Back in the late Seventies, all-night TV programming was just beginning in my home (Cleveland)market, and it was a boon to pub crawlin' rock music / potheads like me; coming in at two or three in the morning, generally higher than Japanese beef prices, we'd turn to "8 All Nite" or "Movie 5" for stimulation, aka trip.
"The Astro-Zombies" was an "8 All-Nite" staple, showing a half-dozen times between 1977 and 1980. And why not? This movie was made for late night consumption, particularly when garnished with cold pizza, warm Colt 45, and some funny cigarettes.
John Carradine is at it again, bellowing like an elephant seal whilst doing mad scientist stuff in a Kiwanis haunted house-type laboratory.His assistant, Fanchot, has a thing for girl's feet, and possibly grew up to be Quentin Tarantino.
Da Good Docta is trying to produce the perfect astronaut, using the tried and NASA-approved method of stitching dead body parts together; this never goes well, but you can't tell this guy anything. The fruits of his labor look like day players in cheap suits, with skull masks over their faces-they are Astro-Men, or (hence the title)Astro-Zombies.
Unbeknownst to this dime-store Einstein, one of his creatures has been sneaking out at night, and (gasp!)killing beautiful young women. (You'd think....every once in a while....that a rampaging monster could bump off a couple of those mummified aunts, you know the ones with the mink stoles with the heads still on them, and the lipstick? The kissy ones?)
But I digress.... Wendell Corey, as an FBI man, prints his performance in fat pencil on grade-school lined paper, and mails it in-he almost puts himself to sleep. This is counterbalanced by the man- eating zeal of Tura Satana, as the head bad person, blood-stopping in tight Chinese dresses, stiletto pumps, and an entire can of Clabber Girl Baking Powder on her face.
(Query....why would a Red Chinese agent have Raphael Campos as a lieutenant?)
Never mind.... Ms. Satana is nearly orgasmic in her performance, clearly enjoying herself as she dumps an entire clip into one of her victims, as he floats in a swimming pool, and torturing another with a lit cigarette.
This film is replete with cheap chills, unintentional laughs, and enough cheese to top Northern Italy. Buy it, rent it, stay up and watch it; you'll thank me.
"The Astro-Zombies" was an "8 All-Nite" staple, showing a half-dozen times between 1977 and 1980. And why not? This movie was made for late night consumption, particularly when garnished with cold pizza, warm Colt 45, and some funny cigarettes.
John Carradine is at it again, bellowing like an elephant seal whilst doing mad scientist stuff in a Kiwanis haunted house-type laboratory.His assistant, Fanchot, has a thing for girl's feet, and possibly grew up to be Quentin Tarantino.
Da Good Docta is trying to produce the perfect astronaut, using the tried and NASA-approved method of stitching dead body parts together; this never goes well, but you can't tell this guy anything. The fruits of his labor look like day players in cheap suits, with skull masks over their faces-they are Astro-Men, or (hence the title)Astro-Zombies.
Unbeknownst to this dime-store Einstein, one of his creatures has been sneaking out at night, and (gasp!)killing beautiful young women. (You'd think....every once in a while....that a rampaging monster could bump off a couple of those mummified aunts, you know the ones with the mink stoles with the heads still on them, and the lipstick? The kissy ones?)
But I digress.... Wendell Corey, as an FBI man, prints his performance in fat pencil on grade-school lined paper, and mails it in-he almost puts himself to sleep. This is counterbalanced by the man- eating zeal of Tura Satana, as the head bad person, blood-stopping in tight Chinese dresses, stiletto pumps, and an entire can of Clabber Girl Baking Powder on her face.
(Query....why would a Red Chinese agent have Raphael Campos as a lieutenant?)
Never mind.... Ms. Satana is nearly orgasmic in her performance, clearly enjoying herself as she dumps an entire clip into one of her victims, as he floats in a swimming pool, and torturing another with a lit cigarette.
This film is replete with cheap chills, unintentional laughs, and enough cheese to top Northern Italy. Buy it, rent it, stay up and watch it; you'll thank me.