End of the World

I saw this movie in the theater when I was a kid and always remember it as my first experience with getting ripped off by a horrible movie with a good commercial. The commercial was great, but it I found out later that it had every explosion or 'special effect' in the entire movie (about 4) and even some that weren't in the movie. There was some sort of plot relating to the aliens but the aliens were never actually shown in the movie as far as I remember. It was clearly a case of someone making a buck off a cheap movie designed to scam people. I guess my world of innocence ended that day, when I found out there were bad people out there who make bad bad movies.

I rented this movie as part of the mini-series "cult video", hoping for as much fun as I had with "Laserblast" or "creepozoids" that are also part of the edition. Unfortunately, this movie cannot keep up with those gems. Even though it is stupid enough, it is all in all just boring, and moments of fun (like the seconds where the "true face" of the aliens is shown) are too rare to make it up. I have to say, however, that the concept of destroying the whole earth is somewhat audacious, and the movie even delivers one scene of odd true horror, that is when the couple watches the end of the world (earthquakes, inundations) on some TV screens like from the distance ...

At the moment I'm writing this review, the world is faced with the Corona-virus pandemic. Many countries, mine included, are in lockdown and the immediate future doesn't look too hopeful, so I though it was perhaps appropriate to watch a Sci-Fi/horror film with a title like "End of the World".

Well, when the world does come to an end for real, whether due to Corona or another biblical catastrophe, I sincerely hope it won't be as slow and boring to sit through as this dud of a film. There are two noteworthy scenes in this film; - namely the pre-credits opening sequence and the cataclysm-montage during the climax. Everything in between is painfully dull, difficult to follow and plain uninteresting. The almighty Christopher Lee stars as a priest, but his persona is taken over by an evil alien bent on destroying the world from within a secluded little monastery. It's up to a clueless scientist and his wife Lolita to save the planet. In other words, we're doomed!

The Earth is destined to be no more thanks to Father Pergado and a bunch of Nuns. Christopher Lee (who has since said that he was duped in to appearing in this by his producers who told him loads of great actors were involved) is Father Pergado and gets to do his usual serious and scary routine. The cast are not too bad, though most have now retired from acting. The film has terrible sound effects (mainly created from pressing keys on an old computer it seems) and it ridiculously pondering at times - showing a scene of the sky, for instance, for what feels like hours at a time. Despite this the story is pretty humorous in a world-is-doomed sort of way and the production is adequate. Interestingly one scene features Albert Band and wife Jackie; Meda Band; Writer Frank Ray Perilli and Charles Band's assistant Bennah Burton. Despite its plodding nature I genuinely wanted to see how it all worked out and thus quite liked it.

"A scientist discovers signals from space that appear to carry information concerning a series of seemingly unrelated natural disasters, occurring across the globe. Hoping to discover the source of these signals and who's behind them, the scientist and his wife set out on a trek to locate the intended recipient of the signals. What the couple eventually discovers is a small remote convent with occupants who are not really who they appear to be," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Kirk Scott (as Andrew Boran) is the scientist who intercepts alien messages on his computer. He suspects a series of "Large Earth Disruptions" may be connected to the weird space static. Mr. Scott and pretty blonde wife Sue Lyon (as Sylvia Boran) investigate the mysterious signals from outer space. They discover priestly, but creepy Christopher Lee (as "Father Pergado"), and other silliness. Given that, "End of the World" is remarkably dull.

*** End of the World (1977) John Hayes ~ Kirk Scott, Sue Lyon, Christopher Lee