We head over to the weird world of Charles Band for our next film. Band, before he would go on to created Full Moon Productions, produced films under his own name as Charles Band Productions. 1977's End of the World was one of the first films he produced. Ever. The film stars the legendary Christopher Lee as Father Pergado a priest who is really an alien leader named Zindar. The aliens take over a convent while they look for a crystal that they need to return to their planet named Utopia. I know, not really creative there. In order to do this he kidnaps a NASA professor and his wife to steal the crystal.
All the nuns at the convent are also aliens; notice that creepy alien nun hand in the photo above. Starring as the professor is Kirk Scott (Heathers and Targets) with Sue Lyon (Lolita and The Night of the Iguana) as his wife. Before they are kidnapped, Professor Boran (Scott) has been noticing radio signals that detail world disasters before they happen. Zindar (Lee) explains what is happening and why and offers to take Boran and his wife back to Utopia before the Earth is destroyed.
This film suffers from two issues; it has a shoestring budget (I think they spent most of the budget they had on getting Christopher Lee to star) and it's pretty boring. Christopher Lee said during an interview that he felt he was lied to by the producers. He was told the film was going to be a bigger production value than it was and felt the film was beneath him. Which it is. I give Christopher Lee one star alone as he is, of course, his usual incredible self; and it gets another star for the nun hand as well as the goofy puppet head which is passed off as what Zindar really looks like. So two Discotek pinball machines out of five.
Oh no . . . . . oh dear . . . . . oh dear no you didn't watch END OF THE WORLD, did you?!?!?!?! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh dear no.
ReplyDeleteActually it was quite interesting reading your review because I don't remember ANY of that happening. Granted, it HAS been years since I saw it but I'm pretty sure I lapsed into a Charles Band-induced coma and didn't wake up until the hairdresser showed.
You don't remember any of this? Do you remember when Patrick Swayze came in and said "Nobody puts baby in the corner!"? That was one of the scariest part of the film.
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