Rock
05-05-2003, 07:38 PM
(1977, MGM “Midnite Movies” VHS, coming soon to DVD)
The sole survivor of a botched space voyage to Saturn, Colonel Steve West (Alex Rebar) witnesses a strange solar flare before returning to Earth with an illness that causes his flesh to literally melt away from his bones…and creates in him an appetite for human blood, sending him on a gory rampage replete with gooey, drippy makeup FX by Rick Baker (SQUIRM, THE FUNHOUSE, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON). Unintentionally hilarious one minute, then deadly serious the next, this somewhat obscure ‘B’ movie from American International Pictures will probably remind genre fans of past sci-fi classics such as THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (THE CREEPING UNKNOWN) and FIRST MAN INTO SPACE. It’s a relatively short (85 minutes), no-frills kind of early slasher as there’s not a lot of time wasted on explanations and past events. We never find out what exactly it is that causes West’s ears to fall off and stick to tree branches or his eyes to drop out of his skull while he skulks about the countryside decapitating unsuspecting fishermen and chewing through a pair of silly senior citizens out on a late-night drive but we don’t care either, and it certainly doesn’t subtract from the slender plot which wisely concentrates on his movie-long rampage. Familiar TV character actor Burr DeBenning is West’s friend/doctor/pursuer Ted Nelson, and for you chick-dicks in the crowd, both blond model-actress Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith (LASERBLAST, UP IN SMOKE, PARASITE, who, sadly, died last year from hepatitis) and low-budget scream-queen Janus Blythe (Ruby from THE HILLS HAVE EYES) show up as near-victims.
I managed to see TIMM in the theater back in 1977 when it first appeared and, for some reason, I seem to remember it being a lot gorier then, but I could be wrong, I was only 14 at the time and far more prone to emotion, especially after sneaking into an R-rated feature. I’m anxious to check out MGM’s upcoming DVD to see if there really is anything missing…
The sole survivor of a botched space voyage to Saturn, Colonel Steve West (Alex Rebar) witnesses a strange solar flare before returning to Earth with an illness that causes his flesh to literally melt away from his bones…and creates in him an appetite for human blood, sending him on a gory rampage replete with gooey, drippy makeup FX by Rick Baker (SQUIRM, THE FUNHOUSE, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON). Unintentionally hilarious one minute, then deadly serious the next, this somewhat obscure ‘B’ movie from American International Pictures will probably remind genre fans of past sci-fi classics such as THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (THE CREEPING UNKNOWN) and FIRST MAN INTO SPACE. It’s a relatively short (85 minutes), no-frills kind of early slasher as there’s not a lot of time wasted on explanations and past events. We never find out what exactly it is that causes West’s ears to fall off and stick to tree branches or his eyes to drop out of his skull while he skulks about the countryside decapitating unsuspecting fishermen and chewing through a pair of silly senior citizens out on a late-night drive but we don’t care either, and it certainly doesn’t subtract from the slender plot which wisely concentrates on his movie-long rampage. Familiar TV character actor Burr DeBenning is West’s friend/doctor/pursuer Ted Nelson, and for you chick-dicks in the crowd, both blond model-actress Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith (LASERBLAST, UP IN SMOKE, PARASITE, who, sadly, died last year from hepatitis) and low-budget scream-queen Janus Blythe (Ruby from THE HILLS HAVE EYES) show up as near-victims.
I managed to see TIMM in the theater back in 1977 when it first appeared and, for some reason, I seem to remember it being a lot gorier then, but I could be wrong, I was only 14 at the time and far more prone to emotion, especially after sneaking into an R-rated feature. I’m anxious to check out MGM’s upcoming DVD to see if there really is anything missing…