Neither the Sand, Nor the Sea (1978)

[lester1/2jr]

                I have a feeling not many people here will enjoy this.  The first half of the movie is a romance  with not much dialogue and some dark sort of overtones, a gothic romance if you will.  The second half is probably more appropriate for this site than virtually anything I post here. 

        There are many ways a movie can be bad, but one of the most stirking is when there is a serious architectural flaw in the whole concept.  Imagine if you will if  Black Sabbath performed "iron man"  with the wrong notes so it sounded like circus music instead of evil.  and you have to watch as they pound out the riffs to the opposite of their intended effect.


    In this case, the whole doomed romance and love beyond the reaches of death becomes remarkable slapstick comedy. you wonder how on earth the actors didn't stop themselves from laughing.  SOMEONE must have known that there was at least the  POTENTIAL  that the ultra serious tone could be undermined by the logistal problems involved with having a relationship with a zombie.


   I think they actually could have pulled this off if they had taken a less straightforward approach, maybe had more ambiguity in the "is he really dead or is she just imagining it". 

Instead it's "Zombie, I'm home!"  . 



   other than this massive defect which sinks the movie, it was alright but not really my style and not terribly ambitious in that it is mainly a  paperback  type romance , albeit a GOTH one.  It's still for middle aged ladies.  some very nice music and scenery though.

[ulthar]

Hmm, from that basic description, "slapstick zombie love story," my mind went to DEAD HEAT (1988).  Any chance DH was an attempt to redo this basic storyline from the earlier effort?

[lester1/2jr]

as best as I can tell no.  that's a cop movie and this is a love story. is dead heat good?

[ulthar]

Depends on how you define "good."  It has some funny moments.  Worth a look if you've never seen it, just don't expect to be "really moved" by it.  It's a silly cop-buddy movie.

[The Burgomaster]

I bought this DVD a few weeks ago, but haven't watched it yet.  I'll try to get to it soon . . .

[lester1/2jr]

It's sort of like a horror movie with the horror taken out and the plot elements emphasized.  like if jason never appeared in Friday the thirteenth