Nastie

Why film a movie if you are not going to provide light for the cameras. The film would have been about seven minutes long if it were not for the shots of people walking through the woods. I enjoyed seeing the typical sixties dress and the 60's cars. I couldn't help but ask myself what self respecting kid would drive a Tornado, though they were neat cars. The music was tedious and repetitive. Ten minutes of people dancing in the dark was too much. I've seen worse acting, but the manikin should have had top billing. At least it kept it's mouth closed. I think the motivation for making the movie must have been that someone had a lot of film available that had gone beyond the expiration date and they didn't want to see it go to waste. It went to waste.

There is one adjective that describes everything about this film - acting, plot, effects, continuity, etc. - and that word is poor. The government wants to asses the effects of space travel on certain organisms but the capsule crashes and a mutant something-or-other (looks like a guy in an ape suit with the top of a football helmet over his face) wreaks havoc around the accident scene, which includes a favorite place for the window-fogging, partying set. Therefore, some young people - as well as a law enforcement officer - are among the creature's victims. You gotta be extremely unparticular about how you spend your time - or rich, if you spend any money - to view this epic.

This cheap and rubbish film is about a NASA test rocket that is sent into space with a cargo of animals. It vanishes for a while then unexpectedly returns, crash landing in a forest, unleashing a vicious mutant creature.

Like many films of this type, Night Fright, features dumb teenagers boogieing on down to 60's surf music before being killed. None of the murders, however, are even remotely memorable, as we don't really see anything. One thing we do see, however, is that one of the teenagers appears to be about 40 years old and sports a quite impressively silly haircut.

For a creature feature to work, it really has to present its monster to the viewer properly. In this film, however, we only get the briefest glimpses of the monster. It seems to sort of resemble the alien from Robot Monster. But I'm not sure; as the photography was so dark I simply couldn't make out what the hell was going on a lot of the time. Although, my gut feeling was that I probably wasn't missing very much.

Something in the forest is killing and mutilating the denizens of a rural Texas community. Could it have something to do with the nearby crash of a recently launched rocket? Probably. Sheriff John Agar leads an investigation as the obligatory group of wild local teens get their kicks in the danger zone.

Besides being shot far too dark, NIGHT FRIGHT is technically not much worse than many other regional indie horrors of the period. The worst thing about it is that it just isn't very interesting, and when the wheels are finally greased for some good cheap thrills, the delivery is too little too late.

Yep, NIGHT FRIGHT is kind of a snore. However...the clothes, hair, and interior furnishings are hilariously dated, so if you have an aesthetic taste for kitsch Americana, you'll at least find it a wealth of amusing mid-century retrocities. Most of the production crew are noted for their contributions to the notoriously low-grade cinema of director LARRY BUCHANAN, so it's no surprise that it looks a lot like something from his inglorious filmography.

3.5/10. Not recommended.

An unidentified object crashes -off camera- to Earth, and a hideous creature is unleashed upon an unsuspecting, rural Texas population! When a young couple is found mutilated, Sheriff Clint Crawford (John Agar) is on the case. With help from his deputy and a local reporter, Crawford searches for clues, for what seems like a month. Luckily, monster tracks are found. Then, the exhausting search continues.

Meanwhile, the town "kids", led by troublemaker, Rex Bowers (Frank Jolly) have decided to have a "dance-in" down at the beach, in spite of Crawford's warning! There they go, dancing like the carefree, 30 year old "kids" they are!

Wasn't there supposed to be a monster of some sort in this movie?

More dancing commences.

Finally, the beast attacks in full, obscured sight! As the hairy horror approaches, the kids dance on.

NIGHT FRIGHT is a tedious affair, saving its big, monster-on-a-rampage "thrills" for the dance-free denouement. As usual, for Agar's later projects, he easily outshines the other "actors" involved.

EXTRA POINTS FOR: The very cool cars on display!...