Evils of the Night

Right from the opening, depicting something resembling a customized mobile home floating through space, you know this is something special. A low budget space ship lands in the middle of the woods - this contains alien scientists John Carradine, Julie Newmar, and Tina Louise. Using a hospital as a base of operations, they set out to fulfill their mission; to gather blood platelets from young Earth people and send the stuff back to their home planet. Platelets, it seems, are the key to eternal life. They hire two mechanics (Aldo Ray and Neville Brand) to handle the dirty work of capturing unwilling donors. And what luck - nearby there are a group of perfect specimens on a camping trip...

First of all, the cast is amazing. Carradine and Newmar - no strangers to this terrain - actually manage to pull their roles off with style and dignity. Aldo Ray was probably used to this kind of movie as well, having already appeared in such things as Mongrel and Biohazard - while Tina Louise was `Ginger' on Gilligan's Island. Neville Brand had a distinguished record in World War 2, and afterward found his way into a major Hollywood career, specializing in westerns during the fifties - and notably played Duke, the embittered POW in Stalag 17. In this, his last film, he plays the role of Ray's lackey - and actually appears to be enjoying himself, even while unpleasantly ogling and pawing his captured female victims. Also worth mentioning is the fact that the victims and potential victims are not just cardboard cut-outs, and you actually like them.

Is this movie any good? Well, let me put it this way - it's dumb and cheap and sleazy - but that's exactly what it's intended to be. It would have been a perfect feature on the late, great USA Up All Night, as it's very much in that "style". For the people who consider that a recommendation, dive right in.

If this reviews' corresponding rating were based on technical prowess or filmmaking / story quality, it would naturally be low indeed. But it supplies a substantial amount of entertainment value. This is cheeseball crud at its finest. While on one hand this viewer did feel bad for the veteran actors involved (more to the point, it's sad that THIS was Neville Brands' final film), they help to make this fun. "Evils of the Night" is tacky, it's trashy, and it's downright silly.

The plot has a team of aliens - Dr. Kozmar (John Carradine), Dr. Zarma (Julie Newmar), and Cora (Tina Louise) among them - arriving on Earth. They manipulate two ceaselessly stupid and sleazy garage mechanics, Kurt (Mr. Brand), and Fred (Aldo Ray) into abducting as many of the local airhead oversexed college students as possible, to be used in biological experiments.

Since the victims here are so utterly pathetic (they sure don't do a very good job of trying to save their own worthless asses), one may end up rooting for the antagonists by default.

Add to this mix some painfully loud and peppy pop tunes, a respectable amount of female nudity, and the fumbling direction of Mohammed "Mardi" Rustam, and you get fromage writ large, a cheap genre item that's pretty hard to resist. Rustam had worked as a producer of 70s favourites such as "Psychic Killer" and Tobe Hoopers' "Eaten Alive", and this was his only feature length directing credit on a motion picture.

Newmar and Louise look quite good, as do many of their young co-stars. Carradine may have appeared in a lot of junk unworthy of his talents over the years, but the fact remains that even in stuff like this, he never seemed to phone it in; his performance is the most fun.

Buffs will note that two of the younger cast members, Karrie Emerson and Tony O'Dell, also worked together subsequently in "Chopping Mall".

Eight out of 10.

Five of Hollywood's legends get a chance to embarrass themselves in this brainless science fiction film where some healthy teens are captured and used as lab rats for experiments. John Carradine is our head alien scientist and he's assisted by Julie Newmar and Tina Louise.

Gathering subjects and there are plenty around with buff boys and gorgeous girls at a lake nearby. Also nearby are a pair of garage mechanics, Aldo Ray and Neville Brand who are in the employ of the aliens to bring subjects.

This movie is about as bad as it gets unless you are into scantily clad teens and if you're gay really studly boys. Funny thing is that 30 years earlier I would have looked forward to a film with those five in the cast.

Hope their paychecks cleared.

An alien craft lands on our beloved planet. Close by, couples engaging in naked frivolity are rudely interrupted. The aliens (John Carradine, Julie Newmar, and Tina Louise!) need human blood to survive, leading to the amorous couples being taken away to the aliens' secret lair for draining.

Soon, a fresh supply of bubble-headed young people arrive, and, since it's the 1980's, they only have one thing in mind. Yep, unconvincing, simulated sex! According to this movie, they couldn't possibly do anything else. Seriously, people this stupid could forget how to breathe!

Enter Fred and Kurt (Aldo Ray and Neville Brand!), who nab more youths for exsanguination.

EVILS OF THE NIGHT is two movies in one. The first half is a cheeezey soft core film, turning into a cheeezey slasher film for the second half, while the aliens do a lot of standing around. All together, this is a deep-dish, sub-sludge pizza!

While Carradine and Newmar weren't given much to do, Ms. Louise is actually pretty good in this. In fact, she's easily the best thing about this entire project!

P.S.- Neville Brand gives us an idea of what a sequel to his EATEN ALIVE might have looked like, since he basically reprises that movie's totally bananas "Judd" role...

This wacky and exploitative sci-fi horror flick features John Carradine as an alien doctor who needs blood of horny teenagers,so he enlists for help two sleazy mechanics Aldo Ray and Neville Brand.There are also two sexy alien nurses and dumb/sexually active teenagers constantly hooking up including two porn starlets Amber Lynn and Crystal Breeze."Evils of the Night" has to be seen to be believed.The plot is weird and the acting of teens is diabolical.There is plenty of sex and nudity plus some nasty drill/axe violence during the last half of the movie.I can't say that I really liked Mardi Rustam's crazy film debut,but I certainly enjoyed Neville Brand and Aldo Ray performances.6 green laser rings out of 10.