Future Fear

Well, I didn't expect much of this film, but what I saw was the worst film I've ever watched. Everything in this 'film' is d-class: the actors, the production design and ... oh yeah the special effects. I think they used some old firecracker left from last New Year's Eve. If you ever see this film in your video shop, don't touch it. 1 out of 10

I watched this movie on cable tv. How disappointed I am. Not only boring but it is also too slow. Why did a high-profile actor like Stacy Keach agree to star in this movie? Follow my advice. Avoid it at all cost.

The year is 2018. That is the only thing in the entire movie that is truly comprehensible. This is an unbelievably terrible science fiction film that isn't suitable for any viewer. Now, what about the plot, you ask? I like to discuss plots, but there just isn't one worth taking the time to explain, other than scientist Jeff Wincott wants to develop an antidote for a deadly virus, but a mad general has, for some reason, sent the scientist's wife to stop him. It all takes place in an underground compound with the cheapest sets this side of the 21st century.

Jeff Wincott, in a scene where he is standing, appropriately, in a pile of garbage, remarks that he is in "a poor man's Raiders of the Lost Ark." They even call some device an "Ark." What an insult to a great movie. But the whole film is an insult to us all, anyway. And why is a great actor like Stacey Keach trying to put a stop to his career? Except for the conclusion, he pops into the movie in shots by himself, spouting out nonsense. I guess that means he is describing the plot, huh? Well, I sure wish I had gotten a terminal virus a few hours ago. Then I wouldn't have sat through this terrible movie. Zantara's score: 1 out of 10.

Ok, so it is really that bad. But it's entertaining in a Mystery-cience-Theater-3000 sort of way. I mean, it's not just bad, it's awful. It makes you wonder what the writers were thinking. The special effects are a joke, the bright latex costumes are inexcusable, and, to appeal to the highbrows, the movie contains numerous references to Alice in Wonderland, for which the main character has some kind of wierd fetish. Look for Humpty Dumpty on the mantle during the sex scenes. Anyway, it's basically a 90's update of Plan Nine from Outer Space, only without aliens (the only space shot is of this satellite collecting cosmic dust, which is shown maybe eight different times). The movie is worth checking out, if only to know for yourself how bad it really is. But don't be disappointed when you find out that those tight guns and exploding spaceship on the cover are nowhere in the film.

Talk about your bad B movies. Future Fear is basically a three person show with scenes cribbed from other movies. Pay close attention to the trailers on the New Horizons video cassette. In the trailer for Eruption, there are scenes of Latin American extras running from an erupting volcano crowding the streets. In the middle of Future Fear, the film makers use the same scene of Latin Americans running from an erupting volcano to demonstrate the effects of mass panic of the citizens who are fleeing from a deadly virus that has been brought back by a comet. The whole movie must consist of under an hour with extra scenes from other Roger Corman New Horizon films padding out the film to a turgid eighty minute length. The plot? Jeff Wincott has created a cure for the virus, but wife Maria Ford's loyalty is for the Government led by a fascist Stacy Keach, and spends time running around the New Horizons office building trying to kill Jeff Wincott. If you ever want to see a film that quotes from Alice in Wonderland and Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky then this it. One good scene however. In a flashback scene, Jeff Wincott and Maria Ford recreate the Mad Hatter's tea party. I don't know why, but that is an inspired scene. Too bad it lasts a few moments. The movie itself seems to last a lifetime.