- Directed by: Don Dohler
- Written by: Don Dohler
- Stars: Don Leifert, Tom Griffith, Richard Dyszel
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgVonOOv6kI
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A space ship with three different specimens meant for an intergalactic zoo crashes in the woods near a small town, and mayhem ensues as the creatures attack the locals. It’s low budget and low energy with flat wooden acting and weird pacing. There was some relief felt when it was over.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on some extremely 70s credits.
We cut to a couple making out in their car out in a remote field, but something is out there stalking them. A monster pulls Rex out of the car and kills him , but the girlfriend, Mary Jane, makes an escape.
Sheriff Cinder talks to Deputy Pete about what he found out there. The sheriff thinks it was some kind of big animal, but Mary Jane’s in shock and can’t explain.
A girl walks alone through the woods and sees a burned-up looking man next to a spaceship. She screams and runs away, right into the path of a biker. She’s injured and knocked out, but the alien heals her.
Edie, a reporter, is writing a story about the attacks and calls the coroner, who doesn’t know much.
Three local guys, along with a girlfriend, go out searching the woods for the “wild animal” that attacked Rex. They soon find the creature, shoot it repeatedly, but it doesn’t die. The police are soon cleaning up those bodies as well.
Something mostly invisible kills another local right outside his house. Three kids find his badly burned body while playing. The coroner explains that it looks like he died of old age, to the point of being a decayed corpse.
We pause for an unnecessary rock song from the bar band. One of the patrons goes home and hears someone going through his garbage cans. He finds a tall, hairy creature in his basement, and it kills him.
Ben Zachary goes to see Mayor Wicker. Ben works at the nearby observatory, and he tracked a meteorite that hit nearby. He wonders if the attacks might be aliens. The two wander off into the woods to look for the meteor.
They find a crashed spacecraft instead. There’s a dying alien there who communicates with Ben telepathically. The alien dies, and the spaceship explodes. Ben explains that the dead pilot was transporting three zoo specimens that escaped when the ship crashed. That’s what’s been killing people.
Ben takes care of the insect man creature with sound waves, saving the reporter and her friend out in the woods.
And soon the large hairy creature kills the mayor. The Sheriff and Mary Jane go back out and it chases them into the mayor’s home. The sheriff shoots it repeatedly with no effect. The deputy empties his gun into the creature too. Then Ben Zachary shows up to shoot it with a special weapon just in time. Ben kills it with the same poison that came out of the insectoid.
The sheriff gets a call from the observatory, and it turns out that Ben Zachary doesn’t really work for them.
Edie goes back into the woods yet again, and she watches the third creature chasing Ben. It’s a mostly invisible lizard that’s hard to see in the bright daylight. The creature falls over and dies in the middle of the fight.
Ben sits up, and he’s the ugly man we saw in the beginning of the film. He’s an alien who took human form. He came here to retrieve the zoo specimens and keep them from hurting too many people. She gets a good look at Ben and screams; The sheriff arrives just in time to shoot and kill Alien Ben.
Brian’s Commentary
Most of these actors have one or two credits to their entire careers. Most fo the ones with more than a single credit did repeat films with the same director.
I saw this a long time ago, probably when it was released on TV in 1978. and I remembered it being far, far better than this. The creature designs are pretty cool, but the atrocious acting works against it badly.
Kevin’s Commentary
Trivia says there was an estimated budget of $30,000.00, but I would have guessed it was that much from watching it.
I had never seen this one before, though I think I’d vaguely heard of it. Turns out I wasn’t missing much. There are those who think this has some charm and fun to it. It’s certainly one worthy of a treatment through “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” which it did receive.
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