IMDb RATING
4.5/10
1.8K
YOUR RATING
A freshly-out-of-the-grave band of Hard Rock Zombies is thirsting to take their sweet revenge, as they give the performance of a lifetime.A freshly-out-of-the-grave band of Hard Rock Zombies is thirsting to take their sweet revenge, as they give the performance of a lifetime.A freshly-out-of-the-grave band of Hard Rock Zombies is thirsting to take their sweet revenge, as they give the performance of a lifetime.
E.J. Curse
- Jessie
- (as E.J. Curcio)
Mick McMains
- Robby
- (as Mick Manz)
Phil Fondacaro
- Mickey
- (as H.G. Golas)
Crystal Shaw Martell
- Mrs. Buff
- (as Crystal Shaw)
Vincent Albert DiStefano
- Olaf
- (as Vincent De Stefano)
Emanuel Shipow
- Grandfather
- (as Emmanuel Shipov)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOriginally, this was only meant to be about 20 minutes long and solely used as the feature movie in American Drive-in (1985). At some point during production, the decision was made to invest a little bit more money and come out with two full length feature films instead of just one.
- GoofsSoon after the end credits start rolling, director Krishna Shah's first name is misspelled as 'Written By Kirshna Shah.'
- Crazy creditsThis film is dedicated to Ramona Evelyn Andrus "Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns..." -- William Wordsworth
- Alternate versionsSome gory shots were removed from the theatrical release to avoid an "X" rating. The unrated Vestron VHS restores the cut gore.
- ConnectionsFeatured in American Drive-in (1985)
- SoundtracksMorte Ascendere
Written by Paul Sabu
Featured review
The 80s sure was a strange decade.
Travelling to the redneck town of Grand Guignol, where they hope to impress a music mogul with their next show, a heavy rock band pick up a beautiful hitch-hiker who invites them to stay at her home, which she shares with her bizarre family. Once in town, the band runs into trouble with the authorities, and lead singer Jessie falls in love with local girl Cassie, but the band's outrageous rock 'n' roll antics and Jessie's blossoming romance are short lived: the musicians are murdered one-by-one by their strange hosts, who turn out to be a bunch of bloodthirsty ghouls led by none other than Adolf Hitler!
Following the band's funeral, a distraught Cassie plays Jessie's last recording—music inspired by an ancient magical book that has the power to raise the dead—which results in the pasty faced foursome clawing their way from their graves to seek revenge, and to play one last gig.
When I first saw Hard Rock Zombies, on its original video release over 20 years ago, I thought it was absolutely awful; these days, I find the film slightly more bearable thanks to its nostalgia factor (gotta love all that big hair rock!) and my unhealthy love of cheesy 80s crap. However, I still struggle to understand what the hell its makers were thinking of: were they intentionally aiming for cult status with this insane mix of rock and horror, or is the film a genuinely inept, asinine piece of trash made by a bunch of totally talentless fools? The jury is still out on that one...
The film starts off promisingly, quickly scoring points for gratuitous use of both nudity and dwarfs, but rapidly becomes a jaw-droppingly bad mish-mash of musical interludes and inept gore (courtesy of FX man John Carl Buechler), interspersed with moments of complete inanity: the dwarfs watch on as an old man (later to be revealed as Hitler) shtups his wife; the old lady turns into a werewolf; the hitch-hiker dances to herself for no reason in the desert; one dwarf eats himself; the band survive an electrocution while practising; and one guy momentarily avoids being eaten by pretending to be a zombie (beating Shaun Of The Dead to the joke by a couple of decades).
It's all utter garbage, of course, but somehow strangely compelling.
Following the band's funeral, a distraught Cassie plays Jessie's last recording—music inspired by an ancient magical book that has the power to raise the dead—which results in the pasty faced foursome clawing their way from their graves to seek revenge, and to play one last gig.
When I first saw Hard Rock Zombies, on its original video release over 20 years ago, I thought it was absolutely awful; these days, I find the film slightly more bearable thanks to its nostalgia factor (gotta love all that big hair rock!) and my unhealthy love of cheesy 80s crap. However, I still struggle to understand what the hell its makers were thinking of: were they intentionally aiming for cult status with this insane mix of rock and horror, or is the film a genuinely inept, asinine piece of trash made by a bunch of totally talentless fools? The jury is still out on that one...
The film starts off promisingly, quickly scoring points for gratuitous use of both nudity and dwarfs, but rapidly becomes a jaw-droppingly bad mish-mash of musical interludes and inept gore (courtesy of FX man John Carl Buechler), interspersed with moments of complete inanity: the dwarfs watch on as an old man (later to be revealed as Hitler) shtups his wife; the old lady turns into a werewolf; the hitch-hiker dances to herself for no reason in the desert; one dwarf eats himself; the band survive an electrocution while practising; and one guy momentarily avoids being eaten by pretending to be a zombie (beating Shaun Of The Dead to the joke by a couple of decades).
It's all utter garbage, of course, but somehow strangely compelling.
helpful•31
- BA_Harrison
- May 7, 2009
- How long is Hard Rock Zombies?Powered by Alexa
Details
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content