Zontar, la cosa que llegó de Venus

Zontar, the Thing from Venus (1966)

* (out of 4)

Incredibly bad science fiction film has an alien attaching itself to a scientist in hopes of taking over the world. Will it or will John Agar save the day? This thing has a pretty big cult following but I can't see why. The film is just downright bad without any of the laughs that usually come from these types of films. Poor acting, poor special effects and just an overall poor movie. I'm sure some kids enjoyed this when they watched it on television back in the day but nothing in it holds up today. This film belong in Uranus, not Venus.

Zontar is a being from Venus who has been communicating with Keith--telling him about the pending invasion of the Earth. However, instead of trying to stop him, Keith aids Zontar with promises that he'll make the Earth a paradise for all. The invasion involves turning off all human machines as well as injecting key officials with little pins in the back of their necks--making them slaves to the will of Zontar.

I am a "bad movie junkie"--I love watching grade-z horror and sci-fi films of the 50s and 60s, so it's natural I'd watch ZONTAR. However, even for a bad movie, this one is really, really bad--B-A-D, bad!! Most of the reason for this is that it was apparently directed by a monkey, as it got the absolute worst performances from everyone. Rarely will you hear and see more robotic acting--with many "actors" clearly having difficulty reading their cue cards!! Keith, the idiot who works for Zontar and is the key actor is particularly inept. His delivery is just bizarre--like he's reading and has no idea what the context is--with no emotion or conviction. The General ain't much better--as, once again, he's clearly reading from a script and it's badly dubbed over his actions on several occasions. It's sad when perhaps the best acting is done by John Agar--the uncrowned King of Bad Films. He overacts and yells some of his lines, but at least he had emotion and energy--some things that few others in the film showed. The only other emotional actor is Keith's wife, who seems to think she's playing Ophelia from "Hamlet"--as she makes little soliloquies and behaves as if she's stark raving mad! As for the rest of the film, the plot has been done better many other times (especially in INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and an episode of "SCTV"), the sets are cheap, the "monsters" look like stuffed owls and the entire project has the look of a film made for YouTube by 12 year-olds! The only reason to watch this film is if you LIKE bad movies and want to laugh and marvel at the total ineptness of the film. Also, try watching Peter Graves in IT CONQUERED THE WORLD. ZONTAR is a remake of this earlier film, but it, too, is pretty silly stuff--and you have to see the monster to believe it!!

The reason for this film's existence is that with the advent of colour TV viewers ceased being choosy about what to watch as long as it was in colour.

Hence this quickie remake of 'It Conquered the World' starring 'B' movie mainstay John Agar and our old friend Bronson Caverns under the alias "the old Hot Springs Cave", which if memory serves follows the plot of the original pretty closely since the producers were obviously too cheap to come up with a new plot, as evidenced by Agar riding a bicycle rather than drive a car on the pretext - it says here - that all terrestrial power has been neutralised; while the military attribute the strange occurrences to "some kind of communist conspiracy"

It certainly is bad - with the cool name 'Zontar' promising something rather more impressive than the enormous boggle-eyed bat that we actually see - but the addition of colour gives it a glossier look with John Agar wearing a sharp suit and the ladies in chic sixties hairstyles; while the employment of negative printing (SLIGHT SPOILER COMING:) embellishes a couple of shots near the end.

Dreadful remake of a B picture called It Conquered the World made by Roger Corman and starring Beverly Garland. This version has the king of Z's Larry Buchanan directing and a tired looking John Agar starring. Agar is in fact the only cast member that might be accused of being or having been a thespian. He also looks like he is just able to keep his composure every time he says the word Zontar or looks at a lobster-like bat alien "flying" around. Just like in the It Conquered the World, a man has contacted an alien from Venus who uses the human as a means to secure knowledge so that it can come to Earth and begin to control it. Much of the plot is the same as Buchanan had agreed to remake some of the old AIP films(like he did with The Eye Creatures - a blatant remake of Invasion of the Saucermen). I like the old, cheesy Corman film. It had heart amidst no budget, and it had talent in Corman and Garland. I even learned to like the absurd triangle, down-to-the-ground Venusian. But this film doesn't have any of that same magic. Buchanan isn't the worst director in the world, but he just isn't very good either. This movie is so cheap that nothing looks like any real care or money went into it. That is patently obvious when you see the horrid acting by all concerned except Agar who is just reasonable at best. Tony Huston as Keith Ritchie, the man responsible for bringing Zontar to our planet, is easily the worst. Nothing he says has any conviction to it whatsoever. Susan Bjurman plays his wife and is just as awful. How about the scene where she she says she didn't want to marry a monster. I was crying from laughter - not the kind of laughs that were meant to be intentional. Buchanan DOES try for laughs here and there with some soldiers, but the humour is real lame and tired material. Special effects? I mentioned the most dazzling already -- alien "bats" that look like flying lobsters and unconvincingly land on the back of necks. The other primary special effect is the alien itself, and I will be completely honest when I say that I much prefer the alien from It Conquered the World for its comparative creativity and realism. If you have seen that film, then you know just how bad it must be in this one. This film stinks to be sure but is full of great laughs in a not-in-good way. Just listen to the dialog, "This will take a second" says Huston, Agar, with as stoic a face as possible, returns and says, "I have a second." Most of the dialog is filled with similar creative juices.

Seems like this is a little muddled. AIP-TV needed some truly inexpensive features to pad out a syndication package, and Buchanan ended up with the job. Reports vary, but they apparently used scripts that were "readily available", with the following results:

It Conquered The World - Zontar, The Thing From Venus

Invasion Of The Saucer Men - The Eye Creatures

Pajama Party - Mars Needs Women The She Creature - Creature Of Destruction

The Day The World Ended - In The Year 2889

Pretty mindbending to experience these, when unprepared. I was dozing in and out of "Zontar" the first time, and I woke up thinking I had dreamt most of it.

I'll have to accept the common thought that much was filmed around Dallas, but I have to say that it sure looks like Bronson Canyon much of the time...heh

--Judex.1--