In the WWII, a platoon of German soldiers is attacked by the Allies in an oasis and only the British Commander survives. The Sheik and his daughter Aisha (Doris Regina) rescue him in the desert and bring him to their house, where he recovers. Years later, the survivor tells to the mercenary Kurt (Henry Lambert) that the German troop was transporting a shipment of 6 million-dollar in gold and he informs the location of the treasure. However Kurt kills him and organizes an expedition to find the treasure.

Meanwhile the student Robert Blabber (Manuel Gélin) reads notes of his father and discovers that there is a treasure hidden in the desert. Robert joins his friends and they travel to the desert to seek the gold. However, when they reach the location, they are attacked by an army of German living dead.

"La Tumba de los Muertos Vivientes" is a lame and cheesy zombie movie by Jess Franco. This film is incredibly awful: story, screenplay, acting, dialogs, cinematography and special effects. The senseless exploitation in the beginning, with two women dressing very short Bermuda shorts is ridiculous. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Oasis dos Zumbis" ("Oasis of the Zombies")

This is Jesus Franco's addition to the zombie boom of the early 80s. He may be an exploitation director but is more a sleaze-monger than an out and out horror film-maker. In this respect he is similar to Jean Rollin, who was also roped into making a zombie film at the time. As a result, Franco's Oasis of the Zombies and Rollin's Zombie Lake are among the worst zombie films ever made.

The film begins with a couple of young women in tight denim shorts wandering around the cursed oasis while Franco goes into zoom overdrive. He zooms into all manner of irrelevant details throughout the movie. The girls are then attacked by the undead. The main story then unfolds. A WWII veteran knows the whereabouts of $6,000,000 of gold. He reveals that it is in the cursed oasis and is then killed by his partner, who wants it all to himself. The man's son Robert subsequently reads his diaries and discovers the secret of the gold bullion. He then travels to Africa with some friends in search of the booty. Unfortunately, the gold is guarded by zombies who previously were the German soldiers who were transporting it through the Sahara before being ambushed and wiped out by an Allied force led by the Robert's father.

There is a hypnotic effect evident while watching this movie. It is a result of the stultifying pace and the music. The soundtrack is certainly persistent. It has effectively been produced by someone with a Casio keyboard and no musical ability whatsoever. As I said, this, combined with the lengthy shots of people not doing very much at all, creates a hypnotic effect which, undoubtedly, will send some people to sleep. I thought it was kind of weird and, despite itself, occasionally effective. Hypnotic too, is the acting. Hypnotically rubbish that is. Worst of all is the actor who plays Robert. His remorse at his father's death is laughable. He receives the news in a manner similar to a man who has just been informed that the lawnmower he ordered is not available in green, only in turquoise. His emotional response to his father's death really is that inane. It has to be said that, as a central character, Robert is a complete cretin. Despite being warned about not going anywhere near the oasis, he leads his friends there anyway. Of course they are slaughtered. But Robert survives. And when asked if he found what he was looking for in the oasis he replies, 'I found myself'. What the hell does that mean? His journey to the oasis of zombies could hardly be described as a voyage of self-discovery. Unless, of course, he means he discovered he was a moron who was responsible for the death of his friends through negligence and idiocy.

The flashback scene showing the battle between the British and Germans is fun. It is a cheese-tastic fight with men dying in a highly comedic choreographed fashion. These men subsequently become the zombies that haunt the oasis. No explanation, however, is given for the fact that they now sport early 80's haircuts...perhaps this is an effect of 40 years of zombification? I'm no expert, so I accept that this is possible. If Adolf Hitler came back as a zombie perhaps he would resemble Dr. Hook.

As far as the blood and guts side of things is concerned, there is a limited supply. The women are killed in a somewhat sleazy manner (this is Franco after all) with the zombies slavering over them. The men are killed in a more perfunctory fashion. The make-up is pretty cheap and cheerful. Some of the lead zombies look half-decent but most look like men who fell asleep at a party and were 'decorated' by their drunken friends.

I had some fun with this movie, despite the fact that I recognise its poorness. It has a cheapo Eurotrash feel to it that I, sadly, am a sucker for. If, however, you have more sense than me then you will be, no doubt, thoroughly appalled by this effort. And I would fully understand. But if you are inclined towards Euro-sleaze and/or bad cinema then dip in.

"La Tumba de los muertos vivientes" was the original film that Jess Franco made(and has never appeared in English language to the best of my knowledge), while "Oasis of the Zombies" is a different movie that liberally lifted footage from "Tumba". However, to the best of my memory, the bulk of "Oasis..." is NOT directed by Jess Franco despite the deceptive packaging claim on the DVD box. (Shame on you Image!) While "Tumba..." is the better of the 2 versions (kinda' like snot is better than puke), I still can't really recommend it but to the most forgiving Jess Franco fans. Supposedly Lina Romay is briefly in the "Tumba" version somewhere.

I STAND CORRECTED! **SLIGHT Spoiler ALERT!** (added

I just put myself through the arduous task of watching both "La Tumba de los muertos vivientes" and "Oasis of the Zombies" back-to-back. Hey, sometimes we must suffer for art, right? Even if it isn't ours! (But I digress.)Basically these 2 versions are note for note identical with 2 big exceptions. I think what threw me was the use of battle scene footage which appears to have been taken from a different movie with a slightly bigger budget. Difference #1 is the score which, in "Tumba..." is by "Pablo Villa" whom I suspect is actually Jess Franco most of the time. The music in "Oasis..." is credited to composer Daniel White and is a lot more standard. Decent, but not as wacky sounds as Villa's. Difference #2 is that the couple who appear at the beginning of the film, Colonel Meitzell and his wife, are played by Eduardo Fajardo and Lina Romay in the Spanish version ("La tumba..."). However in the French / English dubbed version ("Oasis...") they are played by another couple. The Meitzell's appear in a later scene with 2 different henchmen from the Spanish version(when they go to the oasis to look for the treasure and are attacked by zombies). Whether or not these scenes were shot at the same time by Franco or later by another director I can't say for sure. But since there is some interaction between both couples and another of the main actors in both versions (Javier Maiza) I would guess that they were. The 2 scenes are the only thing different about the 2 versions footage-wise as far as I can tell and they are almost note-for-note the same apart from some minor differences. The biggest one being some guts that are seen pulled from Mrs. Meitzell during her attack in "Oasis...", whereas no guts are seen coming from Lina Romay's lovely stomach in "Tumba...". Also Maiza's character is murdered slightly differently (gun vs. poison injection). For what it is worth, the Spanish language DVD (Tumba) is a bit more dark looking then the US Image DVD release (Oasis). I know you all will sleep better tonight knowing all of this information. I'm not sure why all those years ago when I first saw this film that I had remembered "La Tumba..." seeming so different. All I can think is that I must have been slightly altered at the time, which I suggest you doing if you attempt to watch either of these versions.