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Director Shaun Robert Smith, maker of the beautiful looking horror short The Soldier, is currently in production with another addition to the burgeoning Nazi Zombie mileu which has seemed to take a pretty strong foothold the last year or so. Brian Yuzna tried desperately to kick things off a couple years back with his now defunct Worst Case Scenario film (now being resucitated as The Army Of Frankenstein), British flick The Outpost dropped about a year ago, then Tommy Wirkola brought Dod Sno which is currently garnering fans worldwide, now it's time for Mr. Smith to bring forth his own entry into the sub-sub-genre with The 4'th Reich. Dangerously close to saturation level, the Nazi Zombie genre still has a bit of life left in it. And if The SOldier is any indication, 4th Reich, which plays kind of like a feature version of the aforementioned short, should be well worth horror fans' attention. Starring Sean Pertwee and Tom Savini. And no Savini is not involved in doing the FX. Too bad actually, because I'd love to see Savini pull some old school maestro maneuvers. But, the talented Cesar Alonso is handling FX, and that's not a bad thing given his track record on films like Evil Aliens, and Timecrimes.When I asked Smith about what is going to set apart 4th Reich from the recent slew of similarly themed films he stated -
"Our vision and intention for 'The 4th Reich' is primarily to be a war film, although there just happens to be a premise, which encapsulates the characters, leaving them with plenty to deal with. Similar to that of "Saving Private Ryan", in their quest to save Private Ryan, they had encountered something not seen before, something dark and at that moment, the focus of their mission became survival, a test of human endurance and unspeakable horror."
Also, the production seems to be aiming pretty high as far as some of the bells and whistles they are attaching to the production. It looks like the 4th Reich will be happening in 3 dimensions as well -
"Certain elements will be shot using the latest 3D techniques enhancing the thrill for the audience. 3D has been re-invented over the past few years and now offers plenty of exciting new features. Also, cinemas have steadily warmed to the medium, encompassing such features, allowing many more 3D enhanced movies to be released."
So here's hoping for a popcorn munching good time. More as it comes...
Below is a look at the trailer for Smith's award winning short The Soldier. Good looking stuff.
I didn't know Brian Yuzna was involved with Worst Case Scenario, I thought that was being helmed by Richard Raaphorst. Regardless, The 4th Reich sounds like another fine addition to the Nazi-Zombie sub-sub genre for sure, looking forward to this. It's interesting that there hasn't been a resurgence in remaking the likes of Shock Wave or Oasis of the Zombies or other sub-par nazi related zombie flicks.
Yuzna was involved as a producer. Raaphorst was always in the director's chair.
It's a bit strange that Yuzna couldn't pull off this production considering the many turds he's been producing in the last few years.
This should be interesting!! I have fond memories of seeing "Shock Waves" back in the seventies!! There was always a mystical and supernatural element that ol' Adolph tried to instill in his "Third Reich", so naturally enough I believe there is still an enormous amount of material that can be mined from this well. I wish this project well!!