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Zontar the Thing From Venus/The Eye Creatures
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ChrisJarmick's Review
Wow. Better than a sleeping pill I suppose.
a movie buff, a baaad movie connoisseur, very picky about horror films, a Movie Guru, a cult film connoisseur, a movie connoisseur
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OCT
22
2008
Zontar the Thing From Venus/The Eye Creatures —
These are two very low low budget color movies made by independent schlock film-maker Larry Buchanan for American International Pictures television division. Larry hoped they were good enough to be released theatrically, but they were made cheap and quick to be part of AIP's (American International Picture--where Roger Corman began his career) television film library. The idea was to put a few original productions in color into the packages of cheap black and white horror movies and you would sell them a lot easier to television stations desperate for programming.The idea worked as a marketing concept. The AIP television packages were very successful. In fact if you remember these movies at all you remember them because they helped put you to sleep when they played on television probably in the early morning hours.
Now they are on DVD.
The first of the television movies Larry made was THE EYE CREATURES that was released to television in late 1965. It was often shown with a typo in its title as: ATTACK OF THE THE EYE CREATURES. It was a remake of the cult 1957 film: INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN. Both films had the standard 1950s kind of plot where teenagers discover an Alien creature and must try to convince local authorities that they are not drunk or pulling a prank but that there really is a creature. In this case the creatures were strange looking aliens from outer space.
The original SAUCER MEN was very low budget and its high point was the impressive creature design by Paul Blaisdel who created many interesting creatures on tiny budgets for 1950s creature features (often for Roger Corman). The Saucer Men is one of Blaisdel's best. The movie also was a satire of the genre and not just because it featured a pair of intentional comical con-men characters (one of them played by Frank Gorshin the famous impressionist/comedian and future RIDDLER on television's Batman). The voice-over narration was extremely tongue in cheek and pre-dated full out comic horror films that Corman and AIP would make a few years later like 1959's A BUCKET OF BLOOD and 1960's LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. The film's plot developments and structure closely resemble the huge 1958 hit, THE BLOB that featured Steve McQueen in his first major screen role.
Larry's re-make of this 1956 cult creature feature made minor changes to the script, but kept the same characters and most of the same scenes. Attempts at comic relief were over-done and painful to observe. The production was shot so quickly there were many continuity error type mistakes. The cheap creatures Larry came up with to replace the fascinating Blaisdel originals were absolutely laughable and looked more like the Michelin Tire mascot than some creepy aliens from space. You can also clearly see that some of the extras dressed up as creatures only had head masks and not full costumes so you can see rubber monster masks on people wearing dark clothing and sneakers. Ah they don't make'em like this anymore!
Unfortunately the pacing is slow and dull and Larry's camerawork and editing is technically lacking. EYE CREATURES star was John Ashley a veteran of many early AIP juvenile delinquent and beach party features. He would go on to co-produce and star in a series of well known cheap low budget Philippine lensed horror films like THE BLOOD ISLAND TRILOGY: MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND, BRIDES OF BLOOD and BEAST OF BLOOD.
EYE CREATURES was a color film that cost around $20,000 to make and was very profitable for AIP who sold it to hundreds of television stations hungry for color movies that were inexpensive to license to play on their stations. Even terrible ones like this one.
Almost immediately Larry made another color re-make of an AIP film. It would become his best-known title and quite frankly, the world would never be the same again.
First shown on television stations across the country in 1965, ZONTAR THE THING FROM VENUS was a remake of Roger Corman's 1956 cult classic, IT CONQUERED THE WORLD. Corman's ICTW was cheap and pretty ridiculous but it is an enjoyable well-paced tale starring recognizable actors like Lee Van Cleef and Beverly Garland. You can also see the film as an analogy for the Red Scare of the 1950s but instead of Communists brainwashing small town Americans to begin taking over the United States we have an alien creature from Venus that hijacks a satellite and through mind control creates havoc in a small town. The film's special effects are laughable, but the variation on the plot of the 1954 classic, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and Don Siegel's 1956 version of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS is compelling and put over with above average acting and decent pacing. Yes, the cucumber/road cone looking creature (seen at the picture's climax) is one of the least convincing Paul Blaisdel ever designed, but Blaisdel was given less than two hundred dollars by the notoriously cheap Corman to create it. There's also a very phony rubbery looking Devil Bat kind of creature as well.
The 1956 Corman film was itself quickly knocked off by the ridiculous but very entertaining BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS in 1957 which starred John Agar who wound up as the star in Larry's ICTW remake. You see how everything connects to everything else in the wonderful world of very low budget movie making? Larry was excited about hiring Agar for the movie because they would be able to discuss John Ford.
Larry was a huge fan of John Ford and Agar worked with Ford, most notably on 1949's SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON with John Wayne.
Larry's ZONTAR makes subtle changes to the original script, has a cheap looking monster that I suppose is a slight improvement on the original (maybe). John Agar was paid 1,500 a week for the two-week shoot. The total budget of the film was around $22,000 dollars and it was shot on 16.m.m. color stock. The films pacing is lethargic and dull. It is one of those movies where characters sometimes take long walks across rooms and around the sets and locations to help pad out the running time of the film.
The acting in ZONTAR is of the community theater variety. Agar is one note and only Larry's thespian discovery Bill Thurman makes an impression. He plays the part of Sheriff Brad Crenshaw.
ZONTAR got a reputation as a so-bad-they-are-good kind of film developing a wide cult following because it was a color film more widely shown on television than any of the Ed Wood films in the late 60s. SCTV (televisions best sketch comedy whose alumni include: Eugene Levy, John Candy, Catherine O'Hara, Andrea Martin, Martin Short, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas and Harold Ramis) created a memorable 90-minute show featuring a parody of ZONTAR in the late 1970s.
If you are nostalgic for dull bad, best forgotten movie television remakes, than get this DVD now.
If after reading this you think it sounds awful and not worth a moment of your time. You're right !!!!
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