Night Fright

I was immediatly struck by the alarmingly low IMDB rating, at time of writing we're talking 2.4 and that's really impressive!

It tells the long drawn out story of a big beastie that's out in the forest killing folks off, usual standard stuff. Trouble is it never really gets going.

The pace of the film is remarkable, very little actually happens yet the entire film spends its time building up to something. I don't think I've ever seen a movie quite like it, it's the most anti-climatic thing I've ever seen.

Beyond that every other factor from the acting to the sfx are so mediocre that I'm not even remotely surprised that this has remained so obscure.

It's terrible stuff.

The Good:

Nothing springs to mind

The Bad:

Very repetitive audio

Lack of budget showed

Very anticlimatic

Goes nowhere and goes there slow

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I learnt nothing, other than the other half moved the head ache tablets!

This cheap and rubbish film is about a NASA test rocket that is sent into space with a cargo of animals. It vanishes for a while then unexpectedly returns, crash landing in a forest, unleashing a vicious mutant creature.

Like many films of this type, Night Fright, features dumb teenagers boogieing on down to 60's surf music before being killed. None of the murders, however, are even remotely memorable, as we don't really see anything. One thing we do see, however, is that one of the teenagers appears to be about 40 years old and sports a quite impressively silly haircut.

For a creature feature to work, it really has to present its monster to the viewer properly. In this film, however, we only get the briefest glimpses of the monster. It seems to sort of resemble the alien from Robot Monster. But I'm not sure; as the photography was so dark I simply couldn't make out what the hell was going on a lot of the time. Although, my gut feeling was that I probably wasn't missing very much.

Something in the forest is killing and mutilating the denizens of a rural Texas community. Could it have something to do with the nearby crash of a recently launched rocket? Probably. Sheriff John Agar leads an investigation as the obligatory group of wild local teens get their kicks in the danger zone.

Besides being shot far too dark, NIGHT FRIGHT is technically not much worse than many other regional indie horrors of the period. The worst thing about it is that it just isn't very interesting, and when the wheels are finally greased for some good cheap thrills, the delivery is too little too late.

Yep, NIGHT FRIGHT is kind of a snore. However...the clothes, hair, and interior furnishings are hilariously dated, so if you have an aesthetic taste for kitsch Americana, you'll at least find it a wealth of amusing mid-century retrocities. Most of the production crew are noted for their contributions to the notoriously low-grade cinema of director LARRY BUCHANAN, so it's no surprise that it looks a lot like something from his inglorious filmography.

3.5/10. Not recommended.

Okay it is terribly, and I mean terribly, easy to pick apart this film. C'mmon what do you expect with the title, synopsis, and actors in leads such as Carol Gilley, Ralph Baker Jr., Dorothy Davis, Bill Thurman, and, my personal favourite, Roger Ready. Yes, B star John Agar is here as a sheriff out to rid the Texan landscape of a robot-like ape from a NASA experiment gone awry. The movie has dreadful performances, dreadful scenery, dreadful special effects, and dreadful lighting. I really cannot find much good to say about it other than as bad films go you could do a lot worse as far as finding something dreadful to sit through. It is bearably short and has many moments of unintended humor. Missed cues, lighting faux pas, off-screen terror, an unbelievably inane score, and of course John Agar trying his level best to be the core of the film with an earnest performance amidst this muck. The beginning is the hardest part to sit through as it seems like it takes forever for these two teens to get their comeuppance for traveling in the woods down the Texas back roads where great ape soon will reek his vengeance in his own terrible way...Yeah right! Night Fright! Bah!

An unidentified object crashes -off camera- to Earth, and a hideous creature is unleashed upon an unsuspecting, rural Texas population! When a young couple is found mutilated, Sheriff Clint Crawford (John Agar) is on the case. With help from his deputy and a local reporter, Crawford searches for clues, for what seems like a month. Luckily, monster tracks are found. Then, the exhausting search continues.

Meanwhile, the town "kids", led by troublemaker, Rex Bowers (Frank Jolly) have decided to have a "dance-in" down at the beach, in spite of Crawford's warning! There they go, dancing like the carefree, 30 year old "kids" they are!

Wasn't there supposed to be a monster of some sort in this movie?

More dancing commences.

Finally, the beast attacks in full, obscured sight! As the hairy horror approaches, the kids dance on.

NIGHT FRIGHT is a tedious affair, saving its big, monster-on-a-rampage "thrills" for the dance-free denouement. As usual, for Agar's later projects, he easily outshines the other "actors" involved.

EXTRA POINTS FOR: The very cool cars on display!...