Sunday 17 January 2016

The Trash Factor

Wrestling with that thorny existentialist question: Is life too short for Bad Cinema ? I watched Don Dohler's 1978 debut The Alien Factor earlier and I should have known better - the general consensus about this one is that it's "not as good as Nightbeast" - perhaps the worst thing anyone can say about any film. Dohler's film is the epitome of what Frank Zappa affectionately referred to as "Cheapniss", and while the creatures running amok in this monster jamboree pleasantly recall 50's quickies, the ruinous direction, endless padding, bad wigs and unspeakable performances had me praying for a quick death. Actually I'm a little cross with myself because I should have used the time to work thru my unwatched discs but the original selection, L'Argent, a hefty two and a half hour French Silent seemed like too much heavy lifting so I thought I'd put my feet up with this Dohler's film but even fast forwarding thru lengthy scenes of ill-prepared cast members tramping thru the wilds of Maryland (and they were literally peering into every bush for the film's runaway monsters), this one felt like a 3-hour grind ! I thought I was prepared for Synapse's Blu of Manos: The Hands of Fate but I'm gonna have to think this one over...


Incidentally, for readers in the UK and Ireland, this piece of junk washed up on Talking Pictures, a 24/7 movie channel (Sky 343 / Freeview 81) which has offered up all sorts of interesting and colorful oddities - from wartime British films to 70's sex comedies to drive-in exploitation. In the last few weeks I've netted a few titles from the BFI's Flipside series (Lunch Hour and The Party's Over), Pete Walker's 1970 comedy Cool It Carol, the bikini-busting Dyanne Thorne quickie Point of Terror, and a number of Lee Frost/Wes Bishop knock-offs. Worth a glance at the listings...

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