W. Lee WilderKillers From Space (1954)

Attack by monsters from another planet!

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This item is part of the collection: Feature Films

Director: W. Lee Wilder
Audio/Visual: sound, B&W
Keywords: Science Fiction

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Robin_1990 - - April 9, 2008
Subject: Cheese at it's finest (I saw it on DVD)

I saw this film on DVD, and was amazed at how it kept me amused. It isn't a "Good" film in the traditional sense, But it it good cheesy fun! After all, back in the 50's and today, B-Movies were designed to let people excape from reality. And this film does that!

Reviewer: beirwer - - March 9, 2007
Subject: Pyew, what a stinker.

The acting is horrible, the pace is dead slow, sequences are drawn out way too long. The aliens are ridiculous. They look like crash-test dummies at the moment of impact. If the budget was that low they should have just had them look like humans.

There's "so bad it's good" ("Killer Shrews", "Fiend Without A Face", etc.) and then there's so bad it's a turd (this). Most of the worst B movies I've ever seen I could at least say it was worth a watch one time just to have seen it. This piece of crap wasn't even worth that.

Reviewer: JoeCinema - - September 3, 2005
Subject: Aliens? LOL

The Killers from Space in this low-budget sci-fier are a group of aliens bent on conquering the earth. To this end, they overtake the mind and body of atomic scientist Peter Graves, using the poor man as a combination spy and saboteur. When Graves realizes this, he tries to warn mankind, but no one believes him. Marching defiantly back to the aliens' Bronson Canyon headquarters, where the slimy villains are busily syphoning off electrical power from a nearby generator, Graves vows to stop the extraterrestrials at any cost...including his own life (or what there's left of it). The makeup used for the aliens is laughable, but the film works so long as it concentrates on Graves' plight. Produced and directed by W. Lee Wilder, the brother of the more celebrated Billy Wilder, Killers from Space was distributed in the US by RKO Radio.

Cast:

Peter Graves - Doug Martin
James Seay - Col. Banks
Gaylord "Steve" Pendleton - Briggs /
Barbara Bestar - Ellen Martin
Robert Roark - Guard
Ben Welden - Pilot
Burt Wenland - Sergeant
Mark Scott - Narrator
Lester Dorr - Station attendant
Jack Daly - Powerhouse guard
John Merrick - Deneb-Tala
Shepard Menken - Maj. Clift
Frank Gerstle - Dr. Kruger
Ron Kennedy - Sentry


Production Credits:

W. Lee Wilder - Director / Producer
Bill Raynor - Screenwriter
Myles Wilder - Short Story Author
William H. Clothier - Cinematographer
Manuel Compinsky - Composer (Music Score)
William Faris - Editor
Harry Thomas - Makeup

Reviewer: DeeMented - - August 1, 2005
Subject: Bad science fiction at its best

Set in a time when atomic explosions were still much feared and misunderstood by the masses, this film features a plot that is wholly laughable today. As with much of the science fiction from the black-and-white era, this film features alien gadgets that sparkle with untethered electricity, life forms from a far-away galaxy who just happen to speak perfect English, and the one person who can foil their plot is locked away "for his own good".

A must see for any sci-fi fan who believes that bad sciense fiction is the best science fiction. Others will probably just see a bad movie here.

I downloaded the MPEG1 file (338 MB). The picture and sound were very good; very watchable.

Reviewer: Fred P. B. - - July 28, 2005
Subject: Loved it!

You may recognize many of the older actors. A VERY young Peter Graves is the star. Special effects are, of course, campy. Aliens are hilarious. Not a bad basic scifi plot though.
Corny and bad, just how I like them.

Recommended.

Reviewer: Jugs - - July 27, 2005
Subject: Killers From Space

Longhair hippy, why reveal the plot?
I can see no sense in you doing that.
There is no rhyme or reason for doing so

Reviewer: SpidersEatBabies - - July 16, 2005
Subject: Doesn't Work

I've tried all the different downloads and they have all been messsed up in some way, i.e. not the whole movie, broken sound, etc...

Reviewer: dog from Nightwatch - - July 13, 2005
Subject: A good example of a "B" movie.

Let's look at this movie by considering it's parts.

The acting for the most part was good, and it even included a few "names" among the credits.

The camera work was competent as was the editing.

The screenplay was reasonable considering it was intended, ( for the most part ), a yonger audience.

The special affects were dictated by a low budget, ( far too low in hindsight I'd think ).

With these facts in mind what you get is a fair motion picture. Nothing as good as "The day the earth stood still, or even on the same level as "Earth vs the flying saucers", but then again those were intended to be cross over films, not gern exploitation films, and their audience was more general than this one, which as I said had a young target audience.

If "Forbidden Planet" is considered the Science fiction masterpeice of the 1950's, then this film is trully a dog of sorts, but this movie never aspired too that level in the first place, and so in that context it's a reasonably well made little film which today we would consider "camp" but at the time it was made filled the theater filled the theater with screeming little kids on a saturday afternoon.

As it goes there are far better "B" pictures, and some that are trully worse than this, ef you haven't seen this film before then I would recomend you do so, if you just keep in mind the original intent of the filmmakers you may actually enjoy it.

Reviewer: longhair_hippy - - June 23, 2005
Subject: The first alien abduction movie.

In 1954, Ufo's were pretty much on people's minds, and yet abductions were not the UFO headlines of the time, they were "contactees", like George Adamsky who met a peaceful long-haired blonde male alien from "venus" in the desert in 1952. The claim made the headlines two years after the movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still".

When I downloaded "Killers From Space", I was pleasantly surprised, to see a b-movie version of an alien abduction. A military pilot crashes, and is abducted by aliens with ping-pong ball eyes. They also need a new planet to live on, since their sun is running out of coal, and will burn out. The pick earth as their new settlement, and plan to unleash giant tarantulas, cockroaches, gila monsters and giant grasshoppers to conduct their plan.

I love the high tech plasma screens that the aliens use for their surveilliance system, video conferences with their leader, and showing clips of the other planets they visited. The controls remind of some kind of telephone switchboard, and the screen is like 30 inches, with two antenas on the top, with an elecric arc between the antenae. Very funny. I like to see the electronics of the period as well, osciloscopes, and lots of dials and switches.

In the end, it is discovered that by cutting off the electricity for ten seconds, will start a nuclear reaction, that will destroy the giant critters and the alien settlers in their cave.

A must watch for b-movie fans

Humour value: 4 Camp Value: 5 Acting: 3