This film is tough to rate without exhibiting my psychotronic bias, however, I can understand both the low and high ratings. It's a movie that exudes raw cheapness while displaying the unpolished energy of its principals, including a great cast, that apparently decided to pump out some entertainment, like it or not. Part of the test for my evaluation also involved some basic decision making; would I prefer going to a theater and paying good money to see " The Astro-Zombies " or most of the alleged " masterpieces " of the 21st Century cinema that I've been forced to endure lately? Usually The A-Z come out on top in that regard. You'll probably benefit from a strong background of abjectly cut rate movies, viewed in the dead of night, emanating from a pre-cable era local station on a black and white TV ( although this one is shot in color ) complete with maneuverable antenna ( rabbit ears ) on top, emitting an artificial sickly pale glow over you as the lone occupant of the rec room. This is not your ordinary tale involving sub rosa experimentation by government entities whose meddling with space technology along with other sinister machinations has gone awry .... or has it? It's frequently hard to tell, but I know what I like, and it may even be art, in the sense of its creation of a formal if admittedly accidental anti-aesthetic. This is a film that can be readily missed or dismissed in the midst of the stream of more contemporary bombastic sci-fi blockbusters, yet has a sort of 60's vibe of utter coolness that only rubber headed zombies evading radar while wielding ray guns on the rampage can bring.
Review of The Astro-Zombies
