ATTACK OF THE EYE CREATURES (1967)
Tagline: Is it True? Are Creatures from Space Watching Us NOW?
(Sci-Fi, Comedy, Tallest Hair Candidate) [PG]
Note: The movie wasn’t given an MPAA rating, but it if was it likely would have landed a PG. The creatures are pretty gnarly looking.
Another carload of those blasted smoochers on my property! I'll get the law after 'em.
In this one, we get an attempt to remake the superior INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN. Once again aliens land on Earth and seem to have no real purpose for being here other than to just look scary and get run over by cars. The United States Air Force is well aware of what is going on but seems to be taking its sweet time doing anything about it, as teens are freaked out and people drop dead. Don’t worry about it though, these aren’t your average teens. They are 1960’s teens and they are gonna handle business.
One thing right off the bat is there are some purposely funny lines in this and there is some pretty decent dialog, but there is also some really bad dialog. The cast however is actually pretty decent and they did a great job with the creatures when the shots were up close. From a distance though, they looked like they were barely holding together.
The name of the movie was changed by the studio from THE EYE CREATURES to ATTACK OF THE EYE CREATURES and some of the promos used the artwork from 1958’s THE CRAWLING EYE. That should tell you how cheaply made this thing is, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t enjoyable. The banter between Nathan Wyle as Col. Harrison and those reporting to him reminds me a lot of something we’d see in a Christopher R. Mihm film. I am thinking of General Castel from THE GIANT SPIDER in particular.
I think for the most part a lot of people aren’t really going to embrace the amount of cheese going on here, but I liked it quite a bit. It is not as good as INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN people, because those giant alien heads with no real bottom of the costumes in that movie were the stuff of cheese-filled legend. What was better in this movie was the lead couple. John Ashley (FRANKENSTEIN’S DAUGHTER) does a decent job as Stan Kenyon and I really liked Susan Rogers as Cynthia Hull. She handled the role and her hair that was stacked a mile high with confidence. Chet Davis also does a pretty good job of bringing humor to the film as Mike Lawrence.
Larry Buchanan directed a few TV movies in color that were remakes of older films, but this one would have been better in black and white. When it comes to the pacing this one is fine, but the score is pretty janky and that is probably because it was borrowed from the movie BEACH PARTY. Buchanan also used footage from other movies including INVADERS FROM MARS. They also took a lot of the dialog from INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, so there wasn’t a huge attempt to be original here.
If you liked INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, this should be right up your alley, but I didn’t think it lived up to the original. Taking out the really annoying narration was a good move though. In the original, it was one of those things where rather than adding to the film, the narration hurt it.
I give this one a 3 out of 7. With the idea, I would have loved to have seen better execution. Even just seeing one of those goofy eyeball-covered aliens would have been an improvement.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF AZALEA PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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