Billy was a kid who got pushed around... Then he found the power

Laserblast
1978 | Color | 85 Min. | 1.66.1 | PG | Sci-Fi | Mono | Samuel Goldwyn Company

Source: Fullmoonstreaming.com 

Director:

Michael Rae

Writers:

Franne Schacht

Frank Ray Perilli

Cast:

Kim Milford

Eddie Deezen 

Keenan Wynn 

Cheryl Smith

Roddy McDowall

Billy's never been able to fit in where he lives; suddenly that's not a problem anymore. A desert exploration leads to an explosive discovery for Billy: his own personal laser gun. It takes a little while to master the controls, but Billy gets the hang of it, just as it gets the hang of him. Each time Billy fires the laser it converts him, little by little, into an alien. Billy becomes possessed by the ruthless power in his hands and becomes a powerful foe. Cars, planes, and people all fall before the awesome alien power that Billy wields. Now he must gain control before the aliens return to claim what's theirs.

I have been wanting to check this out for a while now and lately on a few Forums this was brought up for various reasons. I'm actually pretty happy to check this off the bucket list. This movie has been ripped on by various sources like Mystery Science Theater and other such horror host's. My curiosity comes from all the Full Moon Horror previews that always show off the alien's. So let's talk Laserblast.

What a good young cast of who is who in this movie. In fact, the cast is what really holds it together and pushes you to the finish. I can not say enough about Cheryl Smith what a beautiful young lady she was. It is too bad that she could not get control of her life and eventually losing her battle to Heroin. I even read she was homeless for quite some time. Tragic loss if I know what a Scream Queen was when I was 8 I would have had a poster of her on my wall I just know it. Anyway...

The look and feel of this movie capture the 1970's very well. You get your gear head bully's, sci-fi nerds, girls wearing hardly any clothes and, of course, the slacker from the era. Being a 70's you also get your fair share of exploding cars and pain in the ass cops. I feel this movie falls short for many because they did not live the late days of that era.  If you are 40 and under you will not like this movie one bit.

A young Eddie Deezen

And with the cast we get Eddie Deezen as a bully long before Grease and Kim Possible. He was quite enjoyable in his young role. Add in Roddy McDowall and you have to sit back and lavish in the fact that Charlie Band has found some of the today's greatest actors to work on his low budget movies. The list is long and very impressive. 

Roddy McDowall

The movie itself is a very slow crawl and does take the time to get to the end and its kind the set's are bland. The alien's are fun tho and pretty easy to get past the crude look and sloppy movement. In fact, I feel like this was the prequel to E.T. and the back story his parents were here years before and had to come back to clean up a mess once again. And oops they forgot their son. Yeah, that's it. Also in a long line of first's Joel Goldsmith teamed up with Richard Band to score this movie. Yet lacking at times it rev's up at the right times driving you some of the slowest parts.

And speaking of cool first when we were watching the end credits I about jumped out of my skin with excitement to see Ve Neill did the makeup in this movie. My 10-year daughter and I are huge fans of her on Face/Off and are always upset when she is not on. Just love her, this was her third movie at the time and was blown away that her first was Cinderella (the soft core musical from Band not Disney in any means.). Her husband even played one of the aliens. 

So now the bad. The main dude Kim Milford was way over the top. In a way I think this was the idea be a slacker until you become possessed then be way over the top. It just did not work and he is the only part of this movie that did not work. He was trying to hard to channel in Luke Skywalker and Leatherface. His claim to fame in this movie is, of course, the infamous scene showing Billy (Milford) blowing up the roadside billboard advertising Star Wars. The scene was actually filmed in post-production after principal shooting of the movie had already wrapped.

So with some cool claymation/special effect's and not to mention the hot women and cool late 70s California vibe. This is a nice slice of some classic sci-fi cheese. To truly enjoy Laserblast, an open mind is good, but a mature mind is deadly.

2 Bloody Brains out of 6