Shock Waves is a 1977 horror film. Its cast features Peter Cushing and John Carradine.
During World War II, Those Wacky Nazis created the Death Corps, nigh-invincible troopers made from the dead German soldiers. After carrying out few missions, they disappeared into the sea at the end of the war.
An undersea quake years later awakens them from their rest, and they go after shipwrecked holiday-goers who are stranded on an island nearby.
These tropes rose up from the depths:
- Abandoned Area: The once elegant hotel where the SS officer has been holed up for years.
- Asshole Victim: The extremely whiny Norman.
- Closed Circle: The island.
- Death by Cameo: John Carradine as Captain Norris isn't in the movie long before getting Killed Offscreen somehow.
- Final Girl: Rose.
- Flare Gun: After colliding with the suddenly ascended ship, the yacht captain fires his flare gun to reveal its position. It's also Chekhov's Flare Gun.
- Freak Out: It is, after all, a horror movie. Some characters, like Keith, have phobias that don't show up until catastrophic freak outs.
- Foregone Conclusion: Rose being the only survivor.
- Ghost Ship: Lampshaded by the captain.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: The SS officer has a scar going over his right eye.
- Gone Horribly Right: The Death Corps project.
- The Hermit: The former SS officer, who has lived on his own since the war.
- How We Got Here: The film opens with Rose being rescued from the sea, who then tells us the events leading to it.
- Implacable Man: The zombies never have different facial expressions and indifferently wade through anything and everything to get to their victims.
- Killed Offscreen: Captain Norris. It's implied (but never confirmed) that he got killed by a zombie while attempting to repair the Bonaventure's engine.
- Nazi Zombies: The entire plot.
- No Name Given: The elderly SS officer played by Peter Cushing.
- Our Zombies Are Different: They are undead soldiers who are driven by their need to kill.
- Peekaboo Corpse:
- Rose goes on a swim in the lake, only to run into Dobbs' corpse.
- Norris' (the captain) corpse is also discovered this way. As the castaways are rowing ashore, Norman's wife is startled by Norris floating face up underneath them through the boat's glass bottom.
- Spiteful Spit: The SS commander when Keith keeps following him and asking questions.
- Stupid Jetpack Hitler: Nazi soldiers resurrected by science to fight for the Third Reich under the sea!
- Temporary Blindness: Or at least it might've been temporary, but for other events.
- Weakened by the Light: That's why the Death Corps wear goggles.
- Zombie Gait: The Death Corps exhibit a stiff walking style. It's a little different from the shambling, uncoordinated stagger of most zombies; since they're (kind of) intelligent, they merely walk stiffly but purposefully toward a goal.
