Nightbeast - 1982

This is my third alien invasion film by one of my new favorite dudes ever, Don Dohler.  This is the same guy behind The Galaxy Invader and The Alien Factor.  From what I have read, and now that I've seen both movies, Nightbeast is supposed to be a direct sequel or even a remake of The Alien Factor. It's virtually the same plot, brings back some of the actors playing the same characters, and the two are pretty interchangeable. Why you would remake your own movie only 4 years later is anyone's guess.

The one thing this movie had that The Alien Factor did not is heavy, dripping, oozing, delicious cheese.  Something seems to have happened between Alien and this one, cause although Alien was "so bad it's good" this one is walking a thin thin line between a bad movie and sheer hilarity.  This movie literally made me laugh with how awful some scenes were done, the high corniness factor, the completely awful acting, everything.  The scenes are so over the top it's impossible at times to take this movie seriously.

Redoing the plot from Alien Factor, a spaceship lands on Earth in rural Maryland, and out pops the alien with his destructo-beam gun, to start blasting the local rednecks.  The alien in this is awesome.  I was going to put awful and of course, both apply and are true.  It is also quite awful.  It's some weird brown monster dude, with huge buck teeth, and I'm sure the original costume/prop was funny to see on set.  I mean, it's funny for us to watch it in the movie, so, you know.

When Nightbeast isn't blasting people with his ridiculous beam that turns them into giant flashes of color and then makes them disappear, he's killing people in the most ridiculous ways.  He at one point rips some guy's arm off as a girl screams continuously in the back ground.  That was one of those scenes where I was laughing- the scene goes on for awkwardly long, and girl stops screaming, catches her breath, and then just keeps going.  It was like, an obvious error on the set that they just said "fuck it" to and kept going.

The music is also seriously wonky.  As overdone as the rest of the movie, it's loopy, weird, atmospheric, and perfect.  It was apparently done by a 16 year old JJ Abrams who somehow got the director to let him do it, I'd love to know the whole story behind that.  JJ should continue doing weird sci fi soundtracks, he had a knack for it.

The script is trash, the actors are the trash can you throw them into.  They're just so bad.  There's a sex scene wherein it just comes off as so forced, so awkward, I actually felt bad for the people involved, and they both look like they're trying their hardest not to laugh.  The recording equipment was terrible, awful quality so sometimes you kind of have to guess at what they're saying and just go along with whatever.

But all these "awful" things aside, this movie was fucking amazing.  It was just so much fun, the hour and twenty minutes flew by like nothing, and I was thoroughly entertained the whole time.  It would be a great bad movie night flick, a great drinking and smoking movie, a fantastic one to show someone who wanted to see 80's cheese.  I wanted so badly not to be as entertained as I was, because the movie is almost to the point where it's self aware in the bad way, but it's not.  Instead it's just perfect.

Again, I wanted to not rate it highly.  I waffled a lot between like 3-5 stars.  I thought as a movie The Galaxy Invader was technically better, more linear, had skill behind it, etc.  I though The Alien Factor was clever, interesting, had better effects, etc.  This one is like those two if they were filmed on acid, and while you're drunk.  It's technically horrible, it has no redeeming qualities, and it's pure insanity, which is why it gets....