The day the WORLD ended? Gee, isn't that a little too melodramatic? Since when do some mildly ominous events in a small town of hillbillies affect the existence of the entire world? Or maybe this is all just because this film is part of a series of TV-remakes of cheap & nearly forgotten Sci-Fi films, dating back to the 1950's. Roger Corman directed the original version of "The Day the World Ended" and it featured an entirely different storyline. The lame and overly child-friendly plot of this version revolves on a young boy who firmly believes that his real father is an alien. You'd believe him too, if you look at his childhood pictures. The school psychiatrist Dr. Stillman (portrayed by Nastassja Kinski who's not ageing very well, I must say) wishes to save him from the social isolation brought on by his father, but then there really does land a slimy alien in town! This is the first of the HBO's remakes I watched, but I'm already going to pass on the rest of them. It has absolutely nothing to offer, except for an adequate cast that deliver below-average acting performances. The rest is just pathetic. The script "borrows" ideas from several other movies, there's absolutely no suspense and the make-up & creature effects are downright laughable. The alien monster is identical to the one in Corman's original (as some kind of homage) but the old creature looked a lot more petrifying. This is simply a sad excuse for a horror film, exclusively intended for younger audiences that refuse to watch black & white cinema.
Review of The Day the World Ended
