Search - Sci Fi Trash-O-Rama on DVD

"What Are These Shadowy Voyagers Of The Atmosphere?"

Robert I. Hedges | 06/08/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Sci-Fi Trash-O-Rama" is a great set of alien-oriented films from the 1950's through the 1970's. The set contains "Creature of Destruction", a 1967 prehistoric-aquatic-psychic-being-run-amok movie; "The Flying Saucer Mystery", a 12 minute piece of filler in glorious black and white, featuring the B-47 as the "most powerful plane in the world", thus dating it to the early 1950's; "UFO-Target Earth", a deceptively annoying film from 1974 featuring nil acting skills and even less continuity; and finally a series of alien and robot oriented television ads for toys that are amusing from the vantage point of historical musing.

When I started watching "Creature of Destruction" I didn't pay particular attention to the credits. After about two minutes of viewing, I thought that it had to be the work of Larry Buchanan, as it has a distinctly Zontaresque feel to it. Sure enough, I went back and watched the credits, and I knew I was in for a rough ride as soon as it revealed "Azalea Pictures Presents"..."Produced and Directed by Larry Buchanan".

This is the follow up to "Zontar: The Thing From Venus" and features an even more ridiculous looking monster, if you can believe that. Despite the typical Buchanan touches, the film has a decidedly "Horror of Party Beach" predisposition (especially in the soundtrack department; note the song about "Batman" particularly); it's like combining two great sci-fi institutions into one great camp classic.

The plot follows Dr. Basso in the role of the evil mind-control villain (i.e. the "Zontar" role), who predicts menacing things in the future. His lovely assistant is under his spell but desperately wants to break free; during the course of the film she regresses to previous lives and undergoes, among other indignities, a ludicrous psychic cross-examination in which she has to answer an endless string of trivia questions about seventeenth century English society. Ultimately it is revealed that the monster is involved with Basso, but I won't spoil the actual relationship, as it is priceless.

The film has typical Buchanan blunders such as lifting the soundtrack from "Zontar" and reusing it at inappropriate times, frequently drowning out the dialogue; numerous day versus night issues within a scene giving it a rather timeless quality (shades of "Plan 9"); and a montage at the end that seems to have also been lifted directly from "Zontar" with slightly different casting. Don't miss the amusingly contrived Monster-Hypnotist Murder-Suicide (really), or the horrendous beach dancing either. Fans of Buchanan will undoubtedly note the appearance of Neil Fletcher as the cranky businessman Sam Crane; he was, of course, General Matt Young in "Zontar".

If you like hokey but fun sci-fi movies from the 1960's, this one is hard to beat: it has everything: a ridiculous monster, a damsel in distress, an evil villain, terrible special effects, music, dancing, and more! For fans of the genre, I highly recommend "Creature of Destruction", another masterwork from the mind of Larry Buchanan!

"UFO-Target Earth" is a wretched film made in Georgia in 1974. It has all the signs of being a student film, and while presenting itself initially as a pseudo-documentary, it quickly falls into the abyss of bad electronic music and never looks back. I cannot tell you how oppressive or inappropriate the music in this film is; unfortunately it's also one of the better features of the movie.

The film follows an electronics expert, Alan, from a local college as he seeks to find an alien spacecraft at the bottom of a lake near a power plant. He is assisted by a totally wacky woman who feels "energy" from the UFO, who also hyperventilates a lot, and who has the power to psychically cause a record player to malfunction. The plot is slow and heavy-handed. The acting is absolutely terrible, but the dialogue is unintentionally hilarious. Sample: "Sometimes I feel like I'm teetering on the edge of an enormous chasm of time and space: it's a swaying sensation, like I'm about to fall in." A couple of hours of that and you will be praying for more electronic music. Fortunately, that's right around the corner. The end of the movie is nothing more than seemingly endless psychedelic color blotches accompanied by electronic music (hey, at least the cast isn't talking) representing the concept that Alan's dreams can free the energy aliens from their aquatic bondage. We know this because the energy aliens speak through a TV set, prompting Alan to proclaim "We are beyond the jaws of darkness". In other words, this is a total mess: it makes absolutely zero sense, it is plodding to an inhumane degree, and is self-righteous and pretentious with no reason for being that way (like much of the 1970's, come to think of it).

For conventional entertainment value, this should get less than one star, but since there are several unintentionally hilarious scenes lending it some serious camp horsepower, I would give this a two star rating by itself: this film brought the combined score for the entire DVD down to four stars. This would have made an unbelievably excellent episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

For a fun look at sci-fi from decades gone by, this is a great set overall."

1970 Saucer Memories

J. Lehr | NEW MEXICO | 04/26/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I remember watching these kind of films in High School in the late 60s and early 70s. When I watched them back then they were pretty believable and many people took these films very seriously. Watching them now 40 plus years later is fun. Its great to look back in the late 60s to see how UFO mysteries have changed the last 40 years. Would recommend this 3 movie dvd set on that premise alone. The UFO Toy Commercials are fun as well because I remember these toys when I was young, and its great to recall toys from the past. Wish I still had them."