25 Cult Nazi Film List

Nazism in Cinema: 25 cult Nazi films that may or may not be worth your time.

Note: This was originally meant to be published on www.tasteofcinema.com, but was removed because of some type of rules violations from Facebook and Google.

What is our fascination with Nazism in the cinema? Since the 1940’s, they have been portrayed on the big screen in various formats and also in some of our favorite films. During World War II, they were used in film as propaganda for both Germany and the United States. The Three Stooges, Mickey Mouse, and the Looney Tunes all took on the Nazis and Hitler during this time. The comic book industry also got involved with the creation of Captain America.            

Since the war has ended, they have shown up in drive-in horror films during the 1950’s and 1960’s. The 1970’s saw them join the sexploitation subgenre and have had enough films created about themselves to create a whole new subgenre, called Nazisploitation. In the 1980’s, they also showed up as zombies or ghosts.

Along the way they’ve been portrayed in a mix of award winners and downright trash. Celebrated actors such as Alec Guinness and Anthony Hopkins have played Hitler. More recently, we’ve had popular and positively reviewed films involving Nazi’s, such as Downfall and Inglorious Basterds.

It should probably be mentioned that a majority of these films were never meant to be presented in good taste. They represent the sleazier side of cinema that exploited various themes in order to make money, because there simply was a demand for a specific type of film.

And let’s not forget about one of the greatest series and characters arguably ever made, Indiana Jones. The best movies of the series are the ones involving the Nazis. It’s quite possibly because they are a symbol of the ultimate evil, and that’s why we want to rally behind the good guys. Or they could simply just be the easiest characters to create, because the film industry is lazy at times and doesn’t want to try and create something original.

 [Author’s note: Iron Sky was omitted in order to include a more obscure film. This list could easily have included more than twenty films.]

Triumph of the Will AKA Triumph des Willens 1935

“The infamous propaganda film” [1]. A mix of both propaganda and art, this is one of the greatest examples in the history of film for the use of cinema as a propaganda tool. It documents the 1934 Nazi Congress party rally that took place in Nuremberg, Germany, where Hitler and other prominent Nazi party members spoke amongst a crowd of over 700,000 [2]. The event wasn’t solely done for the film, it was a large annual party event that “would demonstrate party unity and power under Hitler’s leadership, however, neither those events nor the film tell the [whole] truth about Germany or the Nazis” [2].

The film was written and directed by Leni Reifenstahl, she had received a lot of praise for starring, writing, directing, and producing the film The Blue Light (1932) [2]. Hitler noticed her in this film and personally commissioned her to film the party rally [2]. The film was thoroughly planned and prepared for to look not just like “a spectacular mass meeting, but also as spectacular film propaganda.” There were thirty cameras used to film, a film crew nearing two hundred was used, “and new techniques of wide-angle photography and telescopic lenses were employed to scan the crowd’s reactions” [3]. They recorded “almost sixty-one hours of film from almost every imaginable angle,” and Reifenstahl had to edit it down to two hours of footage [2].

The central themes of the film were to demonstrate that Germany had a strong leader in Hitler and that Germany was a unified nation. They depict Hitler as being god like, the opening sequence of the film shows him descending from the clouds in an airplane. The towering city below and the German people waiting for their leader to land [3]. They usually filmed Hitler in isolation and from lower angles to make it appear that he towers over everyone [3]. There is juxtaposition in the film where Hitler is always shown alone and the German people are shown united in masses. In the scenes of the outdoor rally, Hitler is placed up high on a platform and the large numbers of spectators are reduced to “architectural patterns deprived of their individuality in favor of some larger communal ideal” [2]. This is to shoe that all of the German people are united as one unit.

The film is a mix of documentary, politics, propaganda and art. There are several arguments about this film and whether it actually has any artistic merit at all. “First, there are the critics whose moral and political convictions prevent them from appreciating the film; second, there are those who understand the film, and even appreciate it, in light of its mission as propaganda; and third, there are those who appreciate the formal beauty of the film in spite of the politics” [2]. It is because of these complexities and history surrounding this film that is has a cult following.

Invisible Agent 1942
The only film on this list that would be considered a war time propaganda film for the United States, which was created by Universal films. The grandson of the original invisible man enlists in the services, using his grandfather’s invisible man serum to spy on the Nazis. Of note, Peter Lorre plays one of the main bad guys, a Japanese Baron Ikito. Lorre is a well known actor because of his distinctive looks and feminine voice, often playing strange and unusual characters. His notable films include M, The Maltese Falcon, and Casablanca.

Meant to be viewed by American wartime audiences, the Japanese soldiers were depicted as “inhuman fiends and the Nazis as brutes and buffoons” [4]The film was a box office success, grossing “1,041,500 in 116 weeks” while only costing $322,000 to make. It was also nominated for an Oscar for special effects, but lost out to Reap the Wild Wind [4].

Der Verlorene 1951

This is a German production written, directed and starring Peter Lorre. Lorre plays German scientist Karl Rothe, who is secretly conducting research for the Nazis during World War II. He finds out that his wife has been providing information to the allies and he murders her. The German government covers this up. Years after the war, Rothe deals with guilt in regards to his war time crimes.

The dark tones and film noir style of the movie resulted in it being unsuccessful in Germany, running for only ten days in theaters. The problem was that the German people had gained a “widespread distaste for crime and horror films” [5]. Lorre’s film was somewhat autobiographical, the story of an exiled man returning to a post-war Europe and trying to find his place.  Part of the reason the film failed, is because it was one of the first post war films to deal with the “dark motifs of collective guilt and a damaged national psychology” [5].

Misunderstood at the time, this film has gained a cult status mainly because of the popularity of Peter Lorre. It is also one of the first films to try and deal with the aftermath of the war and its psychological effects on people.

Frozen Dead 1967

“Frozen alive for 20 years! Now they return from their icy graves to seek vengeance!” [6]. This is a British independent horror film that involves a plot by a Nazi scientist to reanimate Nazi war criminals that have been frozen for 20 years. The doctor has been able to reanimate the bodies, but cannot get their brains to function. They try to use the doctor’s niece’s friend in order to establish some type of telepathic powers. Dana Andrews plays the mad doctor; he had starred in some high quality films during the 1940’s, such as The Ox-Bow Incident.

This was filmed in color, but shown in black and white in the United States. The film plays pretty slow, with a lot of concern taken on talking about the Scientifics of what they are trying to do. Then the subplot of the Doctor’s niece looking for her missing friend doesn't help either. It feels like a hybrid between a British horror film and a U.S. drive in film, which may be the reason why it was made black and white for the U.S. release. The girl’s head in the box is pretty entertaining and probably got a decent scare when this was released. The pace seemed to really pick up once the girls severed head shows up, and the ending of the film is fairly memorable.

Five for Hell AKA Pyatero iz Ada 1969

“Five men behind enemy lines in the most impossible mission of World War II …” [7]. The first on this list considered to be a ‘macaroni combat’ film, which is a term to describe a subgenre of World War II films that were mostly produced in Italy in an attempt to capitalize on the success of popular British and American productions, such as the Dirty Dozen and Bridge on the River Kwai [8]. The Italian film industry would exploit whatever was popular at the time; they also did it with westerns and police films. They would often feature an Italian production crew and then a mix of Italian actors, usually mixed with one American actor.

Five U.S. soldiers are sent on a secret mission to steal some German attack plans, led by Lt. Hoffmann (Gianna Garko). Garko was an Italian actor known mostly for westerns such as Sartana. Along the way, they run into an evil Nazi S.S. colonel played by the ever popular bad guy actor Klaus Kinski.

This one is a pretty comical Dirty Dozen style knock off. The opening is great. The American soldiers’ are training for combat by doing some circus style acrobatics over barbed wire, then stabbing dummies; mixed in with some one on one combat as Hoffmann goes around selecting his five men. The music just adds to the comic nature of the film. And it is very comical, with all kinds of outlandish scenes. In another scene, they need to get into second level window and they use some sort of trampoline so that the soldier can flip up into the window. If only war was like this.

Once the mission starts, the tone changes somewhat and there are lots of death and violence. The unfortunate thing about this film is that Kinski is barely in the film. There is a large amount of action at the end of the film to attract the fans of Italian war or westerns. If you’re a fan of either genre, or a fan of b war films then this is worth checking out.

The Damned 1969

“He was to become the second most powerful man in Nazi Germany.”(IMDB) This is an Italian-German film directed by Luchino Visconti . It tells a complex story of a wealthy industrialist family named the Essenbecks and their dealings with the Nazis in 1934. At the beginning of the film, the leader of the family is murdered because he opposes the Nazis. The vice president is framed because he also opposes them. This puts a family member that is an SA officer in charge of the business. The rest of the family is pretty screwed up; one is a troubled student, and the other is a deviant playboy that is molesting his cousin and a Jewish girl.

This is a pretty complex melodrama similar to a Shakespeare play, with multiple players battling for power while working along with the Nazi’s. The director’s purpose of the film was to show “the rise of Nazism in Germany through a study of the moral perversity of the Essenbeck clan, modeled after the Krupp family of armaments manufacturers. Visconti connects Nazism and sexual perversion, a point explicitly conveyed through a recreation of the night of the long knives when Hitler’s SS purged the Nazi movement of its SA rivals” [9]. There is a mix of powerful and disturbing scenes, including the night of the long knives murders and when Martin has sex with his mother. One other notable scene is when the deviant Martin dresses in drag and sings in front of his family. This burlesque type performance will be seen again in many of the nazisploitation films.

 

Love Camp 7 1969

“A Place of Total Despair. All the youthful beauty of Europe enslaved for the pleasure of the 3rd Reich” [10]. Two American women volunteer to go undercover in a Nazi camp, with the hope that they will be able to gain vital information from the scientist that is there. They end up receiving the same torture as the rest of the camp prisoners.

This is kind of a monumental film in the sexploitation subgenre, because it’s considered the first of the women in prison films. It is also the first of the Nazisploitation subgenre of films, which involves Nazis performing various sex crimes. “Most follow the women in prison formula; relocated to a death camp or Nazi brothel, with a particular focus on gore, sadomasochism, and degradation” [11].

The writer and producer Bob Cresse also plays the “central role of the sadistic Nazi commandant” [12]. There is plenty of nudity to satisfy sexploitation fans and some scenes of torture, including a woman being tied up from behind and whipped. Other than that, it is fairly tame compared to some of the later films.

Night Porter 1974

This is an Italian produced film that is more art house than it is grind house, but because of the themes and storyline it was somewhat controversial and has become a cult classic. Twelve years after the end of World War II, Lucia (Charlotte Rampling), a concentration camp survivor, discovers that former SS Nazi officer Max (Dirk Bogarde) is living in Austria working as a night porter at a hotel. During the war they had a sadomasochistic relationship, and end up falling back into the same routine when they finally meet again.

This is a complex film that deals with multiple issues. It takes a look at sexual and psychological issues. Specifically focusing on Stockholm syndrome, where the victim has empathy for their captors and can gain strong feelings for them. It also touches on what it was like for both sides having to adjust to life post-war. Another issue they cover is Nazi sleeper cells, soldiers hiding out in groups around Europe. You witness Lucia and Max’s complex relationship through flashbacks and also what is currently taking place. It also questions whether these types of sexual relationships are normal and healthy to begin with.

One of the most memorable scenes is a flashback where Lucia sings a Marlene Dietrich song to a group of Nazi guards, partially dressed in an SS uniform. While it was done previously in The Damned (1969), this version stands out by far as the best. There are great performances by both lead characters and the film itself has an interesting visual style, filled with the colors of brown, black, and blue.

This is one many are going to be on the fence about. You will either think that it is a great drama that deals with some pretty complex issues or that it’s an exploitation film pretending to be art. Roger Ebert said that it was “as nasty as it is lubricious, a despicable attempt to titillate us by exploiting memories of persecution and suffering” [13]. Watch it and make your own determination.

 

Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS 1975

“A different kind of X” [14]. Ilsa runs a Nazi prison camp and conducts sadistic experiments in order to prove that women can endure more pain than men, and should be allowed to fight in the war. At the beginning of the movie, she has sex with a male prisoner and then castrates him for climaxing. The film is full of scenes of gore and nudity, as Ilsa tortures the Jewish prisoners. One scene shows one of the female prisoners toes being ripped off, a cover over her head that also has blood coming from where her eyes are at.

The film has a pretty good production value and the costumes look realistic. It was filmed on the Culver City set of Hogan’s Heroes, the producers agreed to let them shoot there because they planned to burn down the set and that saved them the cost of demolishing it [15]. Three Ilsa sequels were made after, along with the many European knock offs that were soon to come.

This is the one nazisploitation film to rule them all, everything else after this is just a cheap knock off or sequels. This set the bar for nastiness when it came to the Nazisploition subgenre and women in prison films. So if you like exploitation, Nazi films, or women in prison films, then this is a must see for you.

Salon Kitty 1976

“Playground for the wildest fantasies of the SS” [16]. This one falls somewhere in between an art house film and nazisploitation. It also depends on which version you see, because it was originally re-edited for U.S. audiences to have less storyline and feature more of the exploitative parts. It was a coproduction between Italy, France, and Germany. The story is different than the typical women in prison theme; it involves a brothel that has been wiretapped by an SS commander in order to gain intelligence against high profile Nazis and foreign dignitaries. The story is “based on a novel by Peter Norden and the real incident involving SS commander Walter Schellenberg’s bugging of Kitty Schmidt’s elite Berlin bordello, which catered to Nazi VIPs and foreign dignitaries” [17].

The debate over it being an artistic film versus exploitative is based upon the large amount of nudity and sexual situations. And there is a very large amount of perverse sexual situations that occur. Wrapped within the perversion is a love story, which is not a theme typically seen in Nazisploitation films. The director is known for making films that are sexploitative and controversial; he would later go on to direct the infamous Caligula. He has argued that all of this was necessary for the film, that the “voyeuristic/taboo-breaking direction of his film… [is] an expose of the perversions on Nazism, but the central narrative is a melodramatic love story that simply allows for more nudity and sex” [17].

Blue Underground has chosen to release the DVD version as uncut and unrated, so it wouldn’t receive an X rating. The two main actors of the film, that played Kitty (Ingrid Thulin) and Helmut (Helmut Berger) also starred in The Damned (1969). This is simply another film that you have to watch in order to make your own determination on the actual intent of the film and the filmmaker.

SS Experiment Camp AKA SS Experiment Love Camp 1976

“Sex experiments in pursuit of a better tomorrow!” [18]. This is one of the low budget Italian Nazisploitation films that were made due to the popularity of Ilsa. There isn’t much storyline wise; the Nazis are performing sexual experiments with the female prisoners of the concentration camp. There is a fair amount of nudity, sex scenes, and some gore, including a castration scene. The films main notoriety is a scene involving one of the female prisoners being hung upside down on a cross, which was also used on most of the films posters promoting it.

There isn’t much here unless you’re a fan of any of women in prison, sexploitation, or nazisploitation films.

Beast in Heat AKA SS Hell Camp 1977

“A Terrifying Story of Violence and Madness” [19]. An evil SS officer named Dr. Ellen Kratsch creates a genetically altered mutant that is half human/half beast. She uses the beast to sexually torture her female prisoners. There is plenty of graphic violence, nudity, and sexual situations in this one. Kratsch is a great character; she seems so much darker than Ilsa was. The beast doesn’t look very mutated; it almost looks just like a guy with a beard.

Besides the evil doctor and the beast, this movie was cheaply slapped together using footage from one of the director’s older films titled When the Bell Tolls (1970).

Shock Waves 1977
“Once They Were Almost Human! Beneath the living... Beyond the dead... From the depths of Hell's Ocean! The Deep End of Horror!” [20]. Its ocean zombies meet the cast of Gilligan’s Island, when a yacht and its captain (John Carradine) are shipwrecked and end up on an island with an evil Nazi commander (Peter Cushing) and his zombie playthings. This is by far the best out of the Nazi zombie films that came out during this time, with decent performances from its veteran actors Cushing and Carradine. Cushing is best remembered for his performances in the Hammer Studio horror films from the 1950’s to the 1970’s, playing characters such as Van Helsing and Sherlock Holmes. He also appears in a small independent film you may have seen called Star Wars.

The film was shot with a budget of around $200,000. It was provided by producer Reuben Trance, who was from a wealthy family. The condition for making the film was that it had to be a horror film, because they were most likely to recoup costs [21]. The idea for the story came from a book about the Nazi occult and how they believed they were descendants of the supernatural, so it made sense that they may be able to resurrect themselves [21]. They deliberately book ended Carradine and Cushing in the film, so that there was at least one star throughout it [21]. They were both paid $5,000 for four days of shooting [21].

The film is light on gore, with most of the deaths involving drowning. The director said that they were trying to make a Hammer style film, which is why it was light on any blood and guts. This film “may set the record for the number of people murdered by drowning in a feature film” [22]. The black goggles the zombies wear act as a chilling effect, while also doubling up as a practical use for the performers. There are some slick underwater scenes, especially the main scene when all of the Nazi zombies slowly rise in mass out of the water. The grittiness of the film stock and the music add to the overall creepiness throughout the film.

Helga la louve de Stilberg AKA Bloody Camp 1978

“Helga, She Wolf of Spilberg” [23]. This is a cheap French Ilsa knock off, where simply the name and location has been changed. In order to avoid having to display Nazi symbols, they’ve placed the characters in some undesignated location. Helga has been assigned control of the women’s prison, where all kinds of exploitative nastiness takes place. The change in uniforms was a way to be able to have it still be considered a Nazi film and also be able to distribute it in more countries. There were many countries, especially Germany and England, that where banning films with Nazi insignia in them. The actress that plays Helga is attractive and is a good replacement for the Ilsa character; she also appeared in The Way of the Dragon with Bruce Lee. The English dubbing is awful but may actually add some humor to watching this film. This one is light on the violence and mainly focuses on the sex scenes, which there are plenty.

If you’re a fan of any of these subgenres, then you should get some amusement out of this film.

Nathalie: Escape from Hell 1978

Another cheap French production, that has replaced the Ilsa character with a warden named Helga. This one involves a female Russian doctor, who is taken to a Chateau that’s used as a brothel for the German soldiers. The doctor is saved from being one of the prostitutes and in the process tries to locate an undercover female British agent.

This one is tame compared to some of the other Nazisploitation films, focusing more on the sex and nudity as opposed to violence. The story is more cohesive than some of the other knock off films. The outfits are slightly outrageous for trying to play in the 1940’s era. 

Inglorious Bastards 1978

“If you're a kraut, he'll take you out!” [24]. Probably the best of the ‘macaroni combat’ movies and Dirty Dozen rip-offs, five U.S. soldiers are being shipped to a prisoner’s camp where they are sentenced to die. During a German air raid, they are able to escape. During their travels, the group kills a group of American soldiers disguised as Nazis. They find out that the disguised soldiers where on a mission to destroy an armored train that contains a large prototype missile. They decide to take on the mission and destroy the train.

The film has its mix of comedy, lighthearted adventures, and then an action packed finally. Part of what makes this great is the inclusion in the cast of Bo Svenson and Fred Williamson. Svenson had done a lot of television work and some well known movies, but he is most recognizable for appearing in all of Quentin Tarantino’s work. Williamson was a huge blaxploitation star during the 1970’s, but now is probably most memorable for appearing in From Dusk Til Dawn.

Death Ship 1980

“It's not just a ship... it's a killing machine!” [25]. An evil Nazi ghost freighter wanders through the ocean like a shark, looking for new souls to take. Cruise ship Captain Ashland (George Kennedy) is making his final voyage along with his replacement Captain Marshall (Richard Crenna), when their ship is hit and sunk by the mysterious freighter. A small group survives the crash and is later picked up by the freighter. Marshall finds out that the ship was once a Nazi torture ship. Ashland then becomes possessed by the previous captain, and a cat and mouse game begins as Ashland attacks the surviving passengers.

It is a pretty average horror movie that happens to be on this list because of those mean and scary Nazi ghosts, which sounds like something from Scooby doo. This is probably most remembered for starring Crenna and Kennedy, both who had long careers in both television and film. Crenna notably appearing in the television show The Real McCoy’s and the Rambo movie series. Kennedy had a long career, mostly remembered for his Oscar winning performance in Cool Hand Luke and his comedy turn in the Naked Gun trilogy.

Zombie Lake 1981

“If You Think The Nazis Have Gone Under YOU'RE DEAD WRONG” [26]. This was a Spanish-French low budget production that was trying to piggy back on any success that Shock Waves had. The plot is also fairly similar, except there’s nudity in this version. The story follows a group of Nazi soldiers that were killed during the war in France and dumped into the lake. Years later they reemerge as zombies coming back for some revenge.

It is pretty uneventful, unless you are really into nudity and obsessed with seeing every zombie film. Or if you want some laughs, you might find this amusingly bad. The special effects are not very good, pretty much some green make up. There really isn’t any gore to appease most zombie fans. It is low on the recommendation list.

 

Oasis of the Zombies 1982
Raiders of the lost ark meets zombies! This French zombie production from Director Jesus Franco involves the hunt for some lost Nazi gold in the African desert. The group of treasure hunters is in for a big surprise when they find that the Nazis are still guarding the gold, just in zombified form.

There really isn’t too much to write about this low budget affair, “made on a budget that wouldn’t buy a used car in Tijuana” [27]. There isn’t much gore compared to most zombie or horror films. These French and Italian productions were often cheap knockoffs down on extremely low budgets in order to piggyback on the success of some other film, usually an American production. The main reason that this bad film has any cult following is mostly because it is a zombie film.

The Keep 1983
“THEY WERE ALL DRAWN TO THE KEEP. The soldiers who brought death. The father and daughter fighting for life. The people who have always feared it. And the one man who knows its secret... THE KEEP Tonight, they will all face the evil” [28]. Set in 1941, the Nazis are sent to Romania to take control of a religious dwelling called the keep in order to fortify the area known as the Dinu mountain pass. Some greedy Nazis try to steal a large nickel cross located in the wall and inadvertently release an evil entity. The Nazis are forced to send for a Jewish historian, in order to help battle this ancient demon. What results is a confusing series of team ups and double crosses, resembling more film noir than horror. It is a strange mash up of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Exorcist.

This film has some great atmosphere, sound, and acting. The location is excellent, an abandoned rock quarry in Wales that went 100 feet deep [29]. It was perfect to create this large stone structure. There are some very good special effects with exploding Nazi heads and a scene with the monster clouded in smoke carrying the girl, with glowing red eyes coming from the smoke. There are many talented actors in this film, including Scott Glenn, Ian McClellan, Jurgen Prochnow, and Gabriel Byrne. Byrne is almost unrecognizable as an SS soldier. The music is composed by Tangerine Dream and it helps to create the “effect…of temporal dislocation… [and that] the story is out of time” [29].

In the end, the film was ultimately doomed by production delays and the trimming of the film by the studio. There were many issues with the production, notably the death of the lead special effects man Wally Veevers. His death halted post-production of the film for four months [29]. The original shooting schedule was 13 weeks, but got extended mostly because of re-shoots involving the main villain and alternate endings [30]. Michael Mann’s original cut of the movie was 210 minutes. The studio didn’t want it longer than two hours and the test screenings went poorly, so the studio cut it to 96 minutes [31]. So Michael has essentially disowned the movie.

The movie was a box office failure and the studio has never released a DVD of it, the last version released was on laserdisc. It is currently available on Amazon prime for free to its members. Despite the many issues with the movie, there still is a cult following of mostly horror fans that love this movie.

Top Secret! 1984

This a great parody of the Elvis movies and World War II spy movies from Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker. They are pretty much known as the kings of parody films, doing the Airplane series, the Naked Gun Series, the Hot Shots series, and The Kentucky Fried Movie. The story is about a rock n roll star named Nick Rivers (Val Kilmer), who ends up getting involved in a plot to help a scientist get rescued from the Nazis.

This film is either loved or hated. It has a couple of musical numbers and tons of great gags, such as the Nazi answering very large phone.  And then there’s the Nazi getting knocked over the building and cracking into a bunch of pieces. There’s also a shootout at a window where it turns into a game of tic-tac-toe. The film did not do very well in the box office and suffered from mixing genres and time periods [32]. There is a strong cult following because people find it humorous despite its lack of success, plus there are fans of the creators that enjoy all of their work.

 

Surf Nazis Must Die! 1987
“The beaches have become battlefields…The waves are a war zone!” [33] Set in the post apocalyptic future after a California earthquake, there are no police and the beaches are ruled by various gangs. The main gang is a neo-Nazi gang, whose leader is named Adolf. The gang murders Leo Washington, and his mother goes after the gang for her own brand of justice.

You are either going to view this as a bad movie or great bad movie. It is a strange hybrid of Clockwork Orange meets a beach movie meets Warriors meets Mad Max meets Dolemite. Pulled under the Troma production label that is known for excessive nudity and violence, this one is pretty tame compared to most of their movies. But it still has a fairly good amount of insanity, nudity, and violence.

There are actually a lot of memorable shots, outfits, music, and dialogue to where a slight change in the tone and a larger production value could have made this one very memorable. The scenes shot of the surfing are excellent and are comparable to any other high quality shots that have been filmed before. There is a memorable avant-garde art scene involving the death of Leo being cut between Martha walking and at first being completely out of focus, slowly changing from just a shape to her full visual form. Others include a scene where two of the neo-Nazis are arguing in a building with a fire burning. Then there is one with Martha sitting outside in a rocking chair with a bible and a gun sitting on top of the open bible. There are also a couple of great shots of Martha riding a motorcycle.

The last dialogue of the movie has Martha telling the fuehrer, with the gun in his mouth, “taste some of mommas good cooking.” Memorable for just the title of the movie alone, if you like Troma films or 80’s craziness then you have to check it out.

Elves 1989

“They don’t work for Santa anymore!” [34]. A teenager named Kristin is part of an evil Nazi experiment that involves her being breed with an elf, in order to create the new master race. The only person that can help her is a renegade Santa Claus, which just happens to be played by Grizzly Adams actor Dan Haggerty.

This falls under the laughably bad 80’s movie, with mediocre filming, acting, and bad special effects. Minus the cursing and nudity this could have easily been made twenty years earlier as a drive-in movie. There is some amusing dialog and moments; the little brother telling his sister “fuck you I like big tits,” and “it was a fucking little midget troll.”

Some great scenes include a mall Santa trying to get oral from a teenage girl, and then later being knifed in the crotch by the elf. The elf shoots one of the Nazis and then tries to have sex with the girl. The Nazis don’t really fell like Nazis, just bad actors with bad accents. It isn’t the worst movie ever, but it is one that you should go into expecting it to be bad and laughing at the hilarity of its cheesiness. Part of the cult status for this movie is most likely the fact that it is cheesy and can be laughed at.

Gitler Kaput! AKA Hitler Goes Kaput 2008
Right from the start you know that this Russian produced movie is going to be unusual, with an opening credits scene using the Britney Spears song ‘Oops I did it Again’. A Russian secret agent Shurenberg has supplanted himself into Hitler’s inner circle as a Gestapo agent and gets into all kinds of crazy misadventures, in a world set somewhere between the future and the past.

This is more of a parody or spoof than Top Secret is. A strange hybrid of various things; slapstick, parody, hip hop, karaoke, mud wrestling, dance sequences, and Russian films. It really is wild. There are so many unusual scenes and gags. Hitler doing blow and does a bunch of crazy dances.  He has his own personal D.J., named 50 schillings. The Russian spy has this huge safe house where he does ballet, shoots swastikas that ladies in bikinis put on a table for him, and other unusual stuff. The smoking area of one of the buildings is a bunch of Nazis hanging from a ledge. There’s a wild shootout that involves dancing and has a D.J. playing. And the list goes on.

This is just one of those movies that your either going to absolutely love or absolutely hate. It is totally insane. This is easily one of those movies that define some cult films; it’s so unusual that only a small group of fans are going to love it.

Dead Snow 2009

“Ein! Zwei! Die!” [35]. Its Cabin in the Woods meets Night of the Living Dead in this Norwegian Zombie comedy. A group of friends go to a winter cabin to party and are attacked by a bunch of evil Nazi zombies, who had been killed by local villagers during World War II.

This is a good mix of horror and comedy, similar to Evil Dead and Shaun of the Dead. The special effects and make up are very well done, the Nazi zombies look great. There are many memorable scenes of zombies getting torn apart. This is a well done production that looks slick; there is a nice contrast of color with the white snow and red blood.

This could be considered a cult film because it’s a zombie movie, or since its foreign and not as many people may have seen it. It was popular enough that a sequel was released in 2014. If you like zombies or any of the other movies mentioned, then you should check this out.

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