Saturday, August 4, 2012

A Cult Classic Double Feature - TerrorVision & Night of the Comet




What makes a movie a cult movie? In high school I thought it meant a movie you dressed up for and went to the theater to sing a long with, as was the case with The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I later learned that there were other films considered cult movies, many of which I sought out and now love. Recently I learned Netflix has a whole category devoted to cult movies, so I decided to watch two of them and I can safely say... Netflix is being a little generous with the term "cult".

(1986) [Trailer]
Director: Ted Nicolaou (IMDB)

Synopsis: Aliens from other planet beam themselves through a family's satellite TV. Giddy up!

Ewwww... this is one ugly movie. It's very cheap looking and you'll notice whenever there's anything filmed outside there's a shitty backdrop and fake lighting. The effects are dated, the monster and space alien look like a hot mess, but being a fan of old 80's horror and bad practical effects, I didn't mind. This stars Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite and the kid from My Two Dads. The acting is pretty brutal in TerrorVision and to say it's over the top would be an understatement. The script is bad, like dog shit bad. The parents are swingers with a "pleasure dome" at home... but with two kids and Grandpa also living there??? Yeah right. As much as this has going against it, I still found it somewhat fun and charming. I wouldn't go out of your way to see it, but it's instant streaming on Netflix and entertaining if you like bad horror.




(1984) [Trailer]
Director: Thom E. Eberhardt (IMDB)

Synopsis: A comet lands on earth and obliterates most of humanity, the survivors have to deal with leftover mutants who are out for blood.

This little slice of 80's horror stars the mom from TerrorVision and the girlfriend from The Last Starfighter... that's a solid billing right there. Actually, I use the term horror lightly here, there's 5 minutes of mutant screen time, the rest of this film consists of the protagonists galavanting across an empty Los Angeles landscape with seemingly no real threat of danger. A lot of movies have plot holes, more recently films like Prometheus and The Dark Knight Rises have been getting raked over the coals for it, but this fucking movie makes those two look like... what is something without a lot of holes? Makes those two look like the Hoover Dam... there you go. I could list out a ton of inaccuracies here, but it's not really worth it as most of you will never watch this.


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