Re-watching a childhood favourite as preparation for a forthcoming interview on this site, I was struck by how much of an achievement Richard Stanley’s debut film actually is. Made for almost no money and under fairly strict script conditions, the film manages to create a vivid, believable (if none too original) future world in which to set a daftly entertaining monster-robot romp. And there are some surprisingly intense scenes here- the film is basically 45 minutes of setup followed by another 45 of climax, with pretty much nothing in between. But what a climax: the bizarre murder-suicide-acid trip sequence feels genuinely nightmarish, and Stacy Travis goes all out with the shrieking, running and all-round suffering as the beast pursues her around the flickering futuristic apartment. There’s generally a lot more going on upstairs here than in any of the film’s generic late 80’s techno-splat counterparts.
Plus you get the added bonus of the great unsung character actor William Hootkins (Star Wars, Raiders, Batman) in arguably his finest screen role, as monstrously loathsome sex pest Lincoln Weinberg, Jr. All together now… “Oh we all walk the wibbly wobbly walk…”
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
02 Jul 2007 12:13 PM | Submit Comment
