Best movie of this year hands down!

Thanks for the memories!

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Okay, so I'm old, so what, heh heh...you have to remember that scifi movies never had a big budget back then, so the FX and quality usually suffered for it. There are a couple superb classics that overcame this restriction, but Angry Red isn't one of them, and I knew that at 11 years old.Right from the start, the use of existing equipment made the movie clunky, the weird pink color of Mars is oogly of course, but as a kid who cared...it was the magic of space flight and visiting other planets that captured your heart. So you automatically allowed for the lousy filmography.Don't knock this one, it's well worth a late night viewing, with a big bowl of pop corn, heh heh...

Is Mars Rocket Crew Alive?So screams the newspaper headline when it is found that the Mars expedition rocket is on its way back to Earth. When only two of the four original crew are found on board, one with a horrible fungus growth attached to him, the scientists and doctors desperately try to get to the bottom of what happened on the mission.It's a raging "B" schlocker, but a fun one. Filmed in "CineMagic" in New Eastman Color 5250 no less! It essentially pits the crew, three men and one woman, in a situation where they land on Mars, gel in various ways, then start going out onto the Red Planet itself to gather information etc.The art designers bathe everything in red, using a whole ream of interesting paintings to project an alien planet, and then the fun really starts. The creatures arrive, including one legendary rat/spider hybrid that is an absolute riot. Suspense exists, even though the acting is distinctly average, and et voilà! Story has unfolded and the big message ends the pic.Nutty sci-fi movie for sure, but the makers kinda get away with the cheapness of it all, and that is something that not all "B" schlockers can say is that! 5/10

The Angry Red Planet (1959) ** (out of 4) After a failed mission to Mars, a spaceship lands back on Earth with only two astronauts surviving. One of them, Dr. Iris Ryan (Naura Hayden) tries to remember the events of the mission where they discovered that they weren't alone on the planet.THE ANGRY RED PLANET is a gimmick film if there ever was one. The Cinemagic process that was used basically has the entire screen tinted red whenever they are actually on the planet Mars. This effect actually is pretty neat and I always found it to be a good way of trying to cover up other issues with the movie. The tining certainly works extremely well during a few scenes where they're on the spaceship and the glow from Mars can be seen. The effect works well once they're on the planet but I do wonder how much of it was just the producers and filmmakers covering up really bad effects.The monster here is some sort of rat/bat/spider creature that looks really, really bad. I think the red tinting probably hides some more of its ugliness but there's no question that it's one of the least impressive from all the 50s sci-fi movies. Another problem is that the film can't afford special effects so instead of that stuff we get a bunch of dialogue scenes that are just downright boring after a while. You know you're in trouble when a film just keeps talking and you slowly lose interest in what they're saying. So, is THE ANGRY RED PLANET a horrible movie? No, it's decent for what it is but there's no getting around the fact that it's a low-budget movie that wants to do more but can't.

From the glorious 1950s – THE golden decade for unhinged Sci-Fi and monster movies – comes this wonderful but sadly obscure gem with a dark atmosphere and deeply melancholic morals, and yet delightfully silly and inept special effects and set designs! This is, in fact, the most entertaining combination possible because it means that the stern actors are citing their lines about mysterious unknown planets and deadly alien lifeforms with a straight face and a serious tone of voice, while at the same time the landscapes and monsters look preposterous, cheap and downright ludicrous! And it has to be said that the team behind "The Angry Red Planet" really did their best in order to provide an intense and overwhelming Sci-Fi/thriller, however the budgetary restrictions made it quite difficult to succeed and the film didn't pass the test of time very well. Still, for admirers of '50s Sci-Fi flicks and cinematic oddities in general, this film definitely comes with my highest possible recommendation. The story opens captivating and suspenseful enough, that's for sure! The NASA space-center on earth suddenly receives automated radio messages from the Mars expedition rocket that was considered lost for more than 60 days already. When it lands back on earth, it turns out that two of the four crew members have survived their journey, but the male commander Tim O'Bannon is unconscious from an unknown disease and the female biologist Iris Ryan has no recollection of what happened. At the hospital, doctors and scientist try to revive Iris' memories and she gradually narrates their horrific encounters on planet Mars through flashbacks. The scenes that are supposedly taking place on the "Red Planet" are just stupendous! You may take the planet's nickname very literal, as the explorations on Mars are filmed through a reddish/orange filter attached to the camera's lens. The landscapes and flora on Mars actually exists of drawings and sketches, massive amphibious monsters and carnivorous plants included! Our protagonist heroes also face a humongous rat-creature on spider legs, which is undoubtedly one of the most imaginative Sci-Fi creatures ever designed! But, as said, the overall tone of the film is deadly serious and thus features "The Angry Red Planet" a philosophical climax about the Martians being vastly superior to us and they do not want us to come and wreck their planet like we do with ours. In other words, Martians are intolerant racists but can you blame them? In spite of being the target of sexist jokes and disrespectful behavior ("I can't see your lovely curves in that spacesuit"), Nora Hayden depicts a strong female lead character. Ib Melchior's directing skills are somewhat pedestrian, but he certainly deserves all our respect for also being the writer of other terrific genre gems such as "Planet of Vampires", "Reptilicus" and "Robinson Crusoe on Mars".