My former roommate, Peter Kelly, worked on this film circa 1981 (the "1987" date listed above is not correct, although this went straight to video without being released). I remember he brought home the shovel that was used to stick out of the guy's head. I also visited the work area once and saw the makeup for the final "Philip Alien" sequence. If you've seen the film, you wouldn't believe how intricately those false arms were worked on with all sorts of tiny pumps and gadgets.
He had some great stories to tell about Susan Blakely originally being cast for the "Liz Stone" character, but being replaced by Pamela Sue Martin after the first week of shooting.
Years later, I sat down and watched the video, which then was called "Loose Joints." I have to be honest (and I'm pretty picky, mind you): the film is not all that bad, up until the final "Philip Alien" sequence. The animation sequence took a lot of work for a film of this nature, and I'm surprised more fans haven't picked up on the general cult appeal that some of these sequences have.
Something tells me they didn't have the heart to cut out the "Philip Alien" sequence since that has one of the biggest stars in it and they worked so hard on the mechanical arms. That sequence is confusing and humorless and some of the gags they thought would work so well, such as a woman obsessed with bugs falling for a multi-armed extraterrestrial, simply did not work (in this reviewer's opinion).
Still, there's some good stuff here worth checking out. My roommate went on to make another crumby horror flick called "Nightmare On Elm Street." That's show biz.
