The So-So Beast from Outer Space
What is it about aliens from outer space that they can’t take care of their women folk? There seems to be a lot of dying civilizations out there that are in need of females of any species. So they pick the human species for procreation. Never mind that they may not be compatible. It has been the premise of movies from “I Married a Monster from Outer Space” to ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Two”. Here’s another one.
“Blood Beast from Outer Space” is a British contribution to the sub genre. Also known as “Night Caller from Outer Space” or “The Night Caller” it is about a mutant humanoid that kidnaps Earth women to breed with in order to save he’s race from extinction. I don’t understand that. If you are breeding with a race that is not yours, how can your offspring, should you be able to conceive, be considered your race?
Done in 1965 it stars John Saxon and Patricia Haines. It was originally made in Black and White but there is a computer colorized version that was released in the UK in 2011.
A scientist Jack Costain (Saxon) and his associates find what they believe is a meteorite in the countryside. They find that it is an alien devise from one of Jupiter’s moons Ganymede. Then they see an alien. The alien escapes. Soon there are reports of women going missing. Costain believes that the missing girls have something to do with the alien. They learn from the parents of a missing girl that their daughter was meeting someone who ran a magazine called “Bikini Girls”. The scene with the parents was actually quite funny. The police and Costain try to form a plan to find the alien and stop whatever he is doing.
I was surprised at this movie. It wasn’t what I expected at all. No girls in skimpy outfits carried off into the night. Despite the name and the premise it wasn’t a camp fest like you would think. More of a drama or a thriller than a horror movie. And it tried to be highbrow to some extent. I’m not sure if it really made it to that level. The alien was also disappointing. There wasn’t much of him. He was in shadow most of the time and all you saw was a rubber claw-like hand. I could have accepted that if it was at least an interesting alien or at the very least a sympathetic one. Plus I wasn’t really happy with the ending. Nothing got resolved. Although not a horrible movie it wasn’t really great either.