This isn’t a film I would normally have considered watching. Blame it on the exploitative title it generally seems to go by, and on the fact that it is yet another girl-impregnated-by-alien film. Nor was there anything about it that suggested that it might have some redeeming qualities. In fact, I actually had some vague […]
Read more "Horror Planet [Inseminoid] (1981)"It was perhaps the finest moment in John Carpenter’s career. Just three years after the surprise success of his genre-defining serial killer film, Halloween, with a couple of TV movies and an interesting ghost story (The Fog) in between, John made one of his most famous films, the Eighties movie of Eighties movies, Escape from New […]
Read more "Escape from New York (1981)"What was it? A meteorite that fell to earth? Or a visitation from outer space? Whatever it was, there appeared in our small land a miracle of miracles—the ZONE. We sent in troops. None returned. Then we surrounded the zone with police cordons… We did right… Although I’m not sure… The quote above is not […]
Read more "Annihilation (2018)"This one surprised me. Perhaps the most wildly overdone subgenre out there in Indie SF these days is the deliberately bad film. As I’ve noted before, when one watches a genuinely inspired bad movie, we are seeing a film that came by its badness honestly. The people who made it were trying to make a […]
Read more "Fatal Future (2018)"I was rather surprised that Robert Conrad did not look as old as I expected in this one. He’s still around and working which surprises me even more. After all, The Wild Wild West goes all the way back to 1965. Although what is perhaps stranger is that (unlike so many leading men) he’s actually […]
Read more "Assassin (1986)"The opening narration should give it away. I mean, this one was based on a video game that came out in the late Eighties, and actually starts with the opening narration from the game. It has this awkward clunky style which may be meant to echo the sort of overblown and over-dramatic introductory speeches you’d […]
Read more "It Came from the Desert (2017)"I have no idea what this film is. Is it science fiction? A fantasy? A Lovecraftian horror film? A mystery? A supernatural thriller? A waking dream? I can’t tell you. it could be any or all of them. But whatever it is, you have to watch this one. Now. Right away. This one is a […]
Read more "The Endless (2017)"(Spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk.) For a long time it seemed as if every Science Fiction film had to have a “Stargate” sequence like 2001. Even a normally sensible director like Brian DePalma fell into the trap in Mission To Mars. But it’s been a long time since I saw one. A very […]
Read more "A Wrinkle in Time (2018)"(aka Pod People) This is a movie with a serious identity crisis. It starts off sensibly enough: a group of evil poachers are out in a wildlife refuge stealing rare eggs, a famous but vain singer plans to take a wilderness camping trip with his engineer and his bevy of beautiful backup singers, and a meteor […]
Read more "Extra Terrestrial Visitors [Los nuevos extraterrestres] (1983)"Let’s face it. You could take the science fictional elements out of this one and barely change the story. A group of former World War II soldiers who share a guilty secret — and a treasure they stole together — are murdered one by one by a mysterious man in a soldier’s uniform. Could he […]
Read more "The Secret of the Telegian [Densô ningen] (1960)"
rivets on the poster 