User reviews

Dull, cheap sci-fi thriller, made with an almost total lack of conviction (a control room full of computers and other devices used to receive and decipher messages from outer space is run by only ONE MAN, and is VERY poorly guarded at night), and full of campy sound effects. Christopher Lee is not only wasted, but he also gives one of his few "I'm here strictly for the money" performances. (*1/2)

At the moment I'm writing this review, the world is faced with the Corona-virus pandemic. Many countries, mine included, are in lockdown and the immediate future doesn't look too hopeful, so I though it was perhaps appropriate to watch a Sci-Fi/horror film with a title like "End of the World".

Well, when the world does come to an end for real, whether due to Corona or another biblical catastrophe, I sincerely hope it won't be as slow and boring to sit through as this dud of a film. There are two noteworthy scenes in this film; - namely the pre-credits opening sequence and the cataclysm-montage during the climax. Everything in between is painfully dull, difficult to follow and plain uninteresting. The almighty Christopher Lee stars as a priest, but his persona is taken over by an evil alien bent on destroying the world from within a secluded little monastery. It's up to a clueless scientist and his wife Lolita to save the planet. In other words, we're doomed!

The Earth is destined to be no more thanks to Father Pergado and a bunch of Nuns. Christopher Lee (who has since said that he was duped in to appearing in this by his producers who told him loads of great actors were involved) is Father Pergado and gets to do his usual serious and scary routine. The cast are not too bad, though most have now retired from acting. The film has terrible sound effects (mainly created from pressing keys on an old computer it seems) and it ridiculously pondering at times - showing a scene of the sky, for instance, for what feels like hours at a time. Despite this the story is pretty humorous in a world-is-doomed sort of way and the production is adequate. Interestingly one scene features Albert Band and wife Jackie; Meda Band; Writer Frank Ray Perilli and Charles Band's assistant Bennah Burton. Despite its plodding nature I genuinely wanted to see how it all worked out and thus quite liked it.

I rented this movie as part of the mini-series "cult video", hoping for as much fun as I had with "Laserblast" or "creepozoids" that are also part of the edition. Unfortunately, this movie cannot keep up with those gems. Even though it is stupid enough, it is all in all just boring, and moments of fun (like the seconds where the "true face" of the aliens is shown) are too rare to make it up. I have to say, however, that the concept of destroying the whole earth is somewhat audacious, and the movie even delivers one scene of odd true horror, that is when the couple watches the end of the world (earthquakes, inundations) on some TV screens like from the distance ...

Christopher Lee is one of my favorite actors! I'm trying to view all of his work. He has been known to single-handedly save movies with his presence. Unfortunately, this is not one of them. This movie suffers from a low budget and it's production values are disturbing. Please...for the love of Christopher....avoid this film!

"A scientist discovers signals from space that appear to carry information concerning a series of seemingly unrelated natural disasters, occurring across the globe. Hoping to discover the source of these signals and who's behind them, the scientist and his wife set out on a trek to locate the intended recipient of the signals. What the couple eventually discovers is a small remote convent with occupants who are not really who they appear to be," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

Kirk Scott (as Andrew Boran) is the scientist who intercepts alien messages on his computer. He suspects a series of "Large Earth Disruptions" may be connected to the weird space static. Mr. Scott and pretty blonde wife Sue Lyon (as Sylvia Boran) investigate the mysterious signals from outer space. They discover priestly, but creepy Christopher Lee (as "Father Pergado"), and other silliness. Given that, "End of the World" is remarkably dull.

*** End of the World (1977) John Hayes ~ Kirk Scott, Sue Lyon, Christopher Lee

After witnessing a man's death in a bizarre accident, a coffee machine explodes sending him through a window and into a neon sign where is electrocuted , Father Pergado (Christopher Lee) encounters his alien double bent on world conquest and he then retreats to a convent . Meanwhile , a marriage formed by a scientist (Kirk Scott) and his wife (Sue Lyon) are investigating weird signals from beyond space , it leads them the convent where are some nuns and the Doppelganger Father Pergado who have malignant objectives .

This laughable below average Sci-Fi deals with an extraterrestrial invasion from outer space formed by aliens plotting to destroy the Earth while disguised as religious figures . It's realized in a television style , terribly developed and slowly paced . This is a low-budgeted film and plenty of stock-shots about disasters and catastrophes . Protagonist duo is mediocre as Kirk Scott and the famous ¨Lolita¨, Sue Lyon , who had a bad career . Stoic and serious acting by the incombustible Christopher Lee , still today successfully playing , such as ¨Dark Shadows¨and ¨The Hobbit¨ . Support cast is very good , but really wasted , being featured by experimented veterans in brief interventions such as Dean Jagger as Collins , Lew Ayres as Beckerman and Macdonald Carey . Middling cinematography and electronic musical score by means of synthesizer , being composed by Andrew Belling and Joel Goldsmith , Jerry Goldsmith's son . The picture was produced by Charles Band and absurdly directed by John Hayes . John was a writer, director, usually produced and edited as well as often penned the scripts for his films , and occasionally actor who made a wide variety of outlandish and obscure low-budget independent pictures throughout the 60's and 70's . John made his feature length debut with the interesting 1961 drama "The Grass Eater." Hayes went on to make a diverse array of drive-in exploitation outings in such sub-genres as World War II potboilers ("Shell Shock," "The Cut-Throats"), rowdy redneck romps ("The Farmer's Other Daughter," "All the Lovin' Kinfolk"), sleazy crime fare ("Convicts' Women," "Mama's Dirty Girls"), Terror ("Dream No Evil," "Tomb of the undead," "Grave of the Vampire" , ¨Garden of dead¨), low-brow comedy ("Up Yours - A Rockin' Comedy" , ¨Five minutes to love¨), Drama (Sweet trash , Fandango) . John pops up in bit parts in the wholesome Disney family features "The Shaggy D.A." and "Treasure of the Matecumbe." His last directing credit was an episode of the horror anthology TV series "Tales from the Darkside." ¨. ¨The End of the world¨ results to be his only Sci-Fi movie and is considered a bottom of barrel flick . It might be good for a few , for the Christopher Lee hardcore fans . Rating : 3,5/10 . Below average .

I saw this movie in the theater when I was a kid and always remember it as my first experience with getting ripped off by a horrible movie with a good commercial. The commercial was great, but it I found out later that it had every explosion or 'special effect' in the entire movie (about 4) and even some that weren't in the movie. There was some sort of plot relating to the aliens but the aliens were never actually shown in the movie as far as I remember. It was clearly a case of someone making a buck off a cheap movie designed to scam people. I guess my world of innocence ended that day, when I found out there were bad people out there who make bad bad movies.

A good deal of running around. A badly conceived adversary with very little complexity. A scientist who works in communications sending off signals into space and receiving them, gets caught up with aliens. Along with his pretty wife, he invades their territory and is given secrets about them. He becomes rather traitorous in the process. Granted, he is given little choice anyway. There is a scene where he gives them everything they want. This is a dull movie with lots of long stretches where little happens. The plot isn't technically bad. It's just that we are usually following a car, a trip through a woods, investigating a building. This is what editing is all about. I suppose the story wouldn't technically support much more. Not much here.

Don't let all the negative reviews fool you; this movie is a low-budget high tension thriller with aliens!!!

This movie is beautifully shot, getting you immersed into the 1970s setting and sucking you in... what if... all these natural disaster you see in the news are something bigger? This is no goverment conspiracy ..... the aliens are behind it!

Christopher Lee is not Dracula but a heartless alien... a role he plays to perfection!!

In this movie, everything explodes; pay phones, coffee machines, computers, Ford Thunderbirds, and paper mache planets!

If it seems boring, just let your mind fill the blanks.

I kind of liked this one, but please note: The last film I watched before this was The Alpha Incident, so maybe that film made this one seem good by comparison.

mooching a quarter from the chef, he heads to the phone, which promptly explodes, quickly followed by a water urn which showers the chef in boiling water, causing him to dive straight through a window. Dejected, Lee heads back to his church, whereupon he is greeted by himself. That's the first five minutes of this strange film. Weirdness like that draws me right in.

Meanwhile, some scientist guy is monitoring signals from outer space, and discovers a steady signal that he can somehow translate into English, and seems to predict a national disaster. Other signals from Earth are seemingly broadcast towards the source of this signal, and our hero quickly becomes obsessed with sorting out this mystery. Which is a shame, because his boss sends him on a lecture tour which severely hampers his investigations, but not before he translates another signal that seems to predict the eruption of a volcano in Africa…

Light on action but heavy in atmosphere and intrigue, with a tone of total desperation about it, End of the World seem to be a film that could only be made in the seventies. I'll warn you though: There's an awful lot of scenes of people wandering around in the dark (made darker still by the rough copies of the film going around) but instead of finding these boring I found them quite fitting to the rest of the film.

It's one half mystery and for the second half of the film it's all daft pseudo-science and humming, luminous machinery, set to an interesting electronic score. You should hear some of the crazy lines Lee and the other guy have to spout at each other. The cheap visual effects (of which there are plenty) and the ending just make this a hugely enjoyable pile of nonsense. If daft science and seventies nihilism are your thing, you'll get a kick out of this one. Although it's devoid of blood and gore and everyone else on here hated it.

This film gets a bad rep on this page here. Personally, I didn't think it was that bad at all. The main problem with End of the World (as every other review lets you know) is perhaps the movie's rudimentary script and the lack of trying to keep its audience stimulated. Though I do think it also works to the film's advantage.

The absence of action scenes and special effects combined with the often abysmal lighting creates a pretty cool ominous atmosphere. The soundtrack plays a big part here; without the dark, droning electronic ambiance and sound effects this movie would surely turn to a chore to sit through.

But there I was, end credits rolling, wide-awake and alert. In retrospect, a lot of the scenes were absolutely pointless, not bringing the ultra-simple plot forward (the story is seriously that of a 30-minute short film). Don't expect interesting characters, escaping tidal waves, thrilling suspense, lasers.... Here's what you get: a few explosions, stock footage and a cool set towards the end of the film. Deal with it, or go watch Star Wars.

If you don't mind low-key cinema, give End of the World a try. A lot of people here seemed to be expecting a disaster movie, given the title. This is essentially a movie that does not care about your thirst for vibrant cinema. It's cheap 70s science fiction. Oh yeah, and Christopher Lee is great as always!

Lee plays Father Pergado / Zindar - the good father of a church and Zindar the alien wanting to take over planet Earth - OK not really they are more like ET they just want to go home - they will stop at nothing to do so - they can be violent if need be. Their home planet is a peaceful utopia. OH Lee's character has quite a few nuns on his side - they are aliens too.

The film is not for everyone it is very slow and not a lot of action except for the beginning and the ending while in-between is slow. Most reviewers and critics do not like this film for various reasons.

There is something about this one I like but I am in the minority for liking the film a little bit and I guess mainly because Christopher Lee is in the film.

Really this film is worth 2 out of 10 stars but I have to give the film two more stars for the sheer novelty of it - Christopher Lee is an alien! 4/10

end of the world looks like a good movie on the box cover but be warned its bad.being a big fan of mega star actor Christopher lee i was fooled. like tentacles(77)a good cast does not mean it'll be a good film.the beginning looks promising then it turns to tedium,many parts of the movie are too dark to see whats going on.the rest of the cast is shown briefly like;Lew ayres,dean Jagger,and MacDonald Carey as a security guard.i would expect better from Charles band who made good fun movies like the re-animater and dolls.i heard Christopher lee was tricked into making this film.he was told his co stars were going to be Jose ferrer,john carridine,and dean Jagger.well dean Jagger is there but the other two never made it(lucky them)if you make a movie about the end of the world use a bigger budget and better storyline.dean Jagger went on to do two good movies afterwards;alligator(80)and game of death(79) sue Lyon(Lolita)is also in the movie minus her lollipop.if you are a glutton for punishment then watch end of the world i dare you to say awake during the whole movie.1 out of 10.

Professor Andrew Boran (Kirk Scott) deciphers a message from space. It tells of natural disasters and where they will happen. Nobody else seems to care that he found this message from space. What is more, is that he's discovered a transmission to space. Again, nobody else seems to care. So, Andrew and his amenable wife (Sue Lyon) track down the transmission source together. It seems like they may be in imminent danger. Of what you will just have to watch and see.

To say that the movie is not worth the digits it is made of would be a compliment. There are some redeeming factors. We get to see what computers look like in 1977, and here fake printer sounds as characters come out on the screen. We get to see typical 1977 attire.

I was startled to see so many named actors that were willing to be part of this movie. Even though Lew Ayres has 154 acting credits he is best remembered for All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). I am not saying where Sue Lyon played. There was even Christopher Lee who played many spooky characters such as Evil Sender in The Stupids (1996).

From B movie perennials Charles Band ("Trancers") and John Hayes ("Grave of the Vampire") comes this noticeably cheap and only moderately amusing effort, written by Frank Ray Perilli ("Laserblast"). Sir Christopher Lee has dual roles, principally that of Zindar, an alien leader who's impersonated a priest (and whose associates are impersonating nuns). While natural disasters plague other parts of the Earth, an intrepid communications expert, Professor Andrew Boran (Kirk Scott), ends up discovering Zindars' plans and lair, accompanied by his wife Sylvia (Sue Lyon).

B cinema enthusiasts will surely WANT to enjoy this one more than they likely will. Sir Christopher is always good value, but even his effortlessly authoritative presence can do little to enliven the presentation. Producer Band and director Hayes do what they can with limited funding, but the movie is dull and uneventful for too much of its running time, with not enough suspense. The action picks up somewhat in the second half, but this story never really hits a stride. Some people may be fairly entertained by the level of cheese on display, in any event. Hayes was also the editor, and makes a cameo as the helpful driver on the highway. Andrew Belling composed the decent music score

Scott, who reminded this viewer (somewhat) of Christopher George, is an incredible stiff, and his character is an insipid "hero". Lyon, of "Lolita" fame, is lovely, but not much of an actress. Dean Jagger offers some fun as Borans' boss, but Lew Ayres and Macdonald Carey are utterly wasted in small roles. It's basically up to Lee to do all of the heavy lifting.

Viewers may enjoy the ending.

Five out of 10.

First of all, let me tell you straight off the bat that my rather high rating here has nothing to do with the film's quality. It has some decent aspects, mind you, but has 'TV-movie' or 'late-night time-waster' written all over it, despite Sir Christopher Lee's presence and a really good ending, for such a low-budget production. The beginning is also quite good and intriguing--it's everything in between that lets the film down. I like Sue Lyon (Stanley Kubrick's 'Lolita', although she's not a good actress, just an intriguing presence) and Macdonald Carey--but these actors are clearly at the stage of their career when if they're not doing theatre, they're taking TV-work or B-movies such as these, that fine actors such as Ray Milland, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford gave credibility to, in their declining years.

There isn't a lot of action. It's full of lulls and rather boring--you get a lot of sequences of looking at screens or printouts from those clunky old computers and printers that used to take up so much space. Lee does the best he can, there's good chemistry between Lyon and her protagonist-husband, there's good use of stock footage of disasters happening all over the world, and the climactic shot at the end is excellent despite the low budget. It made me wonder how it would have looked if shot a few years later, when 3-D made a brief comeback as a fad.

I gave one star (out of five) for one of my favourite horror actors ever, one for that shot at the end, and one for the way the poster reminded me of my favourite album cover--Oxygene by electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre. How I wish his music from that album had been utilized instead of the shtick that was used. So, in total, 3/5, or 6 out of 10.

This is one of the most boring movies I have ever seen, its horrible. Christopher Lee is good but he is hardly in it, the only the good part is the opening scene.

Don't be fooled by the title. "End of the World" is truly a bad movie, I stopped watching it close to the end it was so bad, only for die hard b-movie fans that have the brain to stand this vomit.