Operation: Nazi Zombies (2003) User Reviews

a mess of a so-called "film"

[roadtrip7777 · 1/10 · 1 March 2005]

Maplewoods is one of those films that has to be seen to be believed. I mean seriously. I picked this up at a local video rental place expecting some funny overreacting, crazy gore, cool looking zombies, and cheese. What I got was a painful movie that robbed me of two hours of my life. The movie leaves wide open for a sequel. God help us all! Zombie movies are the most idiotic and overused genre and I can't believe that the director thought this was actually a good idea. If you want a good zombie movie, rent Dawn of the Dead or the original zombie film Night of the Living Dead. Avoid this movie at all costs please!You will not regret it. AWFUL! 00/10

problems with this movie

[WeirdMovieMan74 · 1/10 · 1 March 2005]

here are the top ten problems with maplewoods.

1.the opening credits are like ten minutes long. it took forever. 2.the gore looks really really really fake. 3. the dialogue is hard to hear. i couldn't hear anybody saying their lines. 4. everyone is much too young. 5. besides the black guy, no one else in the movie could even come close to what is commonly referred to as 'acting.' 6. the night scenes u couldn't see anything. 7. zombie movies are getting really old. 8. maplewoods 2? 9. the secret military base was really some shack in someones back yard. hello? location shooting. 10. the cover looks really cheap. at least make the DVD cover look cool even if the movie stinks.

Um, okay.

[GunnisonHJ · 1/10 · 3 March 2005]

Um, what in the name of George Romero was this? I must say, not only was this the worst zombie movie I have ever seen. I must also say that this is absolutely the worst piece of garbage I have ever laid eyes on. I feel bad for the other users that have paid for this putrid trash. I thankfully rented it and will be returning it in a few minutes. I just had to get on here and say just how awful this movie was. What was with the acting? Not since Plan 9 From Outer Space have I seen such incompetence and inept acting. The special effects were not that great either, although this movie has better special effects than some movies. I am sure that "twist" ending was supposed to be a twist, but seriously. Just a terrible mess and I am disgusted.

Avoid!

[Simplefun17 · 15 July 2004]

I saw this movie a year ago, it was the most atrocious, plot-hole ridden, worst acted video I ever watched. It didn't even qualify as camp, avoid this at all costs - it was that poor. I actually saw this at a screening with David B. Stewart present, I am pretty sure most of his family was in the theater too. I tried not to laugh, I really did but it was impossible not too.

Maplewoods takes the cliché of "the secret military zombie experiment gone wrong" to new levels of horribleness. Amazingly stupid. The army squad is escorted in by a CIA agent, which for some reason that is never explained or even hinted at, the military guys turn on him and just shoot the poor guy accusing him of being a turncoat. And it all falls off a cliff from there.

Watch as a strobe-effect-filled room full of poorly made-up zombies slapping each other with raw meat represents the shocking secret. Meanwhile, top side, the rest of the soldiers desperately try to run as slow as possible so the lumbering zombies can grab them.

Add in wooden actors who are from the "If I am not cursing every other word, than I better light up a smoke" school and you know your in for an unwatchable wreck. Every frame in this video is more useless than the next.

As a fan of indie flicks from film makers on a shoe string budget, I would avoid anything to to with this ugliness. As for the wonderful first review up top, I wish I had been smoking what they were when i watched this.

Guilty pleasure (in a way)

[claymonster24 · 3/10 · 17 July 2006]

I am not quite sure what the reason is for the public outcry involving Maplewoods. It's not the best zombie movie ever made, but I could certainly think of plenty of movies that are worse than this one. The plot is nonexistent, but there is plenty of gore and I think the acting for the most part is serviceable given the genre and budget. If they had had a bigger budget, the film might have turned out better. The zombies were certainly a lot better than some of those other low budget backyard zombie movies. It's a good way to kill 90 minutes, in my opinion. If you're looking for an entertaining movie that isn't rocket science.

Awful film. Pure and simple.

[MLProperelli · 1/10 · 8 April 2005]

"Maplewoods" is an awful film. Pure and simple. Just horrendous across the board. Though not all of it stinks of decaying flesh (the zombie effects are better in this than in some of the other movies I have seen), I cannot tell you the absolute disgusting feelings that ran through my body while I was watching this. I am quite frankly embarrassed to be a member of the same species as the people that made this movie. From the self-absorbed opening credits (David B. Stewart III, David B. Stewart III, David B. Stewart III) to some of the worst dialogue I have ever heard in my life, this one purely stunk.

I won't mention much of the plot, because there really isn't much of one to begin with. It involves some "high-tech" operatives, a "military base" (a shack is more like it), a secret government cover-up (aren't they all?) and a twist that I saw coming from the opening credits (which incidentally are about 10 minutes long). Again, the only redeeming thing about this entire film is the zombie makeup, which is better than what I have seen in some other backyard zombie movies.

I feel that the genre really needs a rest, I have seen one too many zombie movies. There are about 1,000 too many zombie movies. Night of the Living Dead was a classic. The rest have stunk. Including this one.

Is this a joke?

[cawls2426 · 1/10 · 4 November 2012]

I only managed to watch 30 minutes of this film and half of that was the introduction/starting credits which seemed to list everybody involved and go on forever.

I never really understood what was happening. Partly because I could not hear the dialogue over the crickets, dripping water or machinery background noises.

The acting was atrocious and everybody smoked. It looks like the costumes were the casts old school shirts. And I wondered if the director had roped in family members for a cheap cast, as nobody seemed believable as a person.

One character seemed to die only to come back and finish his dialogue and die again.

Zombie movies are big money and the cover/box looked very tempting. I don't know why anybody decided to release this film. Except maybe as a joke.

Yes I realize I couldn't make a movie if I tried, but seriously.....

[movie_missy_64 · 1/10 · 1 September 2005]

MAPLEWOODS is one of those backyard zombie movies that I think everyone has dreamt to make at one time or another. I myself never felt this way growing up, as I mostly am into romantic comedies and the occasional slasher movie. My brother was at the premiere for MAPLEWOODS back in '03 when it premiered in Doylestown, PA near where I grew up. He bought a copy of that movie and sent it to me to watch. I was horrified at this movie. Never have I seen such a poorly acted movie in my entire life. As I have said before, I am a fan of stage actor Steve Brown who I saw in some plays before I moved to N.C. and have seen in a few of director Anthony Spadaccini's films, but I was gravely disappointed that he was involved with this garbage. The special effects are the only saving grace, but even that can't save a movie that is way too long (even though it is under 90 minutes, it still seemed way too long) and has some really bad overacting. I realize that I couldn't make a movie if I tried (I can't even hold a camcorder without dropping it) but seriously.....out of every genre, i think this one is by far the most overused besides the romantic comedy (not that I'm complaining) or the slasher movie. I know a lot of people worked hard on this movie, but I think a better script would have meant a better movie. The movie's open-ending means we'll see a MAPLEWOODS PART II someday. Let's hope it's a better movie.

good zombie gore film

[Moviefan1001 · 1/10 · 20 September 2004]

so what if this isn't a "night of the living dead?" the acting might have been a little cheesy, but the gore in this was pretty gross and disgusting which i think helped. maplewoods is never ever dull and i think the people who give this film a bad rap are missing the whole point. I'm sure maplewoods is really low budget and if they had a bigger budget then maybe the movie would have looked it. i think the only major negative in the movie is the lead actor who was a bad actor but a lot of scenes were played for camp such as the scene where the black guy fought the crazy militant. kind of reminded me of the scene where jim brown knocked out the aliens in mars attacks!

good zombie movie :-)

Delightfully cheesy

[duce122 · 3/10 · 31 August 2004]

Maplewoods (2003) C-87 min. D: David B. Stewart III. Thomas Reilly, Elissa Mullen, Christopher Connolly, John Weidemoyer, John Martineau, Francesco Constante, Steven Brown, Brian Dugan, Sean Hutcheon, Peter Hock, Victoria Katz, Robert Schiller, Dave Stewart Jr, Jerry Puma, David B. Stewart III. A team of highly-skilled military operatives embark on a mission to clear the area of Maplewoods from flesh-eating zombies (results of a Nazi experiment gone terribly wrong). Delightfully cheesy in its own way, this low budget gorefest features hilarious dialogue and some examples of awful overacting. But if not taken too seriously, MAPLEWOODS can be enjoyed for what it is. RATING: 3 out of 10. NOT RATED (graphic violence, grisly images, profanity)

Truly awful - please don't waste your time.

[pob75 · 1/10 · 21 August 2016]

I generally love zombie films. Even bad ones are usually entertaining and I'll forgive a lot as long as it entertains in some way. I can find a lot of entertainment in the trashiest, silliest, lowest budget horror offerings. This, however, must rank as one of THE worst films I have ever tried to sit through. There are low budget films that manage to be inventive, or build atmosphere or carry you along without anything expensive or spectacular - this is definitely NOT one of those. I watched this under the title "Nazi Zombies" and even expecting very little I was disappointed. I only spotted one zombie that could be considered anything Nazi-ish. The cover was the best thing about the film. It makes little sense. I'm not sure there was a plot at all. Whole swathes of the film are badly acted, poorly scripted, largely pointless dialogue. The sound quality was just terrible. The effects were just bad - and not even funny-bad. There is really nothing here for me to be positive about. If you read the most negative reviews about this film and think nothing can be that bad - be warned. It really can. The only reason to watch this is to show yourself just how bad a film can be. And it's not worth it. Don't waste 90 minutes of your life - take my word for it.

Shock Waves,Horror Of War and NOWWW...O.:N. Z.!

[guestar57 · 7/10 · 4 April 2012]

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OPERATION: NAZI ZOMBIES, April 5, 2012 by GUESTAR

This is in that 'Zombie Nazi' genre niches,That is so beloved by geeks of all ages.

Really an awesome film,There I said it,That should'nt have set on shelf for almost a dozen years.

The cast was really good,Especially O'Malley (John Weidemoyer),Hey was'nt there a Ken Weiderhorn involved with SHOCK WAVES,A coincidence, We think not.

Seriously Brain Damage has a winner on its hands,After watching Air Collision and Tales Of An Ancient Empire,I needed to clean my viewing palette with something good,Not Great like O:NZ is !

Wow,Look there is an evil plot on American soil to repeat a Nazi experiment on a town of 122 extras…Townspeople.

Kudos,Yippee and thanks to all involved in this addition to a fun genre

Just plain awful!!

[AndyVanScoyoc · 2/10 · 5 May 2017]

In my desperate search for any semblance of a decent zombie movie, I came across this one on Amazon Prime.

I saw the ratings, but don't go by them. I've seen some movies get fabulous ratings and they're as awful as the worst of the worst indie zero budget films and some, with terrible ratings, that are surprisingly and shockingly good.

So...I generally ignore ratings.

Nope...these ratings and reviews were right on the money...whatever budget they had for making the movie would have been better spent on a vacation or something...anything other than this waste of time.

Horrible acting...such poor lighting filmed so dark I could hardly make anything in the film out and the only reason I even gave this movie a 2, was because the makeup, though laughable, was okay.

You know all the other reviews you've read instructing you to "Avoid" this film?

Yeah...that.

Utter Waste of Time --- Atrocious !

[FountainPen · 1/10 · 2 April 2013]

Having viewed many dozens of zombie and war films, I can assure you that this flick is absolute RUBBISH.

It fails and falls in all areas including acting, cinematography, direction and plot. Some of the scenes were shot in almost complete darkness, others apparently with the microphone twenty feet away.

Many scenes comprise people talking for long periods: boring, boring, boring.

The "action" is laughable, with makeup and special effects found extremely wanting; amateurish and hapless.

Honestly, I can find no redeeming features about this motion picture effort. There is nothing to praise. It is an utter waste of time.

Got some dialogue? Mind and smoke while you say it.

[Bezenby · 5/10 · 1 April 2014]

There sure is a lot of smoking in this film! It begins with some general (smoking) being visited in jail by some other officer (smoking) to tell his tale of what happened when he was sent out with a squad of marines to liquidate a project out there, started by his father. He's given this mission by a General Dotter (smoking). Also, there's a CIA agent that's to tag along.

So our hero, his squad, and the CIA guy get dropped into Maplewoods, head to the facility, get the power working, send a squad down into the lab and end up having half their squad devoured by zombies as the CIA guy makes sure the power gets cut. Before you can say 'This sounds like Aliens', the remaining marines turn on Burke, I mean the CIA guy, get into a shootout, then discover that there's a huge bomb in the lab ready to go off! So far, so Aliens.

Also, there's zombies all round the building by this point too, and some of the remaining marines (most of which smoke) start rebelling and head out into the night, so you've got our hero and his loyal marines (some of them wounded) in the building, and others wandering around the zombie infested countryside (one of which has gone insane). Can our hero get rids of the zombies and destroy the evidence of what his dad did before the bomb goes off and destroys the lab? What you'll notice about Nazi Zombies (the title I watched it under) is the absolute cheapness of the production. The sound especially is quite awful, and I'm not sure if they used an external mike or an in camera mike because the sound jumps all over the place. Visually, there's a bit of flair to the camera-work but the lighting leaves a lot to be desired (even with my HD upscaling player thingy). During the day it's fine, but the night shots, and those in the neon lit lab, were a bit taxing.

That said, and all Aliens 'homages' aside, the film does pick up a bit of pace by the halfway point. Having half the marines go out into the wilderness was a good idea, so we're not watching a bunch of nuggets hiding in a house surrounded by zombies like 650,000 other zombie film. We've also got the mad dash of the survivors from the lab to escape the bomb radius (with a scene that reminded me of Toxic Zombies), and, well, that's this film.

There was only one Nazi zombie here too. It was okay, but you ain't missing much. Strangely, the film pulled it punches in some gore scene while displaying quite a bit of gore in others. Must have been the low budget. I've seen much worse than this, but much better too.

My Pizza was More Interesting than This

[alice-authorbooks-ogorma · 1/10 · 18 June 2015]

Honestly, if I could give it a zero, I would.

How to even begin with this massive waste?

Right. The graphics are terrible, the writing is abysmal, the only way you know the zombies are Nazis at all is because of the title and even then the graphics during the title look like they've been done with a camera negative, the acting is transparent, the budget was blown on cigarettes and I can barely hear a word they're saying.

I brought a pizza to go with the movie, as is my tradition. But let's be honest, the pizza had more life and acting than the movie.

I got this for 75 cents and even then, I wanted my money back.

When I saw the quality, I wondered if it was a pirate film at first. It looks more like something a couple of guys put together for YouTube. If that was the case, I'd say it wasn't bad, but I've seen better. But since it wasn't and had a $30,000 budget, I was appalled.

Not that small budgets are a bad thing - The Blair Witch Project had an even smaller budget, but it performed much better than this. Even the quality from a hand-held camera in that movie was much better than a professional one in this!

This is not a horror movie, it is a laughing stock and a complete bore. It has bad lighting, a problem which is obvious in a scene with two characters outside with barely any moon and 'Nazi' zombies chasing after them. You can barely make out the first guy's (bald and shiny) head. You hear a splash and are amazed there was even a lake there!

It was so bad in fact, that I only watched the first half. But that was enough to tell me this was so bad, it made The Last Airbender look like The Spongebob Movie!

Pitiful homemade horror

[Leofwine_draca · 2/10 · 17 January 2014]

NAZI ZOMBIES, made over a decade ago yet recently released to cash-in on the popularity of the sub-genre (after movies such as DEAD SNOW and OUTPOST), turns out to be a pitiful and extremely cheesy homemade horror shot in somebody's backyard. This is a film that scrapes the bottom of the barrel and is very nearly as bad as the Aussie MATRIX rip-off I watched, REIGN IN DARKNESS. It's as bad as the cheesy backwoods slasher CAMP BLOOD, which is saying something.

Genre enthusiasts will be disappointed that there are no Nazi zombies in sight, just the usual run-of-the-mill flesh-munching shamblers, brought to life with low budget make up effects and a little silly gore. The 'heroes' are a group of soldiers sent to investigate a remote government installation, and there's some government conspiracy stuff thrown into the mix to pad out the plot a little. Needless to say, production values are nil and the acting is so bad it hurts. Most of it consists of people running around in the dark and screaming occasionally.

The best thing I can say about this 'film' – if you can truly call it a 'film' (it's more like some shot-on-video competition entry for a local Halloween competition) – is that the second half is better than the first, but only marginally. The first half has drawn-out conversations which are dull and boring, while the second is full of repetitive and mindless chase scenes, but I'll pick the action over the dialogue any day of the week. This is still one to avoid like the (zombie) plague though.

Slooooow.

[parry_na · 3/10 · 1 March 2018]

This opens with two soldiers, an officer and his prisoner, slowly smoking cigarettes with such elongated silent intensity, you wonder if they intend ever to speak at all. When they do, it is simply to invite the telling of a story that started at the beginning of their last mission ...

'Nazi Zombies' or 'Maplewood' as it has been known, is directed by David B Stewart III, who also writes it, provides the evocative music (with great use made of the relentless chimes of a funereal church bell); he is a film editor, production designer, set decorator, costume designer and camera operator. He also plays Brig. Gen. Abrams. He's not credited as 'cigarette financier', which is probably just as well because throughout, characters are puffing thoughtfully on a smoke. The grainy images and relentless close-ups betray a lower than low budget, and with little reason to care for the characters in the first place, by half way through, we don't know who is who or what is what. Helpfully, we keep cutting back to the officer and prisoner who try and patch the story together story for us.

Events take place at a sluggish pace and the production tries to take itself far too seriously. Angsty, square-jawed, testosterone filled men strut around in a confined secret military base infiltrated by badly lit zombies. I feel awkward in finding it so dull, because some effort has clearly gone into it - the setting is claustrophobic, some of the acting is good and the zombies are a lot more impressive than the realisation of others in such low-financed productions. But the lack of budget stifles it, robs it of tension and pace, and the characters are simply ultra-serious military men (and Lt Meyer played by Elissa Mullen). The night-time scenes are under-lit to the point of obscurity and there are sound problems typical with films of this type. Recorded in 1999, this project failed to see the light of day for almost four years.

Its just plain awful.

[mindoxsul · 2/10 · 14 October 2019]

I purchased this movie back when it was released under the name MAPLEWOODS --- without knowing anything more than there were supposed to be zombies in the movie. Well, it was the most atrocious, plot-hole ridden, worst acted video I ever watched. It didn't even qualify as camp, avoid this at all costs - it was that poor. I actually found that drinking huge amounts of alcohol made watching it more bearable; but not by much. Even after three glasses of Scotch the movie did not look better.

Maplewoods takes the cliché of "the secret military zombie experiment gone wrong" to new levels of horribleness. Amazingly stupid. The army squad is escorted in by a CIA agent, which for some reason that is never explained or even hinted at, the military guys turn on him and just shoot the poor guy accusing him of being a turncoat. And it all falls off a cliff from there.

Watch as a strobe-effect-filled room full of poorly made-up zombies slapping each other with raw meat represents the shocking secret. Meanwhile, top side, the rest of the soldiers desperately try to run as slow as possible so the lumbering zombies can grab them.

Add in wooden actors who are from the "If I am not cursing every other word, than I better light up a smoke" school and you know your in for an unwatchable wreck. Every frame in this video is more useless than the next.

I can usually sit through a bad movie, and sometimes even watch it again with a friend to watch their reaction. With this movie (I shudder to call it that) I just couldn't. I wanted to give it away, but I don't dislike anyone that intensely enough to give it to them.

As a fan of both zombie movies & indie flicks from film makers on a shoe string budget, I would avoid anything to to with this ugliness. As for the wonderful first review up top, I wish I had been smoking what they were when I watched this.

USE THE PACKAGE

[nogodnomasters · 1/10 · 26 May 2019]

This is an indie film that attempts to sell itself by using the words, "Nazi" and "Zombie" in the title together. It really is not a Nazi zombie film. The US government wants to shut down a project by that name. It sends in a group of military men to destroy the lab. only to meet with zombies.

The film sounds better than what it is. The acting was dry. The script was horrible. The special effects, weren't. They did but a red filter on the camera lens once and that was about as good as it got. Not worth a free view.

Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

Not even Z-Grade worthy

[maverick-84924 · 1/10 · 8 August 2017]

Once again, an 'attempt' at a military themed zombie movie that, quite simply, looks as if a bunch of high-school kids turned it in for a summer project.

Not only is the acting wooden, the lighting & general camera work a joke and the dialogue woeful, the simplistic errors that run through the movie make it even more of a joke than it is.

Our hero is introduced sitting in a prison cell, chatting with an officer about 'Maplewoods'. (BTW, this was titled Operation: Nazi Zombies in the release I attempted to watch).

He tells the story about his unit sent into destroy the Maplewoods site. Our hero calls them the 'best of the best'. Seriously? A mix of scrawny or tubby millennials doesn't exactly inspire confidence and when our hero wanders in wearing a US Army uniform (allegedly Special Forces) one brave soul shouts 'Office on Deck'. Guess this guy watch a little too much Lone Survivor or Under Siege.

Next, we get to see our brave band (including their CIA guide) wandering through what looks like someone's back yard. This is perhaps the most laughable of the scenes I sat through. The CIA spook wears coveralls with a large CIA badge emblazoned upon them. Obviously the wardrobe department (eg: Momma) didn't get the message about 'tacticool'. Our trusty band of soldiers, on the other hand, wear fricking white shirts and khaki slacks. They look like Mormons wearing tactical vests and berets to be perfectly frank.

At this point, I started using the fast-forward button a lot, but couldn't compel myself to even see if there were zombies in the thing.

Beyond bad, beyond amateur. 90 minutes of wasted space.