I Saw A Film!

A cute, quaint old Corman product involving a big-headed alien who hitches a ride back to earth with an unfortunate astronaut who’s belly is full of gestating aliens. Unfortunately for the alien he only gets back to find six people total, and they’re mostly pretty skeptical of good intentions.

It’s a little funny that so few people are involved in the recovery of this astronaut, especially since the landing was so harsh and the astronaut thought killed. One imagines independent space launches, sort of like if Elon Musk’s outfit were just a handful of jokers wearing pants up to their ribcages. Can’t be revealing those belly buttons!

One of the things I love about these old films is they didn’t shy away from having the ladies playing doctors and investigators and solid techies. The film industry was way ahead “shocking” us with women in leadership, action and intellectual roles. Though they could still be damsels in distress when grabbed by the monster, why not? One doesn’t need to give up all the fun just because you’re an MD! And just because your hair is in a bouffant and you’re wearing a bullet bra you can still do the science with the microscope and discover the animated amoeba attacking the astronaut blood cells.

Pretty soon the alien creature visits and gets shot at and burned pretty wickedly. I’m reminded of a joke: Some Outer Space Aliens notice we worship Jesus Christ, they say he visits them about twice a year. Twice a year! Our devotees exclaim in disbelief, we only had him come one time, we’re still waiting for a second coming! Oh! Said the aliens, we collect up all our best chocolates each time he comes, he loves our chocolates! What did you give him?

The astronaut gets very protective of the babies growing inside him and argues vociferously for the alien, after all we just need to get to know him/her. Will our little team of earthlings pioneer a new relationship with an extraterrestrial, or will they throw molotov cocktails until he burns to death in a heap? Hmmm.

This is running free on Prime (USA) and suffers a bit from boxed frames and shockingly contrasty picture. It also loses its volume from time to time. The title is a bit off kilter as well. He doesn’t require blood, and while definitely not a human “beast” seems a little misleading. Finally while he does kinda wrestle one of the ladies, you don’t get any nice skin reveals.