KillersfromSpace

Killers from Space (1954)

I love “B” sci-fi movies from the 50s, but even I have to admit there are some real stinkers here. Killers from Space is one of those movies that makes me wonder why and how I can sit thru some of the stuff that I do.

The story here is that a scientist is saved from a plane crash caused by the aliens that save him. They want him to spy on the nuclear tests that he was monitoring when they crashed the plane. Only the aliens take so much time getting him prepared as a spy that when he does miraculously show back up on the base no one trusts him. Even after they give him drugs to make him remember what happened his crazy tale of aliens using giant bugs and other nasty critters to take over the world falls on deaf ears. But lucky for the planet the scientist manages to escape and knows just how to defeat the aliens, and of course does.

I could go into all of the terrible plot holes, like why keep him so long that it wrecks your plan anyway. Oh how about not showing your enemy exactly how you are going to take over, including a detailed tour of your secret base so he can figure out how to stop you? But then if they didn’t do that the already paper thin plot would simply not exists at all. I’ve seen a lot of bad movies in my time, but this turkey really has no plot at all. They spend far too much time walking the main character around poorly built sets showing off bad attempts at giant bugs and the like. I would also expect that the reasons that the aliens explain their exact plans is so another 10 or 15 minutes of screen time can be chewed up.

Speaking of chewing up screen time the cast here just isn’t very good. That is except for a young Peter Graves, who is absolutely wasted in the role of Dr. Douglas Martin (the kidnapped scientist). It is really difficult to watch someone like Graves, who has talent, try and make something out of nothing. Unfortunately he just doesn’t have the acting chops to make this damn thing interesting. But then you could have probably set the cast on fire and it wouldn’t have been interesting. The only real memorable part of Killers from Space are the look of the alien invaders. Honest to god they are the goofiest looking things that I’ve seen in a long time, and that is saying something.

If you can’t tell this is a very bad movie. Sometimes a movie can be so bad that there is some entertainment value to it. But this isn’t one of those movies. What we have here is a really boring, poorly acted, and terribly executed attempt at a movie. When someone who enjoys crappy movies like I do has a hard time getting thru it then it has to suck. But if you are determined to check it out you can have this one on several of the Mill Creek sets. Check them out at http://www.millcreekent.com/

½ out of 4 (just for the goofy aliens)

reviewed by John Shatzer