The following post is my contribution to this year’s “Favorite Stars in B Movies“ blogathon, an annual event held by our friend Brian at the review site Films From Beyond the Time Barrier (filmsfrombeyond.com). The blogathon is celebrating its third year, and I’ve been honored and thrilled to have contributed to the first two years of the event. However, unlike previous years. I had an extremely hard time choosing a topic to discuss.

Eventually, I decided upon 1987’s Zombie Nightmare, a Canadian-lensed horror film from producer/director Jack Bravman, who played a role in bringing us films like 1975’s highly controversial Snuff, the Wings Hauser-starring The Carpenter, 1990’s duo of Night of the Dribbler and Mind Benders, as well as a shit-ton of porn of both the soft and hardcore varieties. So much porn.

Zombie Nightmare was written by the late John Fasano, whom fans of 1980s’ B-grade horror may know as the creator of cult classics The Jitters, Black Roses, and (my personal favorite) Rock N’ Roll Nightmare. Fasano also served as a co-director on the film, but claims (in the commentary track included on the 2015 blu-ray release from Code Red and Screen Archives) to have had difficulties with the crew following his orders as they thought that he was only an assistant director on the project. Adding a little more insult to the situation, Bravman receives full directing credit on the film.

Let’s me explain the film’s plot as quickly as possible as it is not the central focus of this post.

A young father is murdered in front of his wife and child while attempting to defend a young black girl from assault by two white males. 20 years later, the son has grown into a muscle-bound jock, played by “Rock Warrior” Jon Mikl Thor. That said, he too is shortly killed, this time by a group of joy-riding teens. Devasted by her child’s demise, the boy’s mother summons local voodoo priestess Molly Mekembe, who just happens to be the young woman that her husband died defending all those years prior. Mekembe resurrects the young man and sets him out to collect vengeance.

Meanwhile, a young detective (Frank Dietz) tries to discover just who or what is behind the ensuing series of murders. Adam West appears as the police chief. While West was only on set for 2 or 3 days, his role stands out not only due to his being the film’s “star power”, but also because (due to a very inexperienced editing department) he can be clearly seen reading his lines directly from the script in many of his scenes.

Now, let’s get one thing clear early. Zombie Nightmare is not a particularly well-made movie. In fact, it’s generally considered to be a “bad” movie, a sentiment that was undoubtedly reinforced by the film’s riffing on Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1994. Unfortunately, I can’t really defend the film too much as, truth be told, it is one of those films that I tend to enjoy more for what it does wrong than what it does right. I also consider myself to be a fan of at least a couple of the film’s stars.

So, why did I choose this particular film to be the topic of my third foray into the “Favorite Stars” blogathon? Simple, really. My first three topic ideas had already been claimed by other contributors to this year’s event. Damn! Foiled by a rule that I include in my own yearly contributors series. Oh, well. That’s what I get for procrastinating to pick a topic.

While West and future Wayne’s World co-star Tia Carrere (and to a lesser extent, Thor) are the names most prominently featured on the film’s posters and box art and do tend to be the most recognizable names in the cast, some of the film’s other cast members have had fairly successful careers of their own. Let’s discuss some of them now.

THE STARS OF ZOMBIE NIGHTMARE:

Adam West: I’m not going to discuss West’s career in too much depth as I’m sure most readers are familiar with his time as Batman on the legendary 1960s’ TV series. For what it’s worth, West’s version of the character has always been my favorite. However, the 80s’ and early 1990s arguably weren’t the highlight of West’s career, with the actor often finding himself relegated to roles in B-grade fare such as Night of the Kickfighters, One Dark Night, and Doin’ Time on Planet Earth. 1980’s The Happy Hooker Goes to Hollywood and 1985’s Young Lady Chatterley II may be his most memorable films from this period.

Despite his relatively brief screen time, Fasano and crew found West to be quite amicable and easy to work with. In the blu-ray release’s commentary track, both Fasano and Dietz share anecdotes of later run-ins with West, who remained quite friendly and seemingly fond of his short time working on the film.

Tia Carrere: Carrere technically made her film debut in the Tommy Lee Wallace-directed Aloha Summer, a film reportedly shot in 1984, but not released until 1988. By this point, she had already made television appearances on shows such as “Airwolf” and the short-lived “Cover Up” (most notable for the on-set death of its star, Jon-Erik Hexum) before joining the cast of “General Hospital” in 1987. Carrere was also a first-round elimination as a singer on the Ed McMahon-hosted talent competition show “Star Search”.

Before her big break in 1992’s Wayne’s World (and its sequel the following year), Carrere also appeared in Showdown in Little Tokyo and Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man; two films that weren’t well received at release, but have developed their own smaller fanbases over the years. Carrere would follow this up with roles in films such as Rising Sun, True Lies, Jury Duty, and High School High before landing her own television series, “Relic Hunter”, which aired from 1999 until 2002.

While many remember her cover of Sweet’s “Ballroom Blitz” from Wayne’s World, they may not be aware that Carrere continued her music career for years after. She would win Grammys for Best Hawaiian Music Album in 2009 and 2011. In recent years, she has appeared on shows such as “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and the “Hawaii Five-O” reboot, as well as providing voice work for Disney’s multiple Stitch projects. She also appeared nude in Playboy in 2003. Just putting that out there.

I apparently met Tia back in the early-90s. I used the term “apparently” as I wasn’t aware it was her at the time. However, two people that witnessed the interaction informed me afterwards who she was. As she was in my hometown filming a movie at the time, and as I had met a few of her co-stars from the film in prior days, I’m inclined to believe that it actually was her. For what it’s worth, she was very nice, although it did appear as though she would’ve preferred to be left alone.

Jon Mikl Thor: A champion bodybuilder-turned-rock star, Thor (and his self-titled band) would release five studio albums (and one live album) before he made his film debut in the 1986 Canadian produced Police Academy “clone” Recruits, which also featured a young Lolita Davidovich. As previously mentioned, Thor had worked with Fasano on 1987’s Rock N’ Roll Nightmare, one of a small collection of heavy metal themed horror films released during the second half of that decade.

This foray into film would also coincide with Thor retiring from music, although he did start his own label during this time. He would return to recording and touring ten years later with the release of “Ride of the Chariots” in 1997, and has released a dozen or so albums in the years since.

As mentioned, I’m a huge fan of Rock N’ Roll Nightmare and was thrilled to get the opportunity to meet Thor and watch him perform at a show in 2015. I even took the opportunity to purchase an original video release poster of the film from the band’s drummer, which I also had Thor sign. The poster has become one of my favorite pieces in my collection… even if it is currently just sitting in a closet.

Frank Dietz:Ā As his best friend growing up, it may not be too surprising that the first four films of Dietz’s career were all written and directed by Fasano. They would also serve as the last films of his career until Dietz made his return to acting with a role in Larry Blamire’s The Lost Skeleton Returns Again in 2008. Dietz also has a small role in 2015’s Tales of Halloween.

At some point Dietz made the transition to animation, which lead to his working on Disney-produced projects like Mulan, Hercules, Fantasia 2000, and Mary Poppins Returns. He’s also worked on various The Smurfs projects, as well as entries in the Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon film series. Dietz has also written an episode of AMC/Shudder’s “Creepshow” series, as well as co-wrote and directed 2016’s King Kong documentary Long Live the King.

Shawn Levy: Levy stars as “Jim”, one of Zombie Nightmare‘s co-antagonists. He would make his film debut with a bit part in 1986’s The Vindicator, following up with roles in films like 1987’s Wild Thing and 1988’s The Kiss, as well as shows such as “China Beach”, “21 Jump Street”, “Beverly Hill 90210”, and “Family Matters”.

However, at some point in his career, Levy would transition into directing and producing. This would prove to be a wise move for Levy as he has since become one of the most successful filmmakers in Hollywood over the last three decades or so. Levy has been responsible for films and shows such as Big Fat Liar, the Cheaper by the Dozen films, the Night at the Museum franchise, Deadpool 3, “Stranger Things”, and much more. There’s very solid argument to be made that he’s the most successful “star” of the bunch, even if that celebrity status wasn’t for his acting.

So, there you have it! Again, I’d have a rather difficult time convincing anyone that Zombie Nightmare is a “must watch” film. It’s not. If anything, the audience that I would recommend it to are those that enjoy the type of film that would have been picked apart by the likes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 or, these days, Rifftrax. That said, the likelihood is that this same audience has already watched the film when it appeared on that show.

In closing, it should be noted that even the cast of MST3K hated this film. Take that as you will. Not sure what it says about me though.