Laserblast
Encyclopedia
Laserblast is a 1978 American science fiction film about an unhappy teenage loner who discovers an alien laser cannon and goes on a murderous rampage, seeking revenge against those who he feels have wronged him. The low-budget film was directed by Michael Rae and produced by Charles Band, who is widely known for producing B movie
s. Starring Kim Milford
, Cheryl Smith
and Gianni Russo
, the film features notable cameos appearances by Keenan Wynn
and Roddy McDowall
, and marked the screen debut of actor Eddie Deezen
.
The script by Frank Ray Perilli and Franne Schacht was heavily influenced by science fiction films like Star Wars
(1977) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind
(1977). The reptilian alien creatures in the film were works of stop motion animation
by animator David W. Allen
, marking the first chapter in a decades-long history of collaboration between Allen and Band. The alien spacecraft model featured in Laserblast was designed and built by Greg Jein
in two weeks, and the musical score was written in five days by Joel Goldsmith
and Richard Band
, the first film scores for both composers.
Laserblast has received overwhelmingly negative reviews and consistently ranks among the Bottom 100 list of films on the Internet Movie Database
. Even many critical reviews, however, cited Allen's stop motion animation as one of the film's only redeeming qualities. A 1988 sequel was planned, but ultimately abandoned due to financial difficulties. Laserblast was featured in the seventh season finale of the comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000
, marking the show's final episode on Comedy Central
before the series moved to the Sci-Fi Channel
.
aliens
emerge, one of whom shoots the man, which disintegrates his body. The aliens depart on their spaceship, leaving behind the laser cannon and a metallic pendant the man was wearing.
Teenager Billy Duncan (Kim Milford
) wakes up in his bed, seemingly disturbed, and learns his mother is leaving for vacation. He goes to visit his girlfriend Kathy (Cheryl Smith
), but her deranged grandfather Colonel Farley (Keenan Wynn
) makes him leave before he can see her. As Billy drives around town, he is harassed by bullies Chuck Boran (Mike Bobenko) and Froggy (Eddie Deezen
), and by two police deputies (Dennis Burkley
and Barry Cutler) who give him a speeding ticket. Billy wanders into the desert and discovers the laser cannon and pendant. He starts playing with the cannon, pretending to shoot things, then realizes he can fire the weapon while wearing the pendant. Meanwhile, on the alien spacecraft, the two aliens converse with their leader who shows them footage of Billy using the cannon, prompting the aliens to turn their ship around to head back to Earth.
Later that night, Billy and Kathy attend a party where Chuck makes an unwanted advance on Kathy, resulting in a fight between Billy, Chuck and Froggy. Later that night, Billy uses the laser cannon to explode Chuck's car, and Chuck and Froggy barely escape the explosion alive. Government official Tony Craig (Gianni Russo
) arrives to investigate both the explosion and the desert where Billy found the cannon. Tony informs the local sheriff (Ron Masak
) that the town must be sealed off.
Feeling sick due to an unusual growth on his body, Billy visits Dr. Mellon (Roddy McDowall
), who surgically removes a metallic disc from Billy's chest. Mellon calls the police laboratory technician Mike London (Rick Walters) to arrange for the disc to be investigated. A green-skinned Billy opens fire on Mellon's car that evening, killing him in an explosion. The next day, Tony investigates the wreckage and recovers unusual material, which he brings to Mike London, who concludes it is an alien material that cannot be destroyed.
The next day, Kathy puts the pendant on Billy's chest while they are laying together outside. Billy immediately wakes up with green skin and deformed teeth and attacks Kathy. Billy goes on a rampage, shooting random objects with the laser cannon. Law enforcement officials shoot at Billy from an aircraft, but Billy destroys the aircraft with the cannon, and later kills Chuck and Froggy by blowing up their car.
While Tony questions Colonel Farley and Kathy about Billy, the two aliens land on Earth and begin searching for Billy. After killing a man and stealing his van, Billy travels into a city where he randomly fires at his surroundings. Kathy and Tony arrive in the city and locate Billy, as the aliens spot Billy from atop a building and shoot him, which kills Billy and destroys the laser cannon. The aliens depart in their spacecraft and Kathy cries over Billy's corpse.
s. Band described the film as a "revenge story" with a simple premise that he thought would be fun for the audience. It was Band who conceived the title of the film with the hopes that it would grab the attention of audiences. Band said of this, "Most of the films that I made, that I conceived, that I was very involved with and in some cases directed, definitely started with the title and usually a piece of artwork that made sense. Then I would work back to the script and the story and make the movie." The script was written by Frank Ray Perilli and Franne Schacht. Elements of the story were inspired by science fiction films, such as Star Wars
(1977), and Close Encounters of the Third Kind
(1977), while the characteristics of protagonist Billy Duncan – a disenchanted middle-class teen from a suburban setting – mirror those of James Dean
's character in Rebel Without a Cause
(1955). Band wanted Laserblast to be a "mini-Star Wars", although it was shot before Star Wars was released. At one point in the film, a disparaging reference is made to Star Wars when Billy Duncan fires his laser gun at a roadside billboard for the film, resulting in a tremendous explosion. During another scene, a police officer is confronted by a frightened teenager, who the officer dismissed as crazy by saying, "He's seen Star Wars five times!"
Billy is ignored and abandoned by his mother early in the film, demonstrating the dangers that can result from uncaring parents, one of the major themes of the script. The film also highlights the hypocrisy of police officers, particularly during a scene in which the two deputies smoke marijuana they obtained from teenagers. Commentators have pointed out several inaccuracies and plot-holes in the Laserblast script. John Kenneth Muir
raised several of these issues in his book, Horror Films of the 1970s: "How does Kathy's dad know Craig, the government agent? Why do the aliens leave behind the rifle and the pendant in the first place? Why does the weapon turn its owner into a monstrous green-skinned brute?" Band explained in a 2006 interview that the more Billy uses the gun, "the more it sort of takes over his soul". Janet Maslin
, film critic with The New York Times
, pointed out that originally, when Billy wakes up immediately after the aliens kill the man with the laser cannon, it appears that incident was a dream. Later, however, it turns out to have actually happened after all.
, who had previously appeared in the original Broadway theatre
production of Hair
and the first production of The Rocky Horror Show
, starred in the leading role of Laserblast, marking his first major motion picture appearance. Cheryl Smith, who later received greater recognition for her appearances in B movies and exploitation film
s, appeared in the lead female role of Kathy Farley. Smith hated the role because she felt it was poorly written and that she did not receive enough rehearsal time. The same year Laserblast was released, Smith also appeared in the horror film The Incredible Melting Man
(1977); in 1996, both of those films would be featured in seventh season episodes of the comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000
. Gianni Russo
, best known for playing Carlo Rizzi in The Godfather
(1972), was cast in Laserblast as government investigator Tony Craig.
Laserblast marked the screen debut of Eddie Deezen, who went on to play other archetypal nerd roles in films like Grease
(1978), which was filmed before this movie had started production, Grease 2
(1982) and Midnight Madness (1980). During a 2009 interview, Deezen remembered little about Laserblast, other than that it was a "shoddy production". Roddy McDowall portrays Doctor Mellon in the film, and his performance lasts for about four minutes. His name is misspelled "McDowell" in the end credits. Keenan Wynn, a long-time character actor from a show business family, portrayed Colonel Farley, who provides comic relief
as Kathy's crazed, paranoid delusional father and former military man who appears to be suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. The filming for Wynn's small role was finished in one day. Screenwriter Franne Schacht made a cameo appearance as the sheriff's secretary in the film.
(1977). Neill makes a cameo appearance in Laserblast as the mutated person killed by the aliens while using the laser weapon in the opening scene of the film. It was Neill who introduced Band to David W. Allen
, the film animator who created the stop motion
alien creatures in Laserblast. At the time when Band and Neill met, the former was working full-time on his fantasy film The Primevals
, which was ultimately never completed. Band had developed an interest and familiarity with animation, particularly the works of Ray Harryhausen
like Jason and the Argonauts (1963), and wanted Allen to animate the reptilian creatures for his film. Although anxious to work on The Primevals, Allen said he was not yet "sufficiently mature professionally" to undertake a project of that size, and he felt Laserblast was "something that was more manageable". Band and Allen would go on to work together on several other films and projects over the next 20 years.
The alien creatures were featured in 39 cuts of the film through five scenes. The first scene was in the beginning of the film where the aliens emerge from their spacecraft into the desert to shoot Neill's character. Two matte
set-ups were used for effects, including one used to create the illusion of depth
with Neill's character in the foreground and the aliens in the background. The sequence where Neill's character shoots the gun out of the hand of one of the aliens was done through wire-supported animation. In the second and third sequences, the two aliens are on board their spaceship, which is a miniature set designed by Dave Carson. The aliens speak with their commander through a monitor in the second sequence, and animations of the commander alien were shot separately and implemented into the scene using a rear projection effect
. Both sequences also used rear projection to show footage of Billy and his destruction on Earth. The fourth sequence shows the aliens on Earth, looking at a burnt-out car destroyed by Billy. Footage of the car was rear projected behind the alien models; however, the projected footage was shot at night and the scene took place between two daytime live-action scenes, thus creating a continuity
error in the film. The final scene is the shortest, and features a confrontation between the aliens and Billy. Matting was again used for the sequence where Billy is shot with a gun by one of the aliens from the top of a building. The aliens then fly off in their spaceship at the end of the scene through a cutout animation
effect.
Randall William Cook, an animator who had worked with Allen on the horror film The Crater Lake Monster
(1977), also worked with him on Laserblast, but his name did not appear in the credits. Also uncredited was sculptor Jon Berg, who built the alien creature puppets based on Allen's design. Allen said in a 1993 article that he and Berg created more shots in the film "than originally bargained for". Harry Woolman
also assisted with the special effects in Laserblast, while Paul Gentry handled the laser effects. Greg Jein
, the special effects model-maker who also worked on The Crater Lake Monster, designed and built the spacecraft featured in Laserblast. Jein had recently completed his work on the Steven Spielberg
science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) when Allen approached him for the Laserblast job. It marked the first time Jein, who usually made models from designs provided by others, had designed a project himself. He prepared several concept sketches and, after one was selected, he constructed the 18 inches (45.7 cm) entirely at his home. It took him only two weeks to complete the model. Allen ultimately felt his animation sequences in Laserblast were not properly integrated with the rest of the film.
Joel Goldsmith
and Richard Band
, the brother of film producer Charles Band, composed the music for Laserblast, marking the first film score for both composers. It took the duo only five days to write the score, which makes heavy use of synthesizer
, particularly synthesized brass instrument
s, as well as electronic music
. The two composers bring a variety to the score, with some reflecting a rock or pop sound, and others more heavily synthesized and stylized. The music was also used in the Charles Band-produced film Auditions
, released the same year, and the 1983 horror film The House on Sorority Row
. The company Echo Film Services handled the sound effects. The alien language chatter between the aliens in Laserblast was later used as sound effects in the metal band Static-X
's song "A Dios Alma Perdida", which is featured in their 2001 album Machine
. During several points in the film when something explodes after it is shot by the laser gun, the scene is edited so that multiple shots of the same explosion are shown in succession. This type of editing became a trademark of Charles Band's films, and was done previously in his 1977 films Crash and End of the World.
by the Irwin Yablans Company, and released on March 1, 1978. Irwin Yablans
, who later produced the first three Halloween films
, specialized primarily in distributing B movies and low-budget horror films. Laserblast was advertised in conjunction with End of the World, which was released the previous year and still playing theaters. At the time that Laserblast was released, audience interest in science fiction films was particularly high due to the release of Star Wars and the long wait until the release of its sequels, The Empire Strikes Back
(1980) and Return of the Jedi
(1983).
Laserblast has received largely negative reviews, and consistently ranks among the Bottom 100 list of films on the Internet Movie Database
. A 1978 critique in The Review of the News said, "The only thing eerie about Laserblast is the thought that the people who made this loser are still running around loose." In the review, Laserblast was described as "an incomprehensible blending" of popular recent films like Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with a script "so disordered we could not be certain that the reels were being run in proper sequence". It also criticized the props, particularly the laser gun, which they compared to a cereal box prize
. A review by Variety
magazine said the special effects were decent, but the script "has more holes than the laser-ravaged landscape." Janet Maslin of The New York Times said Kim Milford's performance was dull and that the script included plot-holes and inconsistencies. The Los Angeles Times critic Linda Gross said the script lacked "credibility, psychological motivation and narrative cohesiveness", although she praised Terry Bowen's cinematography
, saying it "effectively captures the ambience of desert small-town life." Film critic Michael Medved
described Laserblast as one of the worst films of the year in his book, The Golden Turkey Awards
.
Literary critic John Kenneth Muir felt the script had many plot-holes left many unanswered questions, and that there was "little effort to forge a coherent story out of the mix". New York Daily News writer David Bianculli described Laserblast as "numbingly bad". In The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies, Phil Hardy describes it as "a wholly unimaginative film", adding, "Even the non-stop series of exploding cars becomes monotonous in the hands of director Rae." The Time Out Film Guide described Laserblast as a rip-off of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and said Billy's reign of destruction seemed random and senseless rather than driven by plot or characterization. The review called the film "the epitome of what Frank Zappa
once hymned as 'cheapness. The Globe and Mail
writer Robert Martin called the script inept, said Steve Neill's make-up effects were "frightful rather than frightening", and said Cheryl Smith could "barely talk, let alone act". Martin also stated the film was pulled from a Toronto
theater after showing for one week.
Not all reviews were negative. Blockbuster Entertainment gave the film three out of five stars, and film critic Leonard Maltin
gave it two-and-a-half out of four stars. In their book about science fiction films, writers James Robert Parish and Michael R. Pitts called Laserblast "an stimulating, unpretentious little film in the same vein as I Was a Teenage Werewolf
". Parish and Pitts praised the stop motion animation and the performance of Cheryl Smith. Laserblast was among several films universally considered terrible that film reviewer Michael Adams watched as part of a book about his quest to find the worst film of all time. However, Adams said he enjoyed watching it on a B movie
level. Monthly Film Bulletin
said that Laserblast was "Band's first major box-office success on the exploitation circuit". According to Space.com
, Laserblast has achieved cult film
status. During a 2005 interview, Charles Band called the film "hilarious" and stated "it had its charm" like many films from its time. He also said that the film would have been made differently and would have had less critical reactions had it been produced with a larger budget.
Several critical reviews cited the stop motion animation as one of the film's only redeeming qualities. Richard Meyers, a novelist who also wrote about science-fiction films, described Laserblast as "basically repetitive and predictable", but included some redemptive qualities in the animation of Dave Allen and the makeup effects of Steve Neill. Science fiction literary scholar Peter Nicholls
called it the worst of Charles Band's films, calling it "badly scripted, badly paced rubbish," describing Allen's "o.k. aliens" as "the only plus". Likewise, film essayist Dennis Fischer said Allen's stop motion animation provides the film's "sole moments of interest", and Cinefex
publisher Don Shay called it the film's "only viable selling points". In their DVD & Video Guide, Mick Martin and Marsha Porter called it a "dreadful low-budget film with some excellent special effects by David Allen". Doug Pratt, who criticized the poor acting and dull dialogue, said the special effects and stop motion animation "are well executed, but the sequences without effects are fairly dumb". The authors of The DVD-Laser Disc Newsletter called the film "a dull and padded revenge-against-bullies tale", but said the stop motion animation were enjoyable enough that "fans are likely to be pleased with the low-budget film's positive attributes and willing to ignore the rest".
in 1981 from Media Home Entertainment
. It was released on Laserdisc
on June 30, 1993 by Shadow Entertainment, and was re-released on VHS
on November 25, 1997 by Full Moon Entertainment
, a distribution company started by Charles Band. It had a second VHS re-release on October 9, 1998, by United American Home Video. Laserblast was released on DVD
on July 6, 1999, again by Full Moon Entertainment. The picture was presented with an aspect ratio
of 1.66:1 and a stereophonic sound. The disc included no captions and no special features except for cast profiles and trailers for other Full Moon films. Doug Pratt, a DVD reviewer and Rolling Stone contributor, said the visual presentation was better than most films from its time, with fresh colors and only a few speckles, as well as a decent sound transfer. The original motion picture soundtrack was released as a limited edition CD
by BSX Records on August 1, 2005. It consisted of about 46 minutes of music over 25 tracks. SoundtrackNet
reviewer Mike Brennan said it was "actually quite enjoyable in parts", but not the type of music meant to be listened to without the film. Brennan claimed it resembled some of the later and better-known works of Joel Goldsmith, like the scores of Stargate SG-1
and Stargate Atlantis
. Joe Sikoryak of Film Score Monthly
gave the soundtrack one-and-a-half stars out of five, claiming that about one-third of the album sounded like "generic rock 'n' roll cues for a production unable to afford licensing existing songs".
.
and his two robots friends, Crow T. Robot
and Tom Servo
, are trapped in a satellite and forced to watch bad films as part of an ongoing scientific experiment. Laserblast was the sixth episode of the seventh season, which was broadcast on Comedy Central
May 18, 1996. It marked the final episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 on that network, before the series moved to the Sci-Fi Channel
for its eighth season. At the time of the Laserblast episode's broadcast, the makers of Mystery Science Theater 3000 did not know the show would eventually be renewed at a different network. Mary Jo Pehl
, an actress and writer with the show, felt Laserblast was a particularly bad film: "The lead guy, Kim Somebody, is another sterling example of how filmmaking is not a meritocracy. The fact that this film was even made proves that 'anybody can do it.' You can find this either inspiring or depressing."
During the riffing of the film, the robot character Crow T. Robot
claims the film "was run through a highly technical process called 'tension extraction, and the other robot Tom Servo
calls it so dull, "There's a point where it stops being a movie". Mike and the robots make particular note of film critic Leonard Maltin's relatively high two and-a-half star rating of the original film, pointing out other celebrated films that received the same rating like Taxi Driver
, Amadeus
and Sophie's Choice
. The episode also makes several references to Roddy McDowall's performances in the Planet of the Apes
franchise films, and makes several jokes at the expense of Eddie Deezen and his stereotypically nerdy character, at one point dubbing him "heir to the Arnold Stang
fortune". Mike and the robots repeatedly sang "Are You Ready for Some Football?
" whenever Deputy Ungar appeared on screen due to his resemblance to country singer Hank Williams, Jr.
The Laserblast episode was included in the 2010 DVD
box-set "Mystery Science Theater 3000: 20th Anniversary Edition", along with episodes featuring the films First Spaceship on Venus
(1960), Werewolf
(1996) and Future War
(1997). They were also made available for instant online streaming through the Internet rental site, Netflix
. Dan Cziraky of Cinefantastique
, wrote, "If you've never seen Laserblast, this is perfect MST3K viewing! It typifies everything wrong with the late '70s." During a 2009 interview, Eddie Deezen said he loved the show's parody of Laserblast.
B movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
s. Starring Kim Milford
Kim Milford
Richard Kim Milford was an American actor, singer-songwriter, and composer. He is best known for his acting in musicals such as The Rocky Horror Show and Jesus Christ Superstar. Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Milford grew up in Winnetka, Illinois where he attended New Trier High School...
, Cheryl Smith
Rainbeaux Smith
Cheryl Lynn "Rainbeaux" Smith was an American actress. She was known for her role in the exploitation film Caged Heat.-Career:...
and Gianni Russo
Gianni Russo
Louis Giovanni "Gianni" Russo is an American actor, singer and alleged possible member of organized crime, or Cosa Nostra....
, the film features notable cameos appearances by Keenan Wynn
Keenan Wynn
Keenan Wynn was an American character actor. His bristling mustache and expressive face were his stock in trade, and though he rarely had a lead role, he got prominent billing in most of his film and TV parts....
and Roddy McDowall
Roddy McDowall
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...
, and marked the screen debut of actor Eddie Deezen
Eddie Deezen
Eddie Deezen is an American character actor, voice actor and comedian, best known for his bit parts as nerd characters in 1970s and 1980s films such as Grease, Grease 2, Midnight Madness, 1941 and WarGames, as well as for larger roles in a number of independent cult films, including Surf II: The...
.
The script by Frank Ray Perilli and Franne Schacht was heavily influenced by science fiction films like Star Wars
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
(1977) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, and Cary Guffey...
(1977). The reptilian alien creatures in the film were works of stop motion animation
Stop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
by animator David W. Allen
David W. Allen
David W. Allen was a film and television stop-motion model animator.Considered among the finest stop-motion model animators, Dave Allen has contributed some of the best stop-motion sequences to many feature films, rivaling the work of other premier model animators Ray Harryhausen and Jim...
, marking the first chapter in a decades-long history of collaboration between Allen and Band. The alien spacecraft model featured in Laserblast was designed and built by Greg Jein
Greg Jein
Greg Jein is a model designer who creates miniatures for use in the special effects portions of many films and TV shows. He has been doing so since the 1970s.-References:...
in two weeks, and the musical score was written in five days by Joel Goldsmith
Joel Goldsmith
Joel Goldsmith is a composer of film, television, and video game music. He is the son of renowned composer Jerry Goldsmith. He was the main composer for the TV series Stargate SG-1, although the main titles were written by David Arnold...
and Richard Band
Richard Band
Richard Howard Band is a composer of film music. He has scored more than 70 films, including From Beyond, which won the award for Best Original Soundtrack at the Catalonian International Film Festival in Sitges Spain...
, the first film scores for both composers.
Laserblast has received overwhelmingly negative reviews and consistently ranks among the Bottom 100 list of films on the Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
. Even many critical reviews, however, cited Allen's stop motion animation as one of the film's only redeeming qualities. A 1988 sequel was planned, but ultimately abandoned due to financial difficulties. Laserblast was featured in the seventh season finale of the comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
, marking the show's final episode on Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
before the series moved to the Sci-Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
.
Plot
A green-skinned man wanders through the desert with a laser cannon attached to his arm. A spaceship lands and twoaliens
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
emerge, one of whom shoots the man, which disintegrates his body. The aliens depart on their spaceship, leaving behind the laser cannon and a metallic pendant the man was wearing.
Teenager Billy Duncan (Kim Milford
Kim Milford
Richard Kim Milford was an American actor, singer-songwriter, and composer. He is best known for his acting in musicals such as The Rocky Horror Show and Jesus Christ Superstar. Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Milford grew up in Winnetka, Illinois where he attended New Trier High School...
) wakes up in his bed, seemingly disturbed, and learns his mother is leaving for vacation. He goes to visit his girlfriend Kathy (Cheryl Smith
Rainbeaux Smith
Cheryl Lynn "Rainbeaux" Smith was an American actress. She was known for her role in the exploitation film Caged Heat.-Career:...
), but her deranged grandfather Colonel Farley (Keenan Wynn
Keenan Wynn
Keenan Wynn was an American character actor. His bristling mustache and expressive face were his stock in trade, and though he rarely had a lead role, he got prominent billing in most of his film and TV parts....
) makes him leave before he can see her. As Billy drives around town, he is harassed by bullies Chuck Boran (Mike Bobenko) and Froggy (Eddie Deezen
Eddie Deezen
Eddie Deezen is an American character actor, voice actor and comedian, best known for his bit parts as nerd characters in 1970s and 1980s films such as Grease, Grease 2, Midnight Madness, 1941 and WarGames, as well as for larger roles in a number of independent cult films, including Surf II: The...
), and by two police deputies (Dennis Burkley
Dennis Burkley
Dennis Henry Burkley is an American character actor from Texas who has appeared in numerous films and television series since the 1970s.-Early life:...
and Barry Cutler) who give him a speeding ticket. Billy wanders into the desert and discovers the laser cannon and pendant. He starts playing with the cannon, pretending to shoot things, then realizes he can fire the weapon while wearing the pendant. Meanwhile, on the alien spacecraft, the two aliens converse with their leader who shows them footage of Billy using the cannon, prompting the aliens to turn their ship around to head back to Earth.
Later that night, Billy and Kathy attend a party where Chuck makes an unwanted advance on Kathy, resulting in a fight between Billy, Chuck and Froggy. Later that night, Billy uses the laser cannon to explode Chuck's car, and Chuck and Froggy barely escape the explosion alive. Government official Tony Craig (Gianni Russo
Gianni Russo
Louis Giovanni "Gianni" Russo is an American actor, singer and alleged possible member of organized crime, or Cosa Nostra....
) arrives to investigate both the explosion and the desert where Billy found the cannon. Tony informs the local sheriff (Ron Masak
Ron Masak
Ron Masak is an American actor. He began on stage and much of his work is in theater. His first screen role was as the Harmonica Man in "The Purple Testament," an episode of The Twilight Zone in 1960...
) that the town must be sealed off.
Feeling sick due to an unusual growth on his body, Billy visits Dr. Mellon (Roddy McDowall
Roddy McDowall
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...
), who surgically removes a metallic disc from Billy's chest. Mellon calls the police laboratory technician Mike London (Rick Walters) to arrange for the disc to be investigated. A green-skinned Billy opens fire on Mellon's car that evening, killing him in an explosion. The next day, Tony investigates the wreckage and recovers unusual material, which he brings to Mike London, who concludes it is an alien material that cannot be destroyed.
The next day, Kathy puts the pendant on Billy's chest while they are laying together outside. Billy immediately wakes up with green skin and deformed teeth and attacks Kathy. Billy goes on a rampage, shooting random objects with the laser cannon. Law enforcement officials shoot at Billy from an aircraft, but Billy destroys the aircraft with the cannon, and later kills Chuck and Froggy by blowing up their car.
While Tony questions Colonel Farley and Kathy about Billy, the two aliens land on Earth and begin searching for Billy. After killing a man and stealing his van, Billy travels into a city where he randomly fires at his surroundings. Kathy and Tony arrive in the city and locate Billy, as the aliens spot Billy from atop a building and shoot him, which kills Billy and destroys the laser cannon. The aliens depart in their spacecraft and Kathy cries over Billy's corpse.
Writing
Laserblast was produced by Charles Band, who is widely known as a writer, producer and director of B movieB movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
s. Band described the film as a "revenge story" with a simple premise that he thought would be fun for the audience. It was Band who conceived the title of the film with the hopes that it would grab the attention of audiences. Band said of this, "Most of the films that I made, that I conceived, that I was very involved with and in some cases directed, definitely started with the title and usually a piece of artwork that made sense. Then I would work back to the script and the story and make the movie." The script was written by Frank Ray Perilli and Franne Schacht. Elements of the story were inspired by science fiction films, such as Star Wars
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
(1977), and Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, and Cary Guffey...
(1977), while the characteristics of protagonist Billy Duncan – a disenchanted middle-class teen from a suburban setting – mirror those of James Dean
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
's character in Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel Without a Cause is a 1955 American drama film about emotionally confused suburban, middle-class teenagers. Directed by Nicholas Ray, it offered both social commentary and an alternative to previous films depicting delinquents in urban slum environments...
(1955). Band wanted Laserblast to be a "mini-Star Wars", although it was shot before Star Wars was released. At one point in the film, a disparaging reference is made to Star Wars when Billy Duncan fires his laser gun at a roadside billboard for the film, resulting in a tremendous explosion. During another scene, a police officer is confronted by a frightened teenager, who the officer dismissed as crazy by saying, "He's seen Star Wars five times!"
Billy is ignored and abandoned by his mother early in the film, demonstrating the dangers that can result from uncaring parents, one of the major themes of the script. The film also highlights the hypocrisy of police officers, particularly during a scene in which the two deputies smoke marijuana they obtained from teenagers. Commentators have pointed out several inaccuracies and plot-holes in the Laserblast script. John Kenneth Muir
John Kenneth Muir
John Kenneth Muir is an American literary critic. He has written twenty-one reference books in the fields of film and television, with a particular accent on the horror and science fiction genres....
raised several of these issues in his book, Horror Films of the 1970s: "How does Kathy's dad know Craig, the government agent? Why do the aliens leave behind the rifle and the pendant in the first place? Why does the weapon turn its owner into a monstrous green-skinned brute?" Band explained in a 2006 interview that the more Billy uses the gun, "the more it sort of takes over his soul". Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
, film critic with The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, pointed out that originally, when Billy wakes up immediately after the aliens kill the man with the laser cannon, it appears that incident was a dream. Later, however, it turns out to have actually happened after all.
Casting
Kim MilfordKim Milford
Richard Kim Milford was an American actor, singer-songwriter, and composer. He is best known for his acting in musicals such as The Rocky Horror Show and Jesus Christ Superstar. Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Milford grew up in Winnetka, Illinois where he attended New Trier High School...
, who had previously appeared in the original Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production of Hair
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
and the first production of The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show is a long-running British horror comedy stage musical, which opened in London on 19 June 1973. It was written by Richard O'Brien, produced and directed by Jim Sharman. It came eighth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals"...
, starred in the leading role of Laserblast, marking his first major motion picture appearance. Cheryl Smith, who later received greater recognition for her appearances in B movies and exploitation film
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
s, appeared in the lead female role of Kathy Farley. Smith hated the role because she felt it was poorly written and that she did not receive enough rehearsal time. The same year Laserblast was released, Smith also appeared in the horror film The Incredible Melting Man
The Incredible Melting Man
The Incredible Melting Man is a 1977 American science fiction horror film about an astronaut whose body begins to melt after he is exposed to radiation during a space flight to Saturn, driving him to commit murders and consume human flesh to survive...
(1977); in 1996, both of those films would be featured in seventh season episodes of the comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
. Gianni Russo
Gianni Russo
Louis Giovanni "Gianni" Russo is an American actor, singer and alleged possible member of organized crime, or Cosa Nostra....
, best known for playing Carlo Rizzi in The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
(1972), was cast in Laserblast as government investigator Tony Craig.
Laserblast marked the screen debut of Eddie Deezen, who went on to play other archetypal nerd roles in films like Grease
Grease (film)
Grease is a 1978 American musical film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on Warren Casey's and Jim Jacobs's 1971 musical of the same name about two lovers in a 1950s high school. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, and Jeff Conaway...
(1978), which was filmed before this movie had started production, Grease 2
Grease 2
Grease 2 is a 1982 American musical film and sequel to Grease, which is based upon the musical of the same name by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Grease 2 was produced by Allan Carr and Robert Stigwood, and directed and choreographed by Patricia Birch, who also choreographed the first film...
(1982) and Midnight Madness (1980). During a 2009 interview, Deezen remembered little about Laserblast, other than that it was a "shoddy production". Roddy McDowall portrays Doctor Mellon in the film, and his performance lasts for about four minutes. His name is misspelled "McDowell" in the end credits. Keenan Wynn, a long-time character actor from a show business family, portrayed Colonel Farley, who provides comic relief
Comic relief
Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.-Definition:...
as Kathy's crazed, paranoid delusional father and former military man who appears to be suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. The filming for Wynn's small role was finished in one day. Screenwriter Franne Schacht made a cameo appearance as the sheriff's secretary in the film.
Production
Laserblast was directed by Michael Rae, marking his only directorial credit. Filming took place over three weekends and was made "for virtually no money", according to producer Band. The makeup effects in the film, including the gradual discoloration and degeneration of Kim Milford, were handled by makeup artist Steve Neill, who had previously worked with Band on the science fiction film End of the WorldEnd of the World (1977 film)
End of the World is a 1977 American film directed by John Hayes.- Plot:Prof. Andrew Boran is a research scientist who discovers strange radio signals coming from outer space that appear to originate from earth. These strange signals seem to predict natural disasters that are occurring around the...
(1977). Neill makes a cameo appearance in Laserblast as the mutated person killed by the aliens while using the laser weapon in the opening scene of the film. It was Neill who introduced Band to David W. Allen
David W. Allen
David W. Allen was a film and television stop-motion model animator.Considered among the finest stop-motion model animators, Dave Allen has contributed some of the best stop-motion sequences to many feature films, rivaling the work of other premier model animators Ray Harryhausen and Jim...
, the film animator who created the stop motion
Stop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
alien creatures in Laserblast. At the time when Band and Neill met, the former was working full-time on his fantasy film The Primevals
The Primevals
The Primevals is an uncompleted stop-motion fantasy film directed by David W. Allen.The film dates back to the late sixties, when Dave Allen pitched an epic fantasy to a group of Hammer Films executives. He developed the idea over the years, and in 1978 he began production with producer Charles Band...
, which was ultimately never completed. Band had developed an interest and familiarity with animation, particularly the works of Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen is an American film producer and special effects creator...
like Jason and the Argonauts (1963), and wanted Allen to animate the reptilian creatures for his film. Although anxious to work on The Primevals, Allen said he was not yet "sufficiently mature professionally" to undertake a project of that size, and he felt Laserblast was "something that was more manageable". Band and Allen would go on to work together on several other films and projects over the next 20 years.
The alien creatures were featured in 39 cuts of the film through five scenes. The first scene was in the beginning of the film where the aliens emerge from their spacecraft into the desert to shoot Neill's character. Two matte
Matte (filmmaking)
Mattes are used in photography and special effects filmmaking to combine two or more image elements into a single, final image. Usually, mattes are used to combine a foreground image with a background image . In this case, the matte is the background painting...
set-ups were used for effects, including one used to create the illusion of depth
Stereopsis
Stereopsis refers to impression of depth that is perceived when a scene is viewed with both eyes by someone with normal binocular vision. Binocular viewing of a scene creates two slightly different images of the scene in the two eyes due the the eyes' different positions on the head...
with Neill's character in the foreground and the aliens in the background. The sequence where Neill's character shoots the gun out of the hand of one of the aliens was done through wire-supported animation. In the second and third sequences, the two aliens are on board their spaceship, which is a miniature set designed by Dave Carson. The aliens speak with their commander through a monitor in the second sequence, and animations of the commander alien were shot separately and implemented into the scene using a rear projection effect
Rear projection effect
Rear projection is part of many in-camera effects cinematic techniquesin film production for combining foreground performances with pre-filmed backgrounds. It was widely used for many years in driving scenes, or to show other forms of "distant" background motion...
. Both sequences also used rear projection to show footage of Billy and his destruction on Earth. The fourth sequence shows the aliens on Earth, looking at a burnt-out car destroyed by Billy. Footage of the car was rear projected behind the alien models; however, the projected footage was shot at night and the scene took place between two daytime live-action scenes, thus creating a continuity
Continuity (fiction)
In fiction, continuity is consistency of the characteristics of persons, plot, objects, places and events seen by the reader or viewer over some period of time...
error in the film. The final scene is the shortest, and features a confrontation between the aliens and Billy. Matting was again used for the sequence where Billy is shot with a gun by one of the aliens from the top of a building. The aliens then fly off in their spaceship at the end of the scene through a cutout animation
Cutout animation
Cutout animation is a technique for producing animations using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or even photographs...
effect.
Randall William Cook, an animator who had worked with Allen on the horror film The Crater Lake Monster
The Crater Lake Monster
The Crater Lake Monster is a 1977 B-rated horror film directed by William R. Stromberg for Crown International Pictures, and starring Richard Cardella...
(1977), also worked with him on Laserblast, but his name did not appear in the credits. Also uncredited was sculptor Jon Berg, who built the alien creature puppets based on Allen's design. Allen said in a 1993 article that he and Berg created more shots in the film "than originally bargained for". Harry Woolman
Harry Woolman
Harry Simon Woolman was a race-circuit, film, and TV stuntman, specializing in motorcycle jumps, car crashes, and pyrotechnics, from the 1930s through the early 1960s. From the 1960s until his retirement in the mid-1980s, he designed mechanical special effects for films and television...
also assisted with the special effects in Laserblast, while Paul Gentry handled the laser effects. Greg Jein
Greg Jein
Greg Jein is a model designer who creates miniatures for use in the special effects portions of many films and TV shows. He has been doing so since the 1970s.-References:...
, the special effects model-maker who also worked on The Crater Lake Monster, designed and built the spacecraft featured in Laserblast. Jein had recently completed his work on the Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) when Allen approached him for the Laserblast job. It marked the first time Jein, who usually made models from designs provided by others, had designed a project himself. He prepared several concept sketches and, after one was selected, he constructed the 18 inches (45.7 cm) entirely at his home. It took him only two weeks to complete the model. Allen ultimately felt his animation sequences in Laserblast were not properly integrated with the rest of the film.
Joel Goldsmith
Joel Goldsmith
Joel Goldsmith is a composer of film, television, and video game music. He is the son of renowned composer Jerry Goldsmith. He was the main composer for the TV series Stargate SG-1, although the main titles were written by David Arnold...
and Richard Band
Richard Band
Richard Howard Band is a composer of film music. He has scored more than 70 films, including From Beyond, which won the award for Best Original Soundtrack at the Catalonian International Film Festival in Sitges Spain...
, the brother of film producer Charles Band, composed the music for Laserblast, marking the first film score for both composers. It took the duo only five days to write the score, which makes heavy use of synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
, particularly synthesized brass instrument
Brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
s, as well as electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
. The two composers bring a variety to the score, with some reflecting a rock or pop sound, and others more heavily synthesized and stylized. The music was also used in the Charles Band-produced film Auditions
Auditions (1978 film)
-Plot :A pseudo-documentary about the processes involved in putting together and casting actors and actresses for a porn film. Although several actual porn stars are in the film, it is not a porn film itself.-DVD Release:...
, released the same year, and the 1983 horror film The House on Sorority Row
The House on Sorority Row
The House on Sorority Row is a 1983 low budget American slasher film directed by Mark Rosman. The film has become a cult classic among fans of the genre.-Plot:...
. The company Echo Film Services handled the sound effects. The alien language chatter between the aliens in Laserblast was later used as sound effects in the metal band Static-X
Static-X
Static-X is an American industrial metal band from Los Angeles, California. They were formed in 1994. They are signed to Warner Bros. Records and have released six albums, their most recent being Cult of Static, which was released on March 17, 2009....
's song "A Dios Alma Perdida", which is featured in their 2001 album Machine
Machine (Static-X album)
-Chart positions:AlbumSingles-Personnel:*Static-X**Wayne Static - vocals, guitars, keyboards, programming**Tony Campos - bass, background vocals**Ken Jay - drums...
. During several points in the film when something explodes after it is shot by the laser gun, the scene is edited so that multiple shots of the same explosion are shown in succession. This type of editing became a trademark of Charles Band's films, and was done previously in his 1977 films Crash and End of the World.
Reception
The film was distributedFilm distributor
A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically or for home viewing...
by the Irwin Yablans Company, and released on March 1, 1978. Irwin Yablans
Irwin Yablans
Irwin Yablans is an American independent film producer and distributor known for his work in the horror film industry.-Biography:...
, who later produced the first three Halloween films
Halloween (franchise)
Halloween is an American horror franchise that consists of ten slasher films, novels, and comic books. The franchise focuses on the fictional character of Michael Myers who was committed to a sanitarium as a child for the murder of his older sister, Judith Myers...
, specialized primarily in distributing B movies and low-budget horror films. Laserblast was advertised in conjunction with End of the World, which was released the previous year and still playing theaters. At the time that Laserblast was released, audience interest in science fiction films was particularly high due to the release of Star Wars and the long wait until the release of its sequels, The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is a 1980 American epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner. The screenplay, based on a story by George Lucas, was written by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan...
(1980) and Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand and written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. It is the third film released in the Star Wars saga, and the sixth in terms of the series' internal chronology...
(1983).
Laserblast has received largely negative reviews, and consistently ranks among the Bottom 100 list of films on the Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
. A 1978 critique in The Review of the News said, "The only thing eerie about Laserblast is the thought that the people who made this loser are still running around loose." In the review, Laserblast was described as "an incomprehensible blending" of popular recent films like Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with a script "so disordered we could not be certain that the reels were being run in proper sequence". It also criticized the props, particularly the laser gun, which they compared to a cereal box prize
Cereal box prize
A cereal box prize is a promotional toy or small item that is offered as an incentive to buy a particular breakfast cereal. Prizes are found inside or sometimes on the cereal box...
. A review by Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
magazine said the special effects were decent, but the script "has more holes than the laser-ravaged landscape." Janet Maslin of The New York Times said Kim Milford's performance was dull and that the script included plot-holes and inconsistencies. The Los Angeles Times critic Linda Gross said the script lacked "credibility, psychological motivation and narrative cohesiveness", although she praised Terry Bowen's cinematography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
, saying it "effectively captures the ambience of desert small-town life." Film critic Michael Medved
Michael Medved
Michael Medved is an American radio host, author, political commentator and film critic. His Seattle, Washington-based nationally syndicated talk show, The Michael Medved Show, airs throughout the U.S...
described Laserblast as one of the worst films of the year in his book, The Golden Turkey Awards
The Golden Turkey Awards
The Golden Turkey Awards is a 1980 book by film critic Michael Medved and his brother Harry Medved.The book awards the fictional "Golden Turkey Awards" to films judged by the authors as poor in quality, and to directors and actors judged to have created a chronically inept body of work...
.
Literary critic John Kenneth Muir felt the script had many plot-holes left many unanswered questions, and that there was "little effort to forge a coherent story out of the mix". New York Daily News writer David Bianculli described Laserblast as "numbingly bad". In The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies, Phil Hardy describes it as "a wholly unimaginative film", adding, "Even the non-stop series of exploding cars becomes monotonous in the hands of director Rae." The Time Out Film Guide described Laserblast as a rip-off of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and said Billy's reign of destruction seemed random and senseless rather than driven by plot or characterization. The review called the film "the epitome of what Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
once hymned as 'cheapness. The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
writer Robert Martin called the script inept, said Steve Neill's make-up effects were "frightful rather than frightening", and said Cheryl Smith could "barely talk, let alone act". Martin also stated the film was pulled from a Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
theater after showing for one week.
Not all reviews were negative. Blockbuster Entertainment gave the film three out of five stars, and film critic Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
gave it two-and-a-half out of four stars. In their book about science fiction films, writers James Robert Parish and Michael R. Pitts called Laserblast "an stimulating, unpretentious little film in the same vein as I Was a Teenage Werewolf
I Was a Teenage Werewolf
I Was a Teenage Werewolf is a 1957 horror film starring Michael Landon as a troubled teenager and Whit Bissell as the primary adult. It was co-written and produced by cult film producer Herman Cohen, and was one of the most successful films released by American International Pictures...
". Parish and Pitts praised the stop motion animation and the performance of Cheryl Smith. Laserblast was among several films universally considered terrible that film reviewer Michael Adams watched as part of a book about his quest to find the worst film of all time. However, Adams said he enjoyed watching it on a B movie
B movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
level. Monthly Film Bulletin
Monthly Film Bulletin
The Monthly Film Bulletin was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a narrow arthouse release. The MFB was edited in the mid-1950s by David Robinson, in the late...
said that Laserblast was "Band's first major box-office success on the exploitation circuit". According to Space.com
Space.com
Space.com is a space and astronomy news website. Its stories are often syndicated to other media outlets, including CNN, MSNBC, Yahoo!, and USA Today.Space.com was founded by former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs and Rich Zahradnik, in July 1999...
, Laserblast has achieved cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
status. During a 2005 interview, Charles Band called the film "hilarious" and stated "it had its charm" like many films from its time. He also said that the film would have been made differently and would have had less critical reactions had it been produced with a larger budget.
Several critical reviews cited the stop motion animation as one of the film's only redeeming qualities. Richard Meyers, a novelist who also wrote about science-fiction films, described Laserblast as "basically repetitive and predictable", but included some redemptive qualities in the animation of Dave Allen and the makeup effects of Steve Neill. Science fiction literary scholar Peter Nicholls
Peter Nicholls (writer)
Peter Nicholls is an Australian literary scholar and critic. He is the creator and a co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction ....
called it the worst of Charles Band's films, calling it "badly scripted, badly paced rubbish," describing Allen's "o.k. aliens" as "the only plus". Likewise, film essayist Dennis Fischer said Allen's stop motion animation provides the film's "sole moments of interest", and Cinefex
Cinefex
Cinefex is a quarterly professional movie special effects magazine. It is among the first dedicated special effects magazines ever produced, at a time where computer generated imagery effects were not as common....
publisher Don Shay called it the film's "only viable selling points". In their DVD & Video Guide, Mick Martin and Marsha Porter called it a "dreadful low-budget film with some excellent special effects by David Allen". Doug Pratt, who criticized the poor acting and dull dialogue, said the special effects and stop motion animation "are well executed, but the sequences without effects are fairly dumb". The authors of The DVD-Laser Disc Newsletter called the film "a dull and padded revenge-against-bullies tale", but said the stop motion animation were enjoyable enough that "fans are likely to be pleased with the low-budget film's positive attributes and willing to ignore the rest".
Home release
Laserblast was initially released on home videoHome video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
in 1981 from Media Home Entertainment
Media Home Entertainment
Media Home Entertainment Inc. was a home video company headquartered in Culver City, California, originally established in 1978 by filmmaker Charles Band....
. It was released on Laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
on June 30, 1993 by Shadow Entertainment, and was re-released on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
on November 25, 1997 by Full Moon Entertainment
Full Moon Features
Full Moon Features is a motion picture production and distribution company headed by B-movie veteran Charles Band. It is known for the direct-to-video series Puppet Master and Subspecies, as well as the innovative VideoZone featurette at the end of films through 1989 to 2000.-Full Moon...
, a distribution company started by Charles Band. It had a second VHS re-release on October 9, 1998, by United American Home Video. Laserblast was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on July 6, 1999, again by Full Moon Entertainment. The picture was presented with an aspect ratio
Aspect ratio (image)
The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of the width of the image to its height, expressed as two numbers separated by a colon. That is, for an x:y aspect ratio, no matter how big or small the image is, if the width is divided into x units of equal length and the height is measured using this...
of 1.66:1 and a stereophonic sound. The disc included no captions and no special features except for cast profiles and trailers for other Full Moon films. Doug Pratt, a DVD reviewer and Rolling Stone contributor, said the visual presentation was better than most films from its time, with fresh colors and only a few speckles, as well as a decent sound transfer. The original motion picture soundtrack was released as a limited edition CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
by BSX Records on August 1, 2005. It consisted of about 46 minutes of music over 25 tracks. SoundtrackNet
SoundtrackNet
- History :Created in 1997 by David A. Koran and Dan Goldwasser at Carnegie Mellon University, the site has grown over the past decade to become one of the leading websites covering the film music industry in Hollywood....
reviewer Mike Brennan said it was "actually quite enjoyable in parts", but not the type of music meant to be listened to without the film. Brennan claimed it resembled some of the later and better-known works of Joel Goldsmith, like the scores of Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1
Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich...
and Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Atlantis is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of MGM's Stargate franchise. The show was created by Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper as a spin-off series of Stargate SG-1, which was created by Wright and Jonathan Glassner and was itself...
. Joe Sikoryak of Film Score Monthly
Film Score Monthly
Film Score Monthly is an online magazine founded by editor-in-chief and executive producer Lukas Kendall in June 1990 as The Soundtrack Correspondence List...
gave the soundtrack one-and-a-half stars out of five, claiming that about one-third of the album sounded like "generic rock 'n' roll cues for a production unable to afford licensing existing songs".
Sequel
Charles Band originally planned to produce a sequel called Laserblast II, with production work to begin in August 1986 and a theatrical release expected to follow shortly thereafter. A tagline released for the film read, "The ultimate alien weapon is back." When plans for the sequel were announced, Atlanta-based film critic Scott Journal wrote, "I am one of the few people in the world who saw the original and, believe me, it did not merit a followup." However, Charles Band Productions fell into financial difficulties shortly after the production of Laserblast, and the project was eventually scrapped. However, the premise and elements of the abandoned sequel were later used in the 1988 Charles Band film, Deadly Weapon, which like Laserblast was about a bullied teenager who finds a powerful weapon and uses it to seek revenge against his enemies. Band continued to make films and eventually formed Empire PicturesEmpire International Pictures
Empire Pictures was a small scale theatrical distribution company that was formed in 1983 by Charles Band.The company produced a number of low-budget horror and fantasy features including Trancers and The Dungeonmaster...
.
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Laserblast was featured in the seventh season finale episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a comedy television series. In the show, the human character Mike NelsonMike Nelson (character)
Mike Nelson is a fictional character in the comedy science fiction television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. Portrayed by actor/head writer Michael J. Nelson, Mike is a likable, sometimes dim temp worker from Wisconsin who comes to work for the mad scientists Dr...
and his two robots friends, Crow T. Robot
Crow T. Robot
Crow T. Robot is a fictional character from the American science fiction comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Crow is a robot, who, along with others, quips and riffs upon poor-quality B movies.- Overview :...
and Tom Servo
Tom Servo
Tom Servo is a fictional character from the American science fiction comedy television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Tom is one of two wise-cracking, robotic main characters of the show, built by Joel Robinson to act as a companion and help stave off space madness as Joel was forced to watch...
, are trapped in a satellite and forced to watch bad films as part of an ongoing scientific experiment. Laserblast was the sixth episode of the seventh season, which was broadcast on Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
May 18, 1996. It marked the final episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 on that network, before the series moved to the Sci-Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
for its eighth season. At the time of the Laserblast episode's broadcast, the makers of Mystery Science Theater 3000 did not know the show would eventually be renewed at a different network. Mary Jo Pehl
Mary Jo Pehl
Mary Joseph Pehl born February 27, 1960 in Circle Pines, Minnesota, is an American writer, actress and comedienne. She is best known for her various roles on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000.-Mystery Science Theater 3000:...
, an actress and writer with the show, felt Laserblast was a particularly bad film: "The lead guy, Kim Somebody, is another sterling example of how filmmaking is not a meritocracy. The fact that this film was even made proves that 'anybody can do it.' You can find this either inspiring or depressing."
During the riffing of the film, the robot character Crow T. Robot
Crow T. Robot
Crow T. Robot is a fictional character from the American science fiction comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Crow is a robot, who, along with others, quips and riffs upon poor-quality B movies.- Overview :...
claims the film "was run through a highly technical process called 'tension extraction, and the other robot Tom Servo
Tom Servo
Tom Servo is a fictional character from the American science fiction comedy television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Tom is one of two wise-cracking, robotic main characters of the show, built by Joel Robinson to act as a companion and help stave off space madness as Joel was forced to watch...
calls it so dull, "There's a point where it stops being a movie". Mike and the robots make particular note of film critic Leonard Maltin's relatively high two and-a-half star rating of the original film, pointing out other celebrated films that received the same rating like Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver
Taxi Driver is a 1976 American drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The film is set in New York City, soon after the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro and features Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, and Cybill Shepherd. The film was nominated for four Academy...
, Amadeus
Amadeus (film)
Amadeus is a 1984 period drama film directed by Miloš Forman and written by Peter Shaffer. Adapted from Shaffer's stage play Amadeus, the story is based loosely on the lives of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, two composers who lived in Vienna, Austria, during the latter half of the...
and Sophie's Choice
Sophie's Choice (film)
Sophie's Choice is a 1982 American romantic drama film that tells the story of a Polish immigrant, Sophie, and her tempestuous lover who share a boarding house with a young writer in Brooklyn. The film stars Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Peter MacNicol. Alan J...
. The episode also makes several references to Roddy McDowall's performances in the Planet of the Apes
Planet of the Apes (franchise)
Planet of the Apes is a United States media franchise with seven films , two television series, and comic books. The series began with the 1968 science fiction film Planet of the Apes, which was based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle.-Background:The original series of...
franchise films, and makes several jokes at the expense of Eddie Deezen and his stereotypically nerdy character, at one point dubbing him "heir to the Arnold Stang
Arnold Stang
Arnold Stang was an American comic actor who played a small and bespectacled, yet brash and knowing big-city type.-Career:...
fortune". Mike and the robots repeatedly sang "Are You Ready for Some Football?
All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight
"All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" is a song written and recorded by country music performer Hank Williams, Jr.. It was released in October 1984 as the second single from his 1984 album Major Moves. It peaked at number ten on the country music charts...
" whenever Deputy Ungar appeared on screen due to his resemblance to country singer Hank Williams, Jr.
Hank Williams, Jr.
Randall Hank Williams , better known as Hank Williams, Jr. and Bocephus, is an American country singer-songwriter and musician. His musical style is often considered a blend of Southern rock, blues, and traditional country...
The Laserblast episode was included in the 2010 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
box-set "Mystery Science Theater 3000: 20th Anniversary Edition", along with episodes featuring the films First Spaceship on Venus
First Spaceship on Venus
First Spaceship on Venus, German: Der schweigende Stern , Polish: Milcząca Gwiazda, is a 1960 East German/Polish film directed by Kurt Maetzig and based on the novel The Astronauts by Stanisław Lem...
(1960), Werewolf
Werewolf (1996 film)
Werewolf is a 1996 direct-to-video horror film that was lampooned in a 1998 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.- Plot :...
(1996) and Future War
Future War
Future War is a 1997 direct-to-video American science fiction film about an escaped human slave fleeing his cyborg masters and seeking refuge on Earth. It was lampooned in a 1999 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.- Plot :...
(1997). They were also made available for instant online streaming through the Internet rental site, Netflix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
. Dan Cziraky of Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique was a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke...
, wrote, "If you've never seen Laserblast, this is perfect MST3K viewing! It typifies everything wrong with the late '70s." During a 2009 interview, Eddie Deezen said he loved the show's parody of Laserblast.