Saw this Roger Corman film on the cult television show Mystery Science Theater 3000. They did a good number of his films during their run, but usually the older films made in the 50's and 60's. Not sure they did anything he did in the 70's and 80's, but a lot of the films he did during those two decades got a bit more racy. I also thought he made some fairly decent horror films during this time as he would often try to replicate something popular and big budget with a smaller budget, but would add lots of gore and nudity and such. He did several Alien knockoffs during these two decades, but here is the thing. This film actually features a man who is implanted with alien creatures and it predates Alien! Could Alien have stole a bit from the man who would later duplicate it? Probably not as there were a bunch of films where something unearthly would impregnate a human host. I do not want to say definitely not, but I just cannot say with 100 percent accuracy that this film was the first feature film to have such plot or theme. In the end though it is typical Corman from this time period; however, while not the best films at least they seemed like movies! Seriously, watch an Ed Wood film or Coleman Francis film and you will see Corman was at least a much better filmmaker than those guys!
This film features a man flying through space who ends up crashing to the earth. A team of like five people end up searching and recovering the body. Always so few people working on what should be an operation with dozens of people involved in this old horror films that feature astronauts. Well, something is not quite right with the body and they bring him back to the base which has no one else in it, so yes, apparently everyone else had the day off or something. Something strange begins stalking the area and the dead becomes living again as the blood beast emerges to bring terror upon all! Well, it does kill one person...
This made for an excellent episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 as most Corman films do. They are cheesy, but not so horrible that it becomes almost unwatchable even with the riffs. The jokes are fast and furious as I love the junction when the monster makes its reveal and chaos ensues and the riffs are coming left and right! Seriously, they did seem to keep attacking certain points on walls and I was having a hard time figuring out which one of the guys was actually Steve! Just an all around funny episode of the show and it gets funnier every time I watch it.
So this film is not really that good, if I did not get to enjoy the riffs I would have to say it does have to many walking scenes within it and a lot of speculation scenes. I would also have to complain about the death count as only one person is actually killed by the Blood Beast of the title. Granted, it is a rather gruesome death considering the time this film was made. That being said it is not horrifically bad as I had just watched The Beast of Yucca Flats last week. Now that one is completely terrible as there is literally no on screen dialog in the entire film. Corman may not have been a super great filmmaker, but at least his films seem like actual movies and not some sort of home brewed film!
This film features a man flying through space who ends up crashing to the earth. A team of like five people end up searching and recovering the body. Always so few people working on what should be an operation with dozens of people involved in this old horror films that feature astronauts. Well, something is not quite right with the body and they bring him back to the base which has no one else in it, so yes, apparently everyone else had the day off or something. Something strange begins stalking the area and the dead becomes living again as the blood beast emerges to bring terror upon all! Well, it does kill one person...
This made for an excellent episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 as most Corman films do. They are cheesy, but not so horrible that it becomes almost unwatchable even with the riffs. The jokes are fast and furious as I love the junction when the monster makes its reveal and chaos ensues and the riffs are coming left and right! Seriously, they did seem to keep attacking certain points on walls and I was having a hard time figuring out which one of the guys was actually Steve! Just an all around funny episode of the show and it gets funnier every time I watch it.
So this film is not really that good, if I did not get to enjoy the riffs I would have to say it does have to many walking scenes within it and a lot of speculation scenes. I would also have to complain about the death count as only one person is actually killed by the Blood Beast of the title. Granted, it is a rather gruesome death considering the time this film was made. That being said it is not horrifically bad as I had just watched The Beast of Yucca Flats last week. Now that one is completely terrible as there is literally no on screen dialog in the entire film. Corman may not have been a super great filmmaker, but at least his films seem like actual movies and not some sort of home brewed film!