It’s a shame that this movie has to be what it is. You see, the third act is
amazing, but the bulk of the picture is so mind-numbingly banal that I wonder if
many people have actually watched it all the way through. The film has a great
premise, and an intelligent story behind it, but the execution is just terrible.
Think of every 50’s cliché stock character you can, and I assure you you’ll find
them here. There’s the strong-jawed air force pilot, who falls in love with the
sweet and entirely passive young lady. (In true 50’s fashion, all she does is
fetch coffee, and wait around to be rescued by the men when the monsters finally
show up.) Her father figure, is of course, the wizened old professor, who keeps
coming up with clever ways to thwart the nasties which threaten everyone. (My
favorite contribution of his; he theorizes that the monsters may become visible
once they’ve ingested enough radioactivity. Seven seconds later, that’s exactly
what happens! Wow, that’s some good theorizing, that is!) Yeah, there’s enough
silly 50’s pseudo-science here to choke a giant atomic ant. But that’s not
necessarily a bad thing, in fact, none of these genre conventions are bad per
se. In fact, many people absolutely adore old grainy films full of cheesy dialog
and sci-fi plot contrivances. I don’t happen to be one of them, but hey, if you
go for that type of thing, this here movies’ a gold mine!
And on the plus side, we do learn that most Canadians have Scottish
accents.
But as I’ve mentioned, the thing that really endears this production to me,
is the grand finale, when the suddenly visible monsters wage a full-out NOTLD
style siege on our heroes. The creatures, which resemble giant brains with
antenna and a squiggly spinal column for extra mobility (ewww!), are realized
via stop motion animation. While this original may have been a easy and
economical way to create the effect, it’s done so perfectly that the film begins
to take on a horrid and unique surrealism. The most unsettling part, when the
brains are shot they spew a disgusting jelly-like substance. The whole thing is
very reminiscent of The Evil Dead.
I’d imagine that someone could say that the ending works all the better after
the film has lulled you off-guard with an hour’s worth of padding, but I have to
judge the overall work here. I’m recommending you see this forgotten little
flick because of its awesome ending, but if you’re anything like me (and I know
I am) don’t be too timid with the fast-forward
button.