NIGHT FRIGHT-1967-This made in Texas atrocity seems to feature scenes with a monster as an afterthought. It’s very very talky and way too dark. A very skinny John Agar stars as a small town sheriff battling a killer mutant monster that came out of a secret government rocket crash. A lot of local teens (all very bad actors) are terrorized and Agar’s character almost loses it when one of them calls him “fuzz” (“Listen, punk. Don’t call me fuzz”).
The grumbling monster looks like a man in an ape suit except for the head, which is very shiny and plastic looking and resembles a Klingon! An elaborate plan to capture the creature is mostly characters just sitting around waiting! Though the monster is suppose to be big and noisy victims don’t really notice him until he’s right on top of them! Larry Buchanan regular Bill Thurman plays Agar’s deputy who gets killed (Agar had been in 2 Buchanan outings himself). Screenwriter Russ Marker (who also has a role) had made THE YESTERDAY MACHINE but this is 10 times worst. Nothing happens! But what can you expect from a director (James A. Sullivan) who edited MANOS –HANDS OF FATE!!
The same year Agar had a small role in Corman’s THE ST. VALENTINE’S DAY MASSACRE. It stinks but I wonder it if Dean R. Koontz saw this before writing “Watchers"?
One of the young people is played Brenda Venus who went on to write a column for Playboy magazine and was "the muse" to author Henry Miller in the last years of his life. His letters to her were collected into a book titled "Dear, Dear Brenda".
Final note: The script supervisor on NIGHT FRIGHT was Annabelle Weenick from DON’T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT and Larry Buchanan movies....
Thanks for reading!
1 comment:
I've had this for about five years and still haven't gotten around to watching it yet, which surprises me since the the write-up says something great like "Sorority Girls venturing into Satan's Hollow are killed by a gorilla with an alien head." haha
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