ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

If you're not a member of All Sci-Fi, registration is easy. Just use the registration password, which is —

gort



Attention members! If you've forgotten your password, just email me at brucecook1@yahoo.com.
____________________________________________________________________

Gosh, what’s not to love about a movie that shows nasty creatures eating people from the inside? Shivers (1975) would be a dandy “date night” flick!

If an intelligent film about achieving racial harmony is your “thing”, try The Thing With Two Heads (1972) . They say two are better then one . . . except in this case.

And if you’ve ever wondered how George Lucas went from THX 1138 (1971) to American Graffiti . . . you’re not the only one!
____________________________________________________________________

Shivers (1975)

_____


[Also released as: "They Came from Within" and "The Parasite Murderers"]

Gore fans will love this grisly tale about parasites that gobble their victims from inside, like termites.

After the parasites have invaded a body, their feeding frenzy is set off by sexual excitement, so you can expect a few semi-porno scenes to be interrupted by full-fledged gore scenes. The story takes place in a high-rise apartment complex where the parasites run through the tenants (literally).

A film designed to do for sex what "Jaws" did for swimming.

Director David Cronenberg ("Rabid", "Scanners", "Videodrome") specializes in this kind of thing. Starring Barbara Steele, Joe Silver, Paul Hampton, and Lyn Lowry.
____________________________________________________________________

The Thing With Two Heads (1972)




Good old American International Pictures released this epic nonsense just one year after its equally silly The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant.

Instead of a homicidal murderer's head on the shoulder of a gentle handyman, they decided to be even more offensive by putting a white bigot's head (Ray Milland) on the shoulder of a black convict (Rosey Greer). As with the previous film, most of the "special effects" consist of Ray Milland straining to keep his chin properly positioned on Rosey's shoulder while he hides his body behind the sizable girth of Mr. Grier.

The "two" of them don't get along very well (predictably enough), and sometimes they even punch each other in the faces — which, if you apply any logic at all, indicates masochistic behavior.

Rick Baker provided a two headed gorilla, the only genuine point of interest in this silly film by director Lee Frost.

Trivia note: The Thing with Two Heads would have made a great football player! He could spot the receiver and still keep an eye on the three guys who wanted to sack the quarterback!

Actually they almost did this idea, because the movie starred Rosey Greer, who played for the New York Giants. If they do a remake, they should make the two-headed man an actual giant and call it Attack of the 50 ft. Two-Headed Quarterback.
____________________________________________________________________

THX 1138 (1971)

___________________


Writer-director George Lucas wanted to make a chilling cinematic statement about mankind's future.

He succeeded. He made a movie as hard as a fist, then he hit us squarely between the eyes with it.

Robert Duvall, Don Pedro Colley, Donald Pleasence, Maggie McOmie, and Ian Wolfe star in this unpleasant glimpse of a future in which love is forbidden, drugs are compulsory, privacy is impossible, and conformity is everything. Living quarters are stark white cell-like rooms, the people wear simple pajama-like garments, and their heads are shaved (both male and female). Monitor cameras are everywhere.

Few if any reviewers ever mention the cryptic shots of lizards living among the inner workings of the hi-tech machines. No, I don't know what they mean either.

The story concerns Duvall's understandable rebellion against this nightmare world. Lucas produced the first version of THX 1138 as a film project at the University of Southern California, for which he won a prize. Lucas apparently feels a certain gratitude towards THX 1138 as the first stepping stone in his phenomenal and well-deserved success.

Like Alfred Hitchcock's legendary walk-on appearances, Lucas has sprinkled subtle references to THX1138 throughout some of his later films. One of the license plates on a car in American Graffiti features a slightly altered version of the number, and in Star Wars a disguised Luke Skywalker tells an Imperial officer that Chewbacca is a "prisoner transfer from cellblock 1138".
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)