. The part that embeds it in my mind is a series of closeups of each soldier’s face. None of them have more than a trickle of blood from their wounds, and all share the same utterly blank expression. It all leads into a decent fight sequence, but in a common theme, nothing beats the unsettling tableau of the zombies just staring before the strike.

In conclusion, all I have left to say is a comment on the rating, except I find myself wavering on whether there’s anything to say. Of course, there are far better movies in and out of the genre. Of course, it makes almost no sense. Of course, the production values are terrible. Of course, its whole genre niche is incomprehensible for any other time or place. Yet, it remains well-shot, unaccountably ahead of its time, and more genuinely entertaining than plenty of those “better” movies. That’s enough to stir up at least the quality of mercy in me, and that’s enough to give this one a passing grade.