I knew I couldn’t go the month of Halloween without reviewing a Roger Corman movie. This one’s about a group of people trapped in a facility trying to survive attacks from an alien creature. The formula has been done before, it’s a simple and easy thing to do.... but it does try to be above the average horror movie by attempting to be smarter.... try and attempting are key words there.
As previously stated, the story isn’t too creative. The Killer Shrews did it, the Thing From Another World did it, as did many others. With this formula comes the contrived tension between the characters which isn’t done that well. The monster isn’t anything great either. It looks like crap. I’m not kidding!
The design makes me think of an old scuba diving suit that grew mold and had a lobotomized elephant seal head glued on.
Other than looking stupid, the creature is an alien that got to Earth by catching a ride on a spaceship. There’s something about the pilot of the shuttle being dead, but not really, and he has some sort of telepathic connection with the alien… it’s confusing. I didn’t get it.
The most interesting part of the movie is that the alien creature isn’t really evil. It actually wants to help humanity. But the way he suggests to do it isn’t really the most practical route. I like this part because it’s like a satire of how, at the time the movie was made, people were living in fear, and were afraid of understanding things. I think that’s what the movie was going for. I have to give it credit for effort, since the end scene did make me have conflicted thoughts on the whole situation… all that being said, the movie still isn’t good.
The interesting part doesn’t happen until the end, and it only manages to stay interesting, not satisfying. The acting is… okay, I guess, and the characters are forgettable. The only other decent part is that it maintains that classic, cheesy 50’s horror vibe. That’s about it.
If there’s any bad horror movie that’s worth riffing, it’s this one. It’s stupid, but you’ll have fun with how bad it is, just like Roger Corman’s other works.
FINAL RATING: 14 / 50
STORY: 1 / 5
ACTING: 2 / 5
CHARACTERS: 0 / 5
SPECIAL EFFECTS: 1 / 5
HORROR: 2 / 5
SOUNDTRACK: 1 / 5
TONE: 3 / 5
ENJOYABILITY: 3 / 5
REWATCH VALUE: 1 / 5
OWNING VALUE: 0 / 5
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