This sci-fi wannabe from 1978 tries to ride the heels of the STAR WARS craze, but only succeeds in generating laughs. This film is notable because of two reasons: The first reason is that LASERBLAST was the funniest and most popular episode of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 ever produced (so say the Misties). The other reason is because of stop motion animation master Dave Allen, who animated the spaceships and the cool aliens. But the rest of the film is dreck, only to be watched to get a few laughs. A division of Full Moon films, called Cult Video recently released LASERBLAST on DVD, along with some other titles like SLAVE GIRLS FROM BEYOND INFINITY.

This film was produced by Charles Band, current head of Full Moon Entertainment. Band is a man who strives to the be the next generation of Roger Corman. Band’s work ethic is well documented as he is the not only the idea man, but he also has written, produced, directed, and even composed scores for many of Full Moon’s films though out the years. Unfortunately, even with all the man’s talents, Full Moon has yet to create a truly decent film. Instead, his Full Moon production’s goal seems to be how many films a year they can make and distribute. Many of the franchises (like the PUPPETMASTER and SUBSPECIES movies) are pumped out yearly so they will have more action figures to sell. Anyway, Band was up to his old tricks as far back as the seventies and produced some really poor sci-fi/horror hybrids, some of which (like LASERBLAST) went on to achieve some cult status.

Band manage to secure some big names as peripheral characters in his films to achieve some credibility. For LASERBLAST, he managed to get a days work each out of Roddy McDowell and Keenan Wynn, although the roles are pretty much throwaway. In addition to Mcdowell and Wynn, the film stars Luke Skywalker look alike Kim (CORVETTE SUMMER) Milford as depressed teen Billy Duncan. Cheryl (REVENGE OF THE CHEERLEADERS) Smith plays his girlfriend Kathy. Gianni (GODFATHER trilogy) Russo portrays a government agent who investigates the strange phenomena in this small town. Ron (ICE STATION ZEBRA) Masak is the town Sheriff. Eddie Deezen (1941’s nerd with the dummy) plays one of Billy Duncan’s tormentors, Froggy.

The film begins with a humanoid alien (in bad make-up) being chased through the desert by two of Dave Allen’s animated critters. The humanoid alien uses a strange bazooka-like laser weapon to shoot the strange aliens, but he is overpowered by them and they incinerate him. As they head back to their spaceship, they fail to procure the laser weapon. Meanwhile, local resident Billy Duncan finds himself ostracized from the residents of the small town and his own family. He is harassed by other teens and even the local bumbling cops. Only his girlfriend Kathy brings some light into his life. She says she is attracted to him because there is a darkness inside him.

When Billy accidentally stumbles across the alien weapon while hanging out in the desert, the darkness begins to come to the surface. Not even knowing what the weapon is, he starts to pretend it is a gun and starts shooting at invisible targets. When he finds that the gun really does fire a laser blast, he is elated and quickly takes the weapon and hides it. At night time Billy transforms into an alien ghoul who uses the weapon to get back at Billy’s social persecutors. He starts by destroying the town bully’s car. This incident catches the attention of mysterious government agent named Mr. Craig (Russo) who organizes the town’s police force. The aliens in space are ridiculed by their leader, who orders them to return to Earth and retrieve the weapon.

Meanwhile, Billy has become human again, but he develops some kind of alien implant on his chest.The more he handles the alien weapon, the bigger the implant becomes. He has Dr. Melon (McDowell) check it out. The Doctor removes the implant with the intention of taking it to a government laboratory to study. But that night, the Doctor becomes victim number one. Billy uses the weapon to blow up the Doctor’s car. The rest of the movie the local law enforcement (led by Mr. Craig) try to close in on the mutated Billy, but are systemically dispatched by Billy’s alien weapon. Billy eventually reaches the center of town where he starts blowing things up and manages to fight off the police. But Billy’s fun comes to an end once the aliens arrive to reclaim their technology.

So basically, the last third of the film is just scenes of Billy blowing up cars and more cars, buildings, sidewalks, people, and even a STAR WARS billboard. Most of the budget must have gone to pyrotechnics. As much as I love explosions, you got to have more than that to sustain a film. Like a coherent plot and characterization for instance. They could have made the movie better by defining Billy’s character.

The beginning of the story makes you feel pity for the kid, and you see why he may have pent-up aggressions. But, from the moment he finds the weapon, he becomes immediately corrupted. He has no mercy and starts shooting at everything in sight. All the sympathy that was generated for the Billy in the first half goes right out the window as Billy just goes berserk non stop until the end when he is killed. By that time you don’t care for him anymore. If Franne Schact’s script could have kept that sense of victimization going through the entire film, it could have turned out differently. But instead, all the script does is set up the characters and then switch to blow-up mode.

On the whole, Steve Neil’s special effects are terrible. Though I realize a lot of people dislike stop motion animation, I happen to find a certain charm associated with it, and therefore enjoyed Dave Allen’s effects work, cheesy as it may be. The best effects in the whole film (as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now) are the pyrotechnic effects. Although I hardly call planting explosives inside an automobile’s gas tank artistry. To be fair, Billy’s mutated make up effects are actually a bit startling, with his protruding forehead and white eyeballs. He kind of looks (not to mention acts) like a zombie from DAWN OF THE DEAD.

SIGHT

Full Moon presents LASERBLAST in it’s original 1.85.1 widescreen ratio. This was a surprise since the packaging does not state it was widescreen. I was expecting full frame. The image is nicely rendered but not too sharp. There is a slight haze visible though most of the film. Long time DVD fans have come to expect a razor sharp picture in a widescreen transfer, but that is not the case here. The coloring appears slightly muted. In defense of the film, it was unimaginatively shot in the desert on an extremely low budget. These desert scenes are not colorfully panoramic like many studio productions; they are dark, shady, and claustrophobic. Because of the softness, there is not a lot of detail in the images. The blacks and shadow detail are pretty good, and you can make out all the action in the night scenes. Again, the color schemes are dull with lots of grays, olives, browns, etc. Skin tones are good however. The animation scenes look flat but tolerable. Film grain rears it’s head on more than one occasion. The transfer is far from perfect but it is without a doubt the best the film has ever looked.

SOUND

Full Moon also serves up a strong Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 soundtrack with a touch of bass. Although lacking power and directionality, the mix is crisp and clear. There is also a lot of depth from low to high ranges within the forward sound field, and of course there is no rear activity, not even reverb. The explosions have a touch of bass in them. The highlight of the soundtrack is Richard Band’s haunting synthesizer score. The score is well composed and changes along with the action. Band is responsible for scoring numerous film scores including the famous REANIMATOR and PUPPET MASTER themes. Though the sound mix supplements the visuals well, it would have nice to have some kind of digital remastering. But Band did not put any money into these films when he created them, so why would he bother to put money into them now?

FEATURES

The Merchandise menu is a video catalog of Full Moon Pictures t-shirts, toys, etc. The Website menu has the Web site URL and contact information for Cult Video and Full Moon Pictures. The talent bios are for cast members Roddy McDowell, Kim Milford, Keenan Wynn, Eddie Deezen, and Gianni Russo. The trailer menu consists of eight full frame Cult Video trailers that are in stereo. The trailers are: CANNIBAL WOMEN IN THE AVOCADO JUNGLE OF DEATH (2:11), BIMBO MOVIE BASH (3:25), ATTACK OF THE KILLER BIMBOS (2:06), BEACH BABES FROM BEYOND (2:09), SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIME BALL BOWLERAMA (3:00), CREEPAZOIDS (1:54), and the only one actually worth checking out SLAVE GIRLS FROM BEYOND INFINITY (2:13). Some of these titles, such as the last one are available on DVD, but I don’t believe they all are (for those that care). Okay, we’ll admit to enjoying some of these trailers, just don’t ask us to watch the movies.

CONCLUSION

This is a cheesy, bad film that still offers some fun to many cult film fans. If you can stomach the poor filmmaking and cheap production values you may enjoy the stop motion animation, the pyrotechnics, the score, the unintentional humor, the seventies-era vibe, and B film actress Cheryl Smith (who appeared in numerous 70’s horror and cult flicks including LEMORA, THE LADY DRACULA and CAGED HEAT). This widescreen transfer, though not perfect, is the best the film will ever look, and completely blows away the MST3000 version of the film in quality and sound.

 LASERBLAST is available at DVDEmpire

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