The Cape Canaveral Monsters
When a couple are killed in an auto accident their bodies are immediately inhabited by extraterrestrial beings. Taking refuge in an underground cave, the aliens attempt to sabotage the U.S. space program.
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- Cast:
- Scott Peters , Katherine Victor , Tony Soler
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Reviews
Redundant and unnecessary.
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Excellent adaptation.
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
After the launch of Sputnik by the Russians in 1957 there were many attempts to launch American satellites that for a while were all ending in failure. I remember as a kid seeing the launches and seeing them fail every couple of months or so. By 1960 however we seemed to be getting it right and the following year we were sending men in space for the Mercury project. So in 1960 The Cape Canaveral Monsters was already a dated film on release. This dud of a science fiction film is as big a dud as some of those early launches from Cape Canaveral. This would have you believe that aliens who when not taking over dead human bodies are just dots of light are worried about our progress in space flight and are sabotaging our space program. Has to figure, if not aliens then its those Communists on orders from Moscow.A cast where you never heard of anybody performs their parts on the level of grade school drama. Some newsreel footage of our failure satellite launches integrated into some bad special effects and worse acting characterizes this film made by klutzes.
The man who made this film, Phil Tucker, was one of the worst film directors in history. He was responsible for such travesties as "Dance Hall Racket" and "Robot Monster"--the latter of which was among the films in Harry Medved's book "The Fifty Worst Movies of All Time". Incompetence, bad acting and crappy budgets--all hallmarks of this film legend. So, when I saw that "The Cape Canaveral Monsters" was also made by Tucker, I had to watch it, as I occasionally like a terrible movie. After all, with over 12000 reviews to my credit, I need a few truly horrible films now and again after watching artsy, foreign or silent films. Unfortunately, while "The Cape Canaveral Monsters" is very bad, it never comes close to being as bad as "Robot Monster".The film is supposedly set around Cape Canaveral, Florida. But, being a Floridian, I was amazed to see LOTS of very, very high hills with caves and not a trace of a palm tree or alligator. Frankly, if there WERE caves around Canaveral, they'd be filled up with water, as the land is swampy and very wet. The location was about as un-Canaveral like as you can get--short of filming it in Alaska! The plot involves two bad actors who have stolen human bodies killed in a car accident. Following their assumption of the bodies as their own, the pair destroy rocket test after rocket test, as their planet does not want the humans venturing into space. They also want to collect a few human specimens to take back to their home planet. Two young folks who work for a professor in charge of the rocket program stumble upon these two undead aliens. Can they stop them or is the Earth royally screwed? The story idea is pretty typical of the genre--and isn't that different from Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space". And, like "Plan 9", the film has a lot of bad acting, crappy props and the like. Bad movie buffs will love watching the Professor deliver his lines as if he's suffering from a traumatic brain injury. They will also love the one-armed guy who clearly has his arm tucked inside his jumpsuit! But the overall level of badness isn't uniform. The male lead isn't a terrible actor and the editing and direction occasionally don't look horrible. Not exactly glowing endorsements, I know, but things that make the film less attractive to those who seek out the very worst! Bad but not quite bad enough is how I see this one.
The alien invaders using the recent dead is a whole sub-genre of films from Plan Nine From Outer Space to Invisible Invaders and this film filmmakers looking to save a buck by not having to come up with a monster suit. Sadly almost every film from genre are really bad. Sure some of them are fun bad, but they are still bad.Such is the case with Cape Canaveral Monsters. This little mistake has floating balls of light taking over the bodies of a recently deceased couple in order to sabotage the US space program.(and we thought the commies were bad)Dumb it is, fun its not.This is one to avoid-a warning I send out even to bad film lovers-this is just the wrong sort of bad.
As a certified Ed Wood fan, I had been meaning for some time to track down the works of Mr. Phil Tucker. But, they had eluded me, except for his disasterpiece, his masturwork, his Citizen Kane, his Plan Nine From Outer Space.That would be the immor(t)al Robot Monster, which I have seen on DVD, and even had the good fortune to see on the big screen, in its super rare 3-D version no less! Jeekers!So, finally, Netflix allowed me to stream one of his other epics, THE CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS. I have to say, it was almost worth the wait. Fans of the celluloid leavings of Ed Wood, Jerry Warren and Richard Cunha will be right at home here. This is a pure gold-plated turd, full of the hi-jinx beloved by aficionados of low-budget 50's sci-fi swill. Aliens, mad scientist, stupid gadgets, cheap-arse monsters, yes, fans, they are all here, and they are all awesome. Perfect mindless viewing for a boring Saturday afternoon. Not sure if this presentation is available on DVD, but if it is not, then it really should be. Somebody get right on that, will ya?