Your Daily Horror Digest for June 20, 2025
“This is madness!” – a scientist before unpacking a zombie bomb in Zombies of the Third Reich
Welcome to another daily horror digest from Creepy Catalog with movie recommendations, news, trivia, and more. My name is Chris, and I love horror.
What I Watched Last Night
I’m zombie-crazy right now as I look forward to seeing 28 Years Later as soon as I can, so I wanted to watch a zombie movie last night. I picked one released on streaming last week, Zombies of the Third Reich. I didn’t expect much. The Nazi-zombie subgenre has some fun films in it, but as a concept it feels kind of tired. I’m happy to report that, despite my reservations, I enjoyed the movie.
Zombies of the Third Reich is about as straightforward as a Nazi-zombie movie can get. It’s about a small squadron of six Allied soldiers sent to rescue a spy who hasn’t reported in. The spy is undercover in a Nazi bunker where experiments are being conducted to create super-soldiers. The bunker initially appears empty when the soldiers arrive, but they soon learn that all of the Nazi’s have been turned into zombies because of the experiment. Lots of shooting follows their discovery.
As a story, it’s very basic. But the execution is good, and that’s what matters. It’s a genre movie through and through, and it succeeds at providing exactly what you’d expect from a movie like this. The characters are interesting enough, the actors are good in their roles, and there’s a decent amount of gore (mostly practical, but CGI for blood sprays).
I particularly enjoyed the makeup for the zombies. They paid attention to creating different types of zombies to differentiate from zombies created by the experiment, and zombies created afterwards through bites and infections. The experiment zombies have an all-over burn look that reminded me of the zombies in Umberto Lenzi’s Nightmare City aka City of the Walking Dead. The infected zombies are more of a traditional decaying human zombie. It was a nice touch that actually played into the story.
If you want to check it out, Zombies of the Third Reich is currently streaming as a digital rental on platforms including Amazon Prime Video.
Events On This Day
Fifty years ago today, Jaws opened in theaters across North America. It’s a movie that truly changed the course of the film industry. The success of Jaws is credited with starting the era of the summer blockbuster, and it inspired a boom in the number of animal-attack movies released over the years after its release. The incredible influence of Jaws can still be felt to this day, and not just in the ridiculous number of shark movies that come out every year.
Another aquatic thriller also premiered on this date. On June 20th, 2017, 12 Feet Deep was released on VOD platforms. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a pretty good movie about sisters who are trapped beneath a fiberglass pool cover. Alexandra Park and Nora-Jane Noone star, and Diane Farr and Tobin Bell are featured in supporting roles.
June 20th is the birthday of Nicole Kidman (born 1967) whose limited participation in horror movies peaked with The Others (2001).
Martin Landau (1928-2017) was also born on June 20th. Landau’s horror highlights are the alien-attack movie Without Warning (1980), and the home-invasion movie Alone in the Dark (1982). I also have to mention Ed Wood (1994), because even though the movie isn’t horror, Martin Landau plays Bela Lugosi in one of the most memorable performances in film history.
And finally, born on June 20, 1968 is Robert Rodriguez. Rodriguez was a major part of the indie film revolution of the 1990s, and his love for genre films, and particularly the styles of genre films he likes, makes him one of my personal favorite filmmakers. I remember seeing Desperado (1995) when it came out, and going immediately to find El Mariachi (1992). But it was From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) that solidified him in my mind as a favorite director.
In the News
It was a light news day for horror movies yesterday. One note is that Carla Gugino (Gerald’s Game, Lisa Frankenstein) is set to star with Lou Taylor Pucci (Evil Dead 2013) in Winthrop. The film will be an adaptation of “The Lockbox” episode of the Knifepoint Horror podcast. As reported by Deadline, the Winthrop is about a woman who tries to protect her cousin from a supernatural force. Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism) will direct.
Also from Deadline, Ethan Embry, who will be in Scream 7, said that he auditioned to be in the first Scream in the role of either Randy or Stu. Though he didn’t say exactly what he was told after the audition, Embry said that he remembers “not getting good feedback from Mr. Craven.” Hopefully the wait to join the franchise turns out well!
That’s all for today. If you missed any of the articles linked below, consider checking them out now. As for me, I’m off to rethink my whole stance on Nazi-zombie movies and maybe consider giving a chance to other ones I’ve skipped over the years. Or maybe I’ll just go rewatch Shock Waves (1977). That’s probably what I’ll do. It’s about Nazi-zombies and it’s an aquatic horror movie. Perfect for the date that both Jaws and 28 Years Later were released.
