Bloodsuckers From Outer Space (DVD)
Reviewed by Kryten Syxx
Starring Thom Meyers, Glen Coburn, Laura Ellis, Pat Paulsen, Robert Bradeen, Dennis Letts
Directed by Glen Coburn
The 1980s had to be just the right time for the second coming of the B-Movie. Sure, the ‘70s was full of exploitation, but they lacked the same feel and entertainment value of a true Ed Woodian masterpiece. To achieve that pinnacle of success, a film must have z-grade acting, a budget of $100 and amazing entertainment value. Few can do it, and those who do live on forever.
Bloodsuckers From Outer Space could be one of the kings of low budget B-Movies. A truly lost gem, this fly by Glen Coburn disappeared for about 24 years. It was rarely mentioned, and damn my eyes since I’ve never seen so much as a bootleg. That was until the mail arrived the other day.
What I thought was at first a copy of the film turned out to be an official DVD, not some cheap DVD-R run off from someone’s home PC. Hot damn! The thing even comes with a Reunion featurette! This ought to be interesting.
Bloodsuckers From Outer Space is a parody and homage to many great classics of the sci-fi and horror genres. Psycho, Body Snatchers, Night of the Living Dead and even Dr. Strangelove all get a poke throughout the flick. The movie even breaks the fourth wall plenty of times to remind us that it knows what it is, and it doesn’t give a damn because they’re trying to entertain.
Bloodsuckers follows a young photographer and his very easy to bag lady friend as they encounter an otherworldly life form that is able to invade human beings via the air. The victims become violently sick, causing them to vomit up all of their blood as the invasion occurs. What’s left is an entirely new being that thirsts for blood and gains a massive amount of intelligence via the process. Not a bad trade off if you like having blue skin and huge veins across your face.
The military is of no help, but one gung-ho General sees this as a perfect time to pull a nuke out of his pants and blow up a rural area just because he can. Will the alien threat be extinguished with extreme measures? Will our heroes be able to fend off the invisible force that can easy control our species? Is there a fourth wall strong enough to not be broken?!
Sigh. Nothing in print will really do justice to how fun this movie is, so here is a little visual aid:
Now that is just a sample. The full feature has loads of odd but extremely funny lines of dialogue. It’s the kind of stuff that you can’t believe someone actually wrote down and then expected an actor to memorize. Then again, that explains the kind of quality you’d expect out of a script that was written in three days.
What really helps sell this DVD is the included Reunion special feature where a majority of the cast and crew share their comments on the film 20+ years after its release. Though a commentary would have been nice to further explain some things that this supplement doesn’t cover, Coburn and company do provide plenty of anecdotes and appear proud of their creation.
That’s probably where good and bad B-Movies branch apart. Some are just bad and contain nothing worth sitting through or even likable, but there are those filmmakers who know the limitations in their ways and make up for them by realizing that a happy audience is far more forgiving than a bored or pissed off one. It’s Kevin Strange vs. Ulli Lommel or Robert Rodriguez against those jackasses that make the Scary Movie sequels. See the drastic difference between using your resources for good and just wasting everyone’s time?
Now, if only Coburn had included the French audio track he spoke of that actually has better acting in it than the real actors. That would have been something special.
Bloodsuckers From Outer Space is 50% John Waters, 50% Ed Wood Jr. and 100% pure fucking entertainment. Yes, it is 200% of a good time and you should order yourself a copy here.
Special Features
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