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Reviews
Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966)
Who do you love ?
When I first saw this on Television as a child, and now and again at Saturday morning cinema shows, I was really taken with the whole thing having been born too late to see the original Television version. And being about 20 years too early for the inevitable DVD and Video release.
For a young boy into Sci-Fi and horror this was an amazing piece of cinema and I would think about what I would do if the world was invaded by Daleks - the image of the Dalek rising from the Thames was wonderful.
The fact that these Daleks could go anywhere when only the week before I had seen them trapped in a metal city on the planet Skaro brought a new level of threat and where the Daleks could not go their Robomen could.
The film is very much to me linked in with British Sci-Fi that I was watching at the time I first saw it UFO, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the use of primary colours and actors that I knew from television helped a great deal.
It is nice to think that years later Bernard Cribbins would return to Doctor Who and feature in the third Christmas Special of the show's revival in 2007 all very circular.
Andrew Keir brings in a link with Hammer films (Fathor Shandor) and Quatermass and I have a feeling that there might be a place for a Sci-Fi family tree book rather like the Rock Family Tree book that was all the rage a few years ago.
Mostly filmed in ruined parts of London and bleak areas of England it would probably take a major exercise like that for 28 DAYS LATER or CGI to get the same effect again.
Also nice to compare the idea of an alien invasion of Britain 1960s style to the novel WAR OF THE WORLDS and compare how similar the Daleks and Martians are in methodology of invasion.
One criticism of the film though must be that the film does not give a feel of the Daleks having invaded the Earth rather bits of Britain (and shabby bits at that).
Great to watch these days as a double bill with Doctor Who and The Daleks and wonderful to see Peter Cushing playing a very different version of the Doctor to that played by William Hartnell.
Recommended for too many reasons to list (but including Peter Cushing, Amicus, Andrew Keir, Bernard Cribbins and the Daleks of course).
Over-sexed Rugsuckers from Mars (1989)
It's all there in the title.
What can be said that has not been said already -certainly one of the most interesting titles for a film but some of the comments on this site make it look as if this is an undiscovered gem of a movie when in fact it is not. There will be a great deal of puzzlement in trying to get guests to even view the film after reading the title. For cult viewing I would recommend almost any other low budget SF / Horror movie. However if is is available in a bargain bin somewhere then give it a go but don't hold your breath for the BLUE RAY of HD-DVD version. There is a sense of pride in finding a strange little movie and being a champion of that movie but this movie does not deserve such high praise. Terrible acclamation sucks the rug out from under this film before it gets started. Finally a lot of urban myths and hospital rumours surround people who fall in love with domestic appliance (or at least try to). Best avoided.
Reign of the Gargoyles (2007)
The Nazi's summon a horde of killer Gargoyles.
Interesting to read comments about this film picking holes in the correct way for a WWII SAS officer to wear their beret when there are hundreds of (below average) CGI Gargoyles running around. A bit like having a go at Star Wars because Chewbacca does not have split ends. The film is straight to DVD/Sci-Fi Schlock and there are thousands of other similar movies out there which take themselves a lot more seriously and are more in need of being deflated. The film tries hard and does quite well considering it must be low budget. A more interesting goof is the comment that the holder of the Spear of Destiny was buried like a commoner and then watching the heroes breaking into his tomb - hardly the resting place of a commoner. Nice comment earlier about NAZI interest in the supernatural and mention of the excellent THE KEEP but add to the list RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and HELLBOY.