Teenagers from Outer Space (1959)

Yeah, it's bad, there's no questioning that, but as with the "so bad it's good" this film has a certain charm to it.I saw this when it came out and it scared me pretty thoroughly. I was only 7 so maybe I had never seen a lobster before. Most certainly I had never seen so many skeletonized humans (the smoky one in the pool really creeped me out).I look at it now and it's hard to see much value in spending the time watching. But with the ingestion of correct herbal or fermented substances and a crowd of like-minded friends it could serve for light entertainment.

1959 was a great year for bad movies and with "Teenagers From Outer Space" we have yet another - and this one is one of the best, at being bad. Invaders from another planet (who are "just more people" of course, same as you or I it must be the uniforms they wear that qualifies them as inhuman or alien) land their space ship, a cheap little flying-saucer deal, with the intent to use Earth as a breeding ground for some kind of animal (it pretty much looks like a lobster to me) they raise and is an important source of food for these people. One of the members of a crew of 5 or 6, a young fellow named "Derrick" quickly develops a conscience and questions his peoples plan's to take over Earth, after he noticed a dogs (that they reduced to a skeleton moments earlier with a ray-gun) collar tag and realizes that it's inhabited by other intelligent life. He immediately becomes mutinous towards the rest of his crew and runs away from them, one of them stays behind and attempts to find and kill him, while the rest blast-off back to their home planet, to help prepare for their impending invasion. This is when the movie really picks up, as the opening scene is a bit slow, but it soon turns into a real fun, fast-paced game of cat-and-mouse between to alien guys - good versus bad. The only things that distinguish these two apart from the "Earthlings" are, their uniforms, their pocket-sized ray-guns and the way they talk, sure they speak English, but it's just their choice of vocabulary that sets them apart. The bad alien "Tor" is very determined and vindictive towards Derrick the traitor and neutralizes (ZAP!) several Earthings along the way, leaving bare skeletons (some of which you can plainly see the wires holding them together) laying all over town; with lot's of determination and some luck he remains hot on Derricks trail, which really keeps the pace tight and fast. With Derrick's clean-cut looks and cool personality, he quickly and easily befriends some Earthlings, effectively renting a room (with no money down) and goes to a swimming party. Yet all the while he manages to keep his mission's objective in mind and stays one step ahead of the vengeful Tor, because deep down Derrick likes Earth and dose't want to return to his home planet and face the cold and unforgiving wrath of the Intergalatic Counsel. What do you think their verdict would be: For the crimes of treason to and conspiring against your crew and country and for consorting with thee inferior Earthlings, you Derrick, are sentenced to death.Meanwhile a creature they left behind in a cave near their initial landing point, is beginning to grow at an insanely and otherworldly fast rate, which is the main reason their intended to bred them (essentially giant lobsters) on Earth in the first place, once it made a quick snack out of a detective who was snooping around the cave. It breaks free of it's bindings and commences to feed on the people in and around the town and....... OH BOY do the "effects" suck ever so badly for this particular space monster. I was hoping for some cheap and deliciously corny looking stop-motion effects to bring the creature to screen, however, what we got was AWESOMELY pathetic. What we got (not stop-motion, unfortunately) is nothing more then the "silhouette of a lobster", filmed from several different angles and poses and then crudely superimposed on the screen. Not surprisingly, it looks completely unnatural in every aspect regarding it's relation with the environment - alien space monster (lobster, crab or crayfish) or not. Derrick, with the help from his cute Earthing girlfriend and the (VERY quick to respond) local power company have a showdown with the monster (I.E. the lobster silhouette) and with great courage and live wires, main-man Derrick slays the space monster and at the same time, rids the world of some of the worst special effects it's ever seen. But now another threat has arrived, not surprisingly, it's the rest of Derricks people and the invasion is set to commence. But as it would turn out, Derrick (unbeknownst to him) happens to be the son of the ruler of the planet. Pop's emerges from a flying-saucer and calmly breaks the news to him, (this acts sort of as a proto-type for: "No Luke, I am your father.") who forgives his act of treason, seemingly anxious to redeem himself, Derrick asks if he may call in the flight instructions to the fleet, pop's agrees to his son's request, wasting no time Derrick climbs into the saucer, closes the hatch and sends in a suicidal batch of deliberately bogus flight instructions to the fleet, which causes them all to smash into the ground (with not a speck of burning wreckage to be seen anywhere, just a small patch of smoke in some near by woods). Thanks to Derrick's heroism and unflinching selflessness Earth is saved! The End.This vintage sci-fi flick is loaded with a lot of fun clichés and is definitely a product of it's era: 50's sci-fi. The movie is absolutely gold for a good number of reasons, all of which will be resoundingly obvious once you have had the fortune of seeing Teenagers From Outer Space! It's simply overflowing non-stop with comically ridiculous dialog, which is generally well delivered (though there are a few wooden actors in the flow of things as well), flying-saucer's, ray-gun's, a poorly devised "monster", a sweet but naive girl-next-door type of heroine, a dumpy old sweater-wearing homebody grandpa, incompetent and ineffective (at times downright stupid) policemen, a scrappy reporter always in search for "the next big scoop", sadly I can't recall much about it's soundtrack - my guess is that it must not of had any theremin's blazing away on high.In conclusion: A VERY fun movie.

So this film is seen as those 'so bad it's good' films eh? Well, it ain't that bad to start with, and is nicely paced and full of action, so I've got nothing to complain about. Except the acting, lobster monster and all the other stuff, but still.An alien called Derek (or Del for short), doesn't quite agree with mental case Thor torching a dog, or indeed his entire species' plan to populate the Earth with gigantic lobster monsters. His mates don't quite agree with these subversive actions and therefore the film turns into an early Terminator type film with Thor following Derek around a town, wasting loads of people with a ray gun that turns folk into skeletons. Thor's hilarious, because he loses his temper with people after about ten seconds and wastes them, which gets him nowhere trying to find Derek. Del on the other hand finds himself involved with Betty after about five minutes, as well as being mates with her Grandad, Grandad. All sorts of shenanigans ensue.This film is not boring at all. Once this film is done with Thor being rude and killing people, they turn to the Lobster monster and getting rid of that. Might be low budget, but it works for me, mang.

Writer, producer, director Tom Graeff's micro-budgeted science fiction opus "Teenagers from Outer Space" is a classic example of a movie that is so hilariously bad that it is good. The acting is appropriately abysmal; the special effects are dreadful, but it is a hoot to watch. Incredibly enough, Warner Brothers picked up this idiotic item and presented it on a twin bill with the Japanese monster flick "Godzilla Raids Again." Extraterrestrials from a distant planet in a guide ship touch down on Earth to scout the planet as a suitable place to breed a creature called a 'Gargon.' Basically, a Gargon is nothing more than a lobster. No sooner has the five man crew of the spaceship landed than they encounter a barking black canine named Sparky. The most pugnacious member of the crew, Thor (Bryan Grant), zaps the poor pooch with a disintegration gun without a qualm. The gun itself was actually a toy sci-fi ray gun called a Hubley's Atomic Disintegrator, which sold for a dime, with a flashbulb attached to provide the illusion that it projected a beam. When its beam strikes the dog, Sparky is turned into a skeleton. Similarly, when Thor embarks on his pursuit of Derek, Thor shoots innocent people with his exotic weapon, and they are transformed into bare-bones skeletons, too. Interestingly enough, Graeff used the same skeleton for each cast member who becomes a casualty of Thor's murderous rampage. The leader of the spaceship takes off and leaves Thor to track down Derek (David Love) who escaped after he caught his comrades looking another way. Derek is the loner in the pack. When he investigated the remains of the dog, he found a dog tag, and he explains to his compatriots that they cannot seed the Earth with Gargons because intelligent life is thriving on the planet, and the Gargons would destroy them. We learn from a loquacious bout of expository dialogue that Derek and his compatriots hail from a totalitarian world where children never learn the identities of their parents and live under the tutelage of state guardians. Somehow, Derek has gotten his hands on a forbidden book that contains ideas outlawed by his society. The crew is prepared to arrest Derek and take him back to face a death sentence when he escapes on foot and heads to the residence inscribed on the dog tag. Thor pursues Derek. Ironically, during a transmission with the leader of their planet, the spaceship captain (King Moody of "Get to Know Your Rabbit") learns that Derek is the son of none other than the leader. At a gasoline station, Thor kills two humans who refuse to help him and he learns how to drive a car in no time at all. Meanwhile, Derek goes to the residence and meets dark-haired Betty Morgan (Dawn Bender of "The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry") and her amiable but paunchy grandfather Gramps Morgan (Harvey B. Dunne of "The Sinister Urge"), and they welcome him with open arms. Initially, they believe that Derek--despite his strange uniform--is simply searching for an apartment to rent. Naturally, Betty falls hopelessly in love with Derek and forgets about the date that she had with her reporter boyfriend Joe Rogers (Tom Graeff). It seems that they were going to join a friend, Alice Woodward (Sonia Torgeson of "Daddy-O"), at her house to swim in her pool. As it turns out, Joe cannot go with Betty because the authorities have found two skeletons at a gas station and Joe has to write a story about it for the town newspaper. Eventually, after they reach Alice's house, Derek explains what happened to poor Sparky and Betty and he ride out to the cave where Sparky's remains are. Before the aliens blasted off, they stashed a Gargon in a nearby cave. No sooner have Derek and Betty left Alice's house than Thor shows up and zaps Alice. Thor goes back to Betty's house and kidnaps Gramps. A shoot-out between the city police and Thor occurs in broad daylight as Thor attempts to kill Derek. Thor is wounded but he has enough strength left to kidnap Derek and Betty and he forces them to take him to a doctor to remove the 'pellets.' Dr. C.R. Brandt, MD (Frederick Welch of "Tennessee Champ") removes the bullets, but he knocks Thor out with a sedative and they escape and hit for city hall. Meanwhile, Brandt's misguided nurse arrives and revives Thor, and then she learns too late that Thor is the mass murderer. Thor takes her hostage and forces her to drive. An automobile accident occurs while they are driving and the nurse is hurled from the car before it plunges down a hillside. The police capture Thor and put him in the hospital. Betty and Derek search for the gun. When they find the weapon, they discover that it has been damaged. Derek manages to repair the weapon and tap into high power lines to destroy the Gargon after it goes on a rampage."Teenagers from Outer Space" is a laugh riot from fade-in to fade-out.