(1962)
Dir - Maury Dexter
Overall: MEH
This independent snooze-fest from director/producer Maury Dexter is one of many science fiction films to spawn in the wake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers that utilizes a similar bare bones premise of humans being duplicated for alien takeover means. The Day Mars Invaded Earth, (Spaceraid 63), adds nothing to this particular niche though, presenting itself as a stagy and painfully boring viewing experience that only springs to life at irregular intervals. It is set almost exclusively at a California mansion where a NASA scientist vacations with his family after a robot surveyor on Mars is destroyed, ushering in an extraterrestrial menace that begins to evaporate humans after studying and replacing them. The problem is that hardly anything on screen showcases any of this, aside from characters prattling on about it. Dexter was obviously dealing with limited funds here as special effects sequences prove few and far between, but he also lacks the ability to create any ominous atmosphere or white-knuckled tension. Even the closing scene where our last surviving still-human character tries to flee the alien threat, it is all shot outside and in broad daylight, merely being suspenseful on paper. There is a better movie lurking in here somewhere, (and it is called Invasion of the Body Snatchers), but the actual results are only serviceable if someone needs a cure for insomnia.
(1965)
Dir - Jon Hall
Overall: WOOF
Two things that the 1960s had in spades where man in a rubber suit movies and beach party movies, the two antiquated sub-genres joining forces with knowingly goofy results in The Beach Girls and the Monster, (Monster from the Surf). This was the only credited directorial effort from actor Jon Hall, who also top-bills himself here despite the fact that he is not the main protagonist. Well to be fair, he probably shares a similar amount of screen time with his character's son Arnold Lessing who has the same trajectory of any teenager who just wants to surf and have fun, despite the fact that Lessing was nearly thirty at the time of shooting. We also have Sue Casey as the latter's hussy stepmother, one of several victims of a mysterious sea creature who stands on its hind legs and attacks only a small handful of times, interrupting tortuously dull exchanges of inane dialog and kids shaking their booties on the beach to bopping surf jams. The movie has a lighthearted and silly tone, (How could it not?), with a few noble if still embarrassing attempts at monster mayhem, but it also seems less concerned with that and more concerned with just filling up time with whatever it can to get to feature length. So if some low stakes domestic drama and minutes upon minutes of bikini-clad babes and shirtless surfer dudes doing the Watusi sounds like a thrilling experience, by all means, knock yourself out.
(1968)
Dir - Charles Romine
Overall: MEH
Eighty minutes is too long for a roughie. That said, the lone directorial feature from Charles Romine Any Body...Any Way, (Behind Locked Doors), subverts expectations by channeling its sleaze into a subdued and quirky rape kidnapping scenario that alludes to necrophilia, zombies, the supernatural, and mad scientist motifs. Make no mistake though, it is still done with non-existent funds and on a largely incompetent level, with top-to-bottom unknown actors turning in stiff performances between two locations. The film opens with hippies non-stop go-go dancing in a barn, as well as the obligatory rape scene that serves no purpose to any of the unfolding plot. It then takes a formulaic shift where two ladies are forced to stay the night at a country house out in the middle of nowhere because their car will not start, (and was actually tampered with by their host), at which point a schlubby Daniel Garth with a pompous accent unveils his vague scheme to find the perfect baby-making mate. Oh, and he and his sister have a room full of the previous ladies who resisted his mad "scientific" advances, all of whom are posed as naked mannequins. The tone is lethargic, as are the performances, particularly those of Joyce Danner and Eve Reeves who never seem too concerned with their concerning predicament. There is less rape and less nudity than would be expected, plus the ending is random and head-scratching, making this less "rough" and more singular amongst other Z-grade exploitation flicks from the era.
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