Crime On a Budget

 

 (imdb)

THE WALKING TARGET-1960-Nick (Ron Foster; later in HOUSE OF THE DAMNED) gets out of jail after serving 5 years. The warden warns him he's a walking target because he knows where some hold up money is stashed. He meets girlfriend Suzy (Merry Anders; in THE HYPNOTIC EYE the same year) and friend Davy (Robert Christopher; in several Jerry Warren movies) but is still bitter over his jail time. A police Lt. (Harp McGuire) plans on arresting Nick when he goes for the loot.

 Of course, Suzy and Davy are lovers in cahoots to get all of the illicit dough. Meanwhile gangster businessman Arnie Huffman (familiar character actor Berry Kroeger) is also after the stolen loot. A flashback reveals how Nick convinced his honest hard working now dead friend Sammy (Norman Alden) to throw in with him despite the objections of his life Gail (Joan Evans; real life goddaughter of Joan Crawford). The swag is hidden in Gail's car and thanks to a homeless guy named Packy (William Fawcett) Nick learns Gail is in Arizona running a diner. After finding out about Davy & Suzy and upsetting Huffman's plan, Nick visits Gail. She is understandable angry at him even when he tells her she can have all the cash but she relents and lets him stay at her home. Later, he gets the money. Gail convinces him to give it back and go away with her. There's a shootout and couple of people are killed. 

Screenwriter Stephen Kandel later became a TV producer/writer on “Mannix” and “MacGyver” and a few others. Director Edward L. Cahn directed this low budget thriller a year after making his last horror movie THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE.

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Alligator

 

 (wikipedia)

ALLIGATOR-1980-12 years after a stupid father flushes a baby alligator down the toilet, body parts and dead dogs are found by police in the sewer system. Detective Madison (Robert Forster) and his jerky new partner Kelly (Perry Lang) investigate. When Kelly is killed, everyone including his chief (Michael Gazzo) thinks Madison is nuts and incompetent because his partner before Kelly was also killed. Snake expert Dr. Kendall (Robin Riker) isn't much help. 

The first victim is a pet shop owner (Sydney Lassick) who's illegally supplying dogs for experiments. After a sanctimonious reporter (Bart Baverman) is killed and some of his photos show an alligator, an all-out manhunt is launched. The giant lizard bites off the leg of a policeman. The mayor (Jack Carter) calls in Col. Brock (Henry Silva), a pompous big game hunter. Madison ties the mutant to Slade Industrial, run by old fart Mr. Slade (Dean Jagger) who had ties with the corrupt mayor. 

The best part is when the alligator crashes Slade's daughter's wedding. Sue Lyon (in her last movie) has a small role as a reporter as does Mike Mazurki. John Sayles wrote the clever script and Lewis Teague directed before he made bigger budgeted films like CUJO (1983), CAT'S EYE (1985) and THE JEWEL OF THE NILE (1985).

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Lon Clowns Around Again

 

 (imdb)

HE WHO GETS SLAPPED-1924-In Paris, scientist Paul Beaumont (Lon Chaney) proves his theories thanks in part to his wife Marie (Ruth King) and his rich benefactor The Baron (Marc McDermott) but the Baron steals not only Beaumont's discoveries but also his wife. Beaumont is disgraced and laughed at by an academy of old farts after The Baron calls him insane and slaps him. His wife insults and slaps him too. They are really an evil pair. 

Since his wife calls him a clown, he becomes one and 5 years later he's working at a circus as "He", a clown who makes the audience laugh by being slapped. Also there are daredevil rider Benzano (John Gilbert) who falls madly in love with Consuelo (Norma Shearer), the daughter of the shabby Count Mancini (Tully Marshall), who's to be his bareback rider. One night during his act, which despite having the audience in stitches, is rather cruel and morbid to me, “He” spies The Baron in the crowd. He also sees him talking to Consuelo, who He of course has now taken a shine to. Later, Benzano and Consuelo meet secretly. They are in love but Mancini convinces The Baron to marry her. When He declares his love for Consuelo she laughs thinking it a joke. He overhears the secret marriage proposal and sets up some deadly revenge. A scary clown with a globe shows up occasionally. 

This is another silent tragic revenge tale with Chaney once again giving his all in the sympathetic but vengeful lead role. Lead actress Shearer was married to MGM co-owner Irving Thalberg who co-produced the film with Swedish born director Victor Sjorstrom (THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE (1921)) who also co-adapted it from a Russian play. Co-star John Gilbert was on the verge of becoming one of the biggest stars of the silent era.

 (imdb)

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Argentina

 

 

 (imdb)

EL VAMPIRO NEGRO-1953-This is essentially an Argentine remake/adaptation of Fritz Lang's M with a timid man who is actually a child killer. There are some side stories about the prosecutor who's hunting him, who roughs up a lot of suspects and puts the moves on a night club dancer Rita who rejects his advances. (His wife is an invalid) He plans to have her daughter taken away but "the vampire" (as the killer is known) kidnaps the girl. He's eventually trapped in the sewers by the city's beggars. 

Director Ramon Vinoly Barretto was highly regarded in his home country but died suddenly in 1970 at age 54.

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Lives Up To It's Title!

 

 (imdb)

THE ABOMINATION-1986-This low budget horror movie starts off with all the bloody Andy Milligan like gore, blood and dismemberment scenes shown all at once as a guy's nightmares. Then the guy Cody (Scott Davis) talks to a psychiatrist about how he had to kill a woman in a graveyard because "the abomination" is controlling him. He blames his mother because she watched Brother Fogg (Rex Morton), a TV evangelist. At night when Cody goes on a date, mom coughs up a tumor of some kind that's alive and later it crawls into Cody's mouth while he's asleep. He must be a sound sleeper! 

Next day Cody and his girlfriend go out drinking beer and drag racing in his pickup. Now a slimy creature lives under Cody's bed and makes him kill so the creature can have blood. Mom decides Cody needs an exorcism and goes to Brother Fogg (obviously a complete phony) and he agrees to do one. Later, in a very long scene, the creature takes over the kitchen, appearing in the cupboard, under the sink and in a washing machine and kills mom. After Fogg is eaten taking a dump, Cody dismembers another guy in a junkyard. He chases a woman in a graveyard and slits her throat. The gory (but still terrible) sfx get more disgusting as it goes on. In his kitchen he feeds body parts and entrails to Audrey....I mean to the abomination. His girlfriend comes by and kills him but the monster eats her. Mom's doc visits and becomes the new host while Cody (somehow still alive?) pleads his innocence over the closing credits. 

This is a low budget badly made little gore film that's fairly entertaining if you like senseless badly acted and directed puke films. Writer/director Bret McCormick directed one of the stories in TABLOID (1989) and made other mindless stuff.

 (imdb)

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Lewton/Karloff

 

 (TCM)

ISLE OF THE DEAD-1945-Another great Lewton/Karloff collaboration directed by Mark Robson. 

Hard-nosed and dedicated to his country Gen. Pherides (Karloff; also in THE BODY SNATCHER th same year)) and US reporter Oliver Davis (Mark Cramer) unintentionally visit the home of Swiss doctor Albercht (Jason Robards) who has a strange superstitious housekeeper (Helene Thimig) and some guests: diplomat St. Aubyn (future TV Batman butler Alan Napier), his wife Mary (Katherine Emery; later in THE MAZE (1953)), salesman Andrew Robbins (uncredited Skelton Knaggs) and the enigmatic Thea (Ellen Drew). Everything is ok until Robbins dies, and a doctor (Ernst Duetsch) says he has the plague. Pherides decides everyone must stay. The doctor says it should pass in a few days but Albrecht says it might be a wolf spirit disguised as a human. He and Pherides) make a wager, Albrecht will pray to Hermes for a cure and Pherides can put his faith in science.

 After St. Aubyn dies, his wife confesses to the doctor that she has a morbid obsession with being buried alive. He says he will do everything to make sure this will never happen. But then he dies. Somehow Davis and Thea fall in love. When Mary seems to die, Pherides blames Thea. They put Mary in a crate like coffin and of course she's not dead. Then the general falls ill. Mary escapes her tomb and now mad goes looking for people to kill. Her first victim is the housekeeper. Pherides thinks the killer is Thea. Mary stabs the general, then falls off a cliff. Pherides dies believing the evil spirit has been destroyed. 

Haunting thriller with Karloff leading a good cast. Ellen Drew later starred with Vincent Price in Sam Fuller's THE BARON OF ARIZONA (1950). Jason Robards was in BEDLAM with Karloff the next year.

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Supernatural TV Pilot

 

 (imdb)

THE GHOST OF SIERRA DE COBRE-1964-Architect/psychic investigator Nelson Orlon (Martin Landau) is called in by Vivia Mandore (Diane Baker in Hitchcock's MARNIE and Castle's STRAITJACKET the same year), wife of Henry Mandore (Tim Simcox), a wealthy blind man who's getting strange phone calls from his dead mother. After Paulina sees a horrifying ghost, Orlon investigates. Their new housekeeper, the spooky Paulina (Dame Judith Anderson) hangs around and doesn't like Orlon because he called the ghost of her town a fake. Things are not as they seem. Leonard Stone as Mandore's business partner and Nellie Britt as another housekeeper are skeptical. 

Alternatively spooky and talky, this is a failed TV pilot turned into a full-length movie by writer Joseph Stefano (who did the screenplay for PYSCHO (1960) and many OUTER LIMITS episodes).  He took over directing (his only time as a director) when original director Robert Stevens fell ill. Future Academy Award winner Landau was in an episode of "The Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits" the same year. 

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Lorre on the Tube

 

 (mubi)

SCREEN DIRECTORS PLAYHOUSE-"No.5 Checked Out"-1956-Mary, a deaf woman (Teresa Wright; PRIDE OF THE YANKEES, SHADOW OF A DOUBT) left alone by her father (Ralph Moody) in an off-season lodge is unaware that two men she's allowed to stay in a cabin are bank robbers. One guy, Barney (William Talman) was just the driver but his partner Willie (Peter Lorre) killed a man. Barney kind of falls for Mary but Willie has other plans. It ends tragically and a little abruptly. 

But still a nice little suspense drama co-written and director by Ida Lupino. Make up by Jack Pierce. Eastman Kodak presented the TV version Screen Directors Playhouse which ran on NBC for 32 episodes from October 1955 to June 1956 (although the last few episodes ran on ABC). It was produced by the Hal Roach Studios. 

In 1953, co-star Talman played the psycho killer in THE HITCHHIKER, also directed by Lupino. In 1957, he began a long run on TV's "Perry Mason" as prosecuting attorney Hamilton Burger.

 (imdb)

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Shark

 

 (themoviedb.org)

FROM THE DEPTHS-2020-A lesbian (Angelica Briones) is plagued by guilt, hallucinations, insomnia and mood swings stemming from a shark attack she survived but in which her sister (Marissa Godinez) and boyfriend (Taylor Jorgensen) were killed. (Yes, even though she is in a relationship with a woman named Roberta (Terra Strong), she once had a boyfriend) Both her dead sister and dead boyfriend visit her and warn her against Roberta but it's obviously someone is up to no good and trying to drive her crazy. Her shrink seems weird but there's a twist ending that explains everything. Written and directed by Jorge Montesinos.

Bad Imitation

 

 (themoviedb.com)

THOR: END OF DAYS-2020-In this Marvel comics knock off, Norse god/superhero Thor (Max Aria) battles his arch nemesis Loki (Mike Milian) for the fate of the world or something like that. The acting, script and sfx are terrible. By Odin, this sucks! 

Writer/director Mike Shapiro had previously made GOD OF THUNDER (2015) which also featured Aria in the lead role, so I guess this is a sequel.

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Slammer Girls

 

 (imdb)

GIRLS IN PRISON-1956-Prison pastor Rev. Fulton (Richard Denning) tries to help Ann Carson (Joan Taylor; EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS the same year)), in the slammer for a crime she didn't commit. She's in a cell with no nonsense Jenny (Adele Jurgens, in one of her last movie roles), nutty Dorothy (Phyllis Coates) and lesbian Melanee (Helen Gilbert). The matron (Jane Darwell; Ma Joad in THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940)) seems pretty ineffectual but Fulton still wants to help. Old time actress Mae Marsh plays Grandma Edwards. Meanwhile, a bank robber (Lance Fuller) threatens Ann's con man father (Raymond Hatton) trying to find some still missing money everyone thinks Ann has. 

Typical 50's moral drama directed by Edward L. Cahn who also made THE SHE CREATURE (also with the acting challenged Fuller) and SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROCK! the same year, both penned by GIRLS screenwriter Lou Rusoff who also wrote IT CONQUERED THE WORLD for Roger Corman in '56. Denning, Jurgens and Hatton had all been in Corman's THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED the year before. Alex Gordon was one of the producers along with Samuel Z. Arkoff and James Nicholsen. Music by Roland Stein.

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werewolfery

 

 (imdb)

PROJECT: METALBEAST-1995-In 1974, psychotic (bad actor) CIA agent Butler (John Marzilli) injects himself with blood from a werewolf in Hungry. After he's killed, head guy Miller (Barry Bostwick) covers it up. In 1994, a cancer research scientist (Kim Delaney) is ordered to work on a frozen wolf body (Kane Hodder) which after much talk and inaction, comes back to life and kills. Awful violent nonsense from director Alessandro De Gaetano (UFO: TARGET EARTH (1974)).

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Mrs. Dracula

 

 (imdb)

DRACULA'S WIDOW-1988-Raymond, a weird museum owner (Lenny Von Donlen) receives some crates of artifacts from Romania. He seems to have one extra crate. While he drinks brandy and watches "Nosferatu", some idiots break into his basement. It turns out the 6th crate contains a female vampire (pale looking Sylvia Kristel) who kills one of the robbers then bites Raymond. Later he wants to put a stake in her but can't. When his girlfriend Jenny (Rachel Jones) visits he's transfixed by her neck. A stupid cop Lannon (Josef Sommers) investigates. The vampire claims to be Dracula's wife Vanessa and almost loses it when Raymond tells her Van Helsing has killed Dracula. At some kind of devil worshiping gang bang where a woman is tortured, Vanessa turns into a monster and kills all the members.

 Later Van Helsing's grandson (Stefan Schnabel) shows up and puts stakes in some corpses. Then Vanessa kills Lannon's partner and turns Van Helsing into a vampire, Raymond is arrested for the murders. Lannon and Jenny team up to try and stop the widow's killing spree and save Raymond. 

This is a pretty shoddy affair with strange out of place close-ups with a bright red background and bad sfx. It's over the top but I'm not sure if this was intentional or not. Writer/director Marc Copolla (brother of Nicolas Cage and nephew of you know who) plays a victim and George Stover has a cameo as a coroner.

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Are You With Me, Dr. Wu?

 

 (imdb)

MR. WU-1927-Mandarin Wu (Lon Chaney) hires American Mr. Muir (Claude King) to teach his son "the ways of the west". When young Wu grows to manhood, he (also Chaney) marries but his wife dies after giving birth to their daughter Nang Ping (Rene Adoree'). Years later young Wu is a powerful mandarin and Nang Ping, a precocious young woman who will soon wed a man she's never met. Everything seems OK until she accidentally meets Basil Gregory (Ralph Forbes), the son of a racist diplomat (Holmes Herbert). They fall in love and have secret meetings in the lotus garden. Only her friend Loo Song (Anna May Wong) knows. When she meets his parents, Nang realizes their romance is doomed. The gardener tells Wu he saw them together so in anger Wu kills him! Then he watches Nang as she and Basil declare their love. Later saying Nang has disgraced the family Wu kills her to save her soul. Then he tortures Basil and torments Mrs. Gregory (Louise Dresser) by making her choose who should live or die: her son or daughter (Gertrude Olmstead). 

Strange little drama with Chaney once again carrying the picture as the honorable Wu. Ironically, director William Nigh years later directed the “Mr. Wong” series of films with Boris Karloff. Lead actress Renee Adoree' (from France) was a big star at the time but later contracted tuberculosis and died in 1933.

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Aztec Hero

 

 (imdb)

THE PUMAMAN-1980-Jane Dotson (Sydne Rome) discovers that an ancient mask of The Pumaman has alien technology in it. However, two stuck up guys don't want anyone to know so one of them Kobras (Donald Pleasence) hypnotizes her. He then sets his sights on killing The Pumaman, an alien protector with "god like" powers connected to an Aztec legend.

 In England, where several Americans have been killed, an American archaeologist Prof. Tony Farms (Walter George Alton) is a smug wise ass who likes to jog. He's pursued by a big guy Vadinho (Miguel Angel Fuentes; also in FITZCARRALDO (1982)) who throws him out a window. Farms survives and is told he's the Pumaman but doesn't believe it. Later he's invited by Jane to visit her father at the Swedish embassy but it's really a ruse by Kobras to find out if Farms is the P-man. When Farms puts on a gold belt, he becomes The Pumaman, in a superhero costume and cape. He must save the world from Kobras and his conquest scheme and rescue Jane from his clutches. 

This Italian feature directed by Alberto Di Martino (THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER 1963)) has very bad sfx.

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Devil Kids

 

 

 (imdb)

THE HORRIBLE HOUSE ON THE HILL-(aka PEOPLETOYS)-1974-A van crashes, but 5 kids who were passengers survive. Meanwhile, a crude dictatorial jerk nicknamed Papa Doc (Gene Evans) bosses everyone around: his wormy assistant Harvey (Sorrell Brooke) and his alcoholic wife, his own bitchy wife Lovely (Carolyn Steller), his daughter Julie (Joan McCall) and her fiancé Rick (Taylor Lacher) and dimwitted servant Ralph (John Durren). The kids trudge through snow not knowing that one of the adult passengers didn't die and is following them. When he catches up with them, the kids kill him in a long very slow-motion scene. It's obvious these aren't your average kids. In fact, they are homicidal and have escaped from a mental institution! One girl (Gail Smale) thinks she's a nun and another likes fire. A young black kid (Tierre Turner) talks like he's an army officer. Another boy David (Leif Garrett) just seems weird, and a very young girl Moe (Dawn Lyn) seems normal. Poor Ralph gets hanged trying to fix the generator. Then Harvey gets an axe in the back courtesy of David. Later the nun and Moe put piranhas in Lovely's bubble bath. Harvey's wife is set on fire. After killing Doc and making a snowman out of him, they kill Rick & Julie, and go off to find "new toys". 

This very strange but pretty well-made horror film (with good acting) was directed by Sean MacGregor (CRY BLOOD, APACHE (1974)). Leif Garrett had a brief career in the late '70's as a teen pop idol. His sister Dawn Lyn had played Dodie on the later seasons of TV's MY THREE SONS. This played on cable TV as THE DEVIL TIMES 5.

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Nigel

 

NIGEL THE PSYCHOPATH AT LARGE-1994-How come when people make lists of the worst movies ever made, a garbage film like this isn't there. Well I guess most people haven't seen it. Terrible editing and direction, zombified acting, loud noises, atrocious gore sfx with splattered blood that looks like it was squeezed out of a tube and worst of all the gas mask wearing killer preys on kids and uses a weed whip to kill. One kid has his arm severed and his stump spurts blood. He kills adults too. Meanwhile some yokels are hunting for him. When one of them accidentally kills a kid, his partner just says, "don't worry about it". Actors laugh and smile. A fight scene involving a broom seems intentionally stupid but I'm not so sure. 

The end features a policeman who looks like a high school student, a guy in drag and a drunk who thinks the drag is his ex-girlfriend! What happens when kids who've seen FRIDAY THE13th too much get a hold of a camera! Director Jim Larsen also made a movie called BUTTCRACK (1998).

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The Stoned Movie

 

 (imdb)

CURSE OF THE STONE HAND-1965-Jerry Warren took two Chilean horror films (one from 1945, the other from 1946!)) and combined them into this kooky anthology using an abandoned house for its connection.

The first story is based on the short story "The Suicide Club" by Robert Louis Stevenson. A heavily in debt man joins a gambling club with some very deadly rules. He finds himself in bigger trouble with his own life at stake.

 In the second story, a guy named Charles dominates the home life of his sister. When brother Jamie returns from school, he finds Charles has married his fiancée, Ruth. A handyman (spliced in John Carradine) talks to his partner about a secret room in the basement. Meanwhile Jamie kisses Ruth and she admits she doesn't know why she married his brother. This isn't really a supernatural tale and the "Dorian Gray" like ending seems tacked on. 

Warren regular Katherine Victor also appears in some Warren added scenes.She was in Warren's THE WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN the next year.  Bruno Ve Sota is the uncredited narrator.

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Atomic Bug Zapper

 

LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE-1974-After a woman runs nude in the streets of London, Edna (Christine Galbo) and George (Ray Lovelock, who was FIDDLER ON THE ROOF in 1971) meet when she backs into his motorcycle and it needs repairs. They get lost trying to find her destination in the English countryside. George leaves Edna alone in the car to ask directions and runs into a group from the Ministry of Agriculture trying to kill insects with ultrasonic waves. Edna is attacked by a zombie-like man but she escapes. A local says it sounds like a loony who's dead. 

Meanwhile Edna's weird photographer brother-in-law Martin (Jose Lifante) takes pictures of a waterfall while his drug addicted wife, Edna's sister Katie (Jeannine Mestre), is terrorized by the zombie guy who kills Martin. A grouchy, hippie hating police inspector (Arthur Kennedy) investigates and accuses Katie of the murder). He doesn't believe Edna when she says the same man who attacked her sister attacked her too. She and George go to a cemetery to check out the dead guy's grave and are attacked by some newly resurrected zombies. They and a police man get trapped in a mausoleum. The cop tries to get to a radio he dropped outside and is killed and eaten. Later when another cop is killed, the stupid inspector arrests George for murder. It would seem a new nuclear powered bug zapper is causing the dead to rise. In the end, Kennedy kills George thinking he's responsible for all the deaths but George gets even…..

Slowly paced horror has some gory deaths but Kennedy's character is ridiculous. Partially filmed in UK, this Italian production was directed by Jorge Grau. Also known as THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE.

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Door To Hell

 

 (imdb)

NIGHTWORLD: DOOR TO HELL-2017-Brett Anderson (Jason London; DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993)), an American living in Bulgaria and grieving over the death of his wife, takes a job in a mysterious apartment building where he seems to be monitoring an empty room. He reports to two odd balls Martin & Goron, and Jacob (Robert Englund), a blind man. They seem to be afraid of something in the room. Apparently, the apartment is located on top of one of the 7 gates of Nightworld, the land of the dead. Their gate is guarded by a 150-year-old architect who's ready to die and then the gate will be opened. Jack has several bad dreams and hallucinations including a bloody one while having sex with local gal Zara (Lorina Kamburova; also in LEATHERFACE the same year). The climax is ok but it rips off Fulci. It also has some similarities to THE SENTINEL (1977). It was directed by Chilean born directed Patricio Valladares. Female lead Lorina Kamburova died of complications of CoVid-19 in 2021 at age 29.

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Alien Cover Up

 

 (imdb)

WAVELENGTH-1983-Iris (Cherie Currie) and musician Bobby (Robert Carradine) hook up at a bar. Iris seems to get a vibe from a secret government lab where some aliens are being held. Dan (Keenan Wynn) shows them a secret entrance. The duo arrive just as an autopsy is being performed on an alien and Iris freaks out. Yes, a secret government installation is housing 4 aliens who were shot down and believed to be dead but they are only in some kind of self-induced hibernation. The scientists all excited when they learn of Iris's connection and begin a battery of tests which culminates in the discovery that the aliens (now down to 3 since one was dissected) carry a deadly disease. "If you could go anywhere in the universe, would you come to this loony bin to set up a plantation?", someone asks. The inept jerks plan to bury the aliens alive (along with Iris & Bobby) but Bobby frees them from their cryogenic tanks. They highball it out to the desert with help from Dan and two native American friends. The Navy and The Marines plan on destroying them but the aliens (little bald guys played by kids) get help from their home world. 

This is a modestly made but entertaining little Sci-Fi film from New World Pictures. Director/writer Mike Gray had previously written THE CHINA SYNDROME (1979).

 (imdb)

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