Blood Suckers from Outer Space is listed on IMDb as a comedy/horror. If it was a comedy, then it would be funny, right? Well it's not. And if it was a horror, then it would be scary, yes? Nope, not this sucker. The best description I can come up for this low budget oddity is 'wacky', the makers chucking in everything they can think of regardless of how dumb it is. It's another one of those inexplicably strange movies that seemed to proliferate in the '80s, but have since disappeared into obscurity, only to be seen by those who actively seek out z-grade trash.
Written and directed by Glen Coburn, the film sees an energy field from outer space causing problems for the people of a Texan farming community. Manifesting itself as a strong gust of wind, the extraterrestrial force causes massive internal haemorrhaging before reanimating the corpse. Those affected go on to attack the living. Investigating the phenomenon is reporter Jeff Rhodes (Thom Meyers), who is accompanied by Julie (Laura Ellis), the pretty woman who gives him a lift when he has car trouble.
The craziness that ensues includes a group of scientists (one of whom wears enormous spectacles) conversing with a corpse strapped to a gurney (reminiscent of the following year's far superior Return of the Living Dead), Julie offering to share the tank of nitrous oxide in the back seat of her car with Jeff, a bizarre argument between General Sanders (Dennis Letts) and the guard at the gate of top secret lab Research City, a janitor called Norman (Big John Brigham) who says the word 'weird' a lot, an indoor sex scene shot entirely from outside the house, a woman screaming hysterically when the film's title is mentioned, a scene in which America's president has a blonde dolly bird perched on his knee (in hindsight, perhaps not that ridiculous), and a couple of meta-jokes (such as when one character comments on the film's scary incidental music).
As far as the 'horror' is concerned, make up for the 'zombies' comprises of a coat of light blue paint (that ends at the neckline) and some darker blue lines for veins, which is far from convincing, but what budget was saved on the look of the undead was at least spent on a few semi-decent gore effects, including a severed arm, a fun decapitation, and the liberal splashing of fake blood whenever someone haemorrhages.
The ending -- once again eerily similar to Return of the Living Dead -- sees General Sanders dropping a nuclear bomb to solve the problem, although he is 60 miles off-target, allowing the zombies to go about their business.
