Starring Paul Birch, Lorna Thayer, Dona Cole, Richard Sargeant, Leonard Tarver
Directed by David Kramarsky
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
An alien intelligence with the power to control animals' minds lands on Earth, and preys on a struggling farmer and his family.
This early sci-fi effort from the American Releasing Corporation (later to become American International Pictures) has been said to have had Roger Corman's involvement, as a producer and director, although he's nowhere in the listed credits. The low budget and meager technical effects are certainly consistent with his work, and they're used about as effectively as they could be, with us never really seeing the alien's form until the very end of the picture, just his spaceship which resembles a small cylinder with a spinning top. I've stated before that I'm a fan of actor Paul Birch, and he's very strong in the lead, a perfect fit for the decent hard-working farmer, who still has his faults, despite his nobility. Thayer has a difficult role as the frustrated and complaining wife but pulls it off, despite opening scenes that might have turned the audience off to her initially. Cole is fine as their daughter, and I didn't realize before checking IMDB that her boyfriend and the sheriff's deputy was played by a very young Dick Sargent, the 2nd Darrin on TV's Bewitched, just one example from his long television career. Tarver's role as the mute farmhand "Him" seems an odd fit in the film, although his damaged brain later becomes key to the plot, but scenes of him looking at girlie magazines and staring at Cole don't seem to go anywhere. Although the direction is adept at balancing the serious tone of the film with the fantastic elements, some of the animals attacks aren't very well staged, with a scene where Thayer feels threatened by a dog coming off a bit silly. The best parts of the film for me were the eerie imagery of the main titles and the unconventional music score, which almost seems like a classical work at certain points.
No comments:
Post a Comment