A well-informed, soft-hearted send-up (as opposed to a peremptory putdown) of the grade-Z science fiction of the Fifties, wherein an altruistic scientist, a megalomaniacal scientist, a pair of stranded space aliens, and a dormant mind-controlling skeleton squabble over a radioactive element called Atmospherium. Its blatant shortcomings -- the uncharismatic cast, the inane dialogue, the clunky direction (Larry Blamire, who doubles as the good scientist: "Too much science? Is that possible?"), the threadbare production, the hand-crafted special effects, the canned music -- come, of course, under the protections of parody. But the black-and-white DV image, or rather the dishwater-gray DV image or the cataract-cloudy DV image, falls outside those protections. Rather than looking like a grade-Z film of the Fifties, which at least would have been shot on 35mm celluloid, it looks more like a third-generation video dupe of a 16mm TV print of one. Amusing notions pop up throughout. One of the most amusing of them, an amalgam of four forest creatures transmuted into human form and christened Animala (slinkily interpreted by Jennifer Blaire in a black body stocking) pops up quite late. Still, parodies are notorious for wearing out their welcome, every bit as fast as, if not faster than, campy offerings of All-Time Worst Films. Only a person who can sit contentedly through an entire Ed Wood film could count this one a profitable investment (of time or ticket price). With Fay Masterson, Andrew Parks, Susan McConnell, Brian Howe. (2001) — Duncan Shepherd
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