Zombies from Outer Space

The inquiry raised in my review's subject line is actually a sincere one, since I honestly don't know the answer myself… "Zombies from Outer Space" is more than obviously a zero-budgeted fan-boy accomplishment, with friends and neighbors recruited as lead stars and random furniture and tableware used as set pieces, but I can't ignore the impression that writer/director Martin Faltermeier very much knew what he was doing and deliberately kept everything extra incompetent. I've seen more than enough B-movie tributes that are just supposed to look cheap and inept, but in fact really are cheap and inept! Movies where the cast & crew simply can't do any better. "Frog-g-g", "There's Nothing Out There" and "Sharp Teeth" come to mind, and to a minor extent even "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra". "Zombies from Outer Space" is different… It's too good at being bad, if that makes any sense. The film has a pretty nifty story to boot! Evil aliens are burying their dead in crop circles on earthly soil, but they emerge again and feed on the townsfolk of a small Bavarian community. The aliens look for new territory, as their own planet is getting overpopulated, but their immune system can't function very long in our atmosphere. Luckily, for them at least, they are about to fix this issue with the help of a sinister scientist. Salvation lies within the hands of the scientist's nerdy assistant and a US army captain, but they are too busy conquering the heart of a local farmer's daughter named Maria. One glimpse at the film's poster (sadly not yet illustrated here on the website) is enough to know that "Zombies from Outer Space" is a silly but enthusiast and charming flick that efficiently covers all our beloved themes of 50's Sci-Fi, including the menace of a superior extraterrestrial race, mass hysteria, crazed scientists and love-rivalries between the heroes. The alien zombie invaders look exquisite and exactly like the clichéd prototype prescribes (gigantic skulls with large lifeless eyes) and there are plenty of fun sequences with exaggeratedly fake-looking UFO's. The entire ensemble cast overacts terribly – again, whether or not on purpose – and particularly "American" soldiers are hilarious to listen to, what with their atrocious over-the-top accents. Unfortunately, the film isn't entirely successful. With a running time of 95 minutes "Zombies from Outer Space" is definitely too long and, consequently, features an overload of redundant and horribly dull scenes. Efforts like these certainly do not appeal to a wide range of audiences, so I guess it's doomed to remain in obscurity. Too bad, but I'm sure genuine fans of the genre will somehow track it down.

My infinite search for anything just remotely zombie-related brought me to this movie. And I have seen my share of questionable zombie movies, but "Zombies From Outer Space" goes straight to the top ten of bad zombie movies.

Why? Well, everything about this movie was just horrible, aside from a somewhat interesting storyline. The story is taking place in post Second World War Bavaria, with American troops still found in the country. A strange phenomena takes place in a small rural village, and soon the village is overrun with flesh-eating reanimated creatures from outer space.

The storyline was actually interesting enough to make the movie watchable, while everything else was just downright awful.

The acting was wooden and hilarious, no one really put on anything even remotely memorable. And usually in war movies, you have Americans acting as Germans and speaking English with a bad German-imitated accent. In "Zombies From Outer Space", however, it is the other way around; here you have German actors trying to act like they are Americans and speak American English. But it was so awful, their accents were all over the place and didn't even remotely sound like any American accent I have ever heard. Worst of all was Siegfried Foster (playing Captain John Welles). I have never heard English that bad before. Especially his scene in the aeroplane (from 28:05 to 29:32). I had to go back after the movie finished and watch that scene again because it totally cracked me up.

As for the dialogue in the movie, well, let's just say some sort of dialogue was there. But it was rather pitiful. And the actors and actresses didn't deliver it with much conviction.

The aliens resembled something from a 1970's Sci-Fi movie; people running around with fake prosthetic heads. Heads that were made from papier-mâché, with non-functional parts. It was so rigid and fake. And how very convenient that all the aliens were wearing trousers (but nothing else).

"Zombies From Outer Space" is so bad, campy and cheesy that it is actually worth watching, just for being able to say 'yeah, I watched that one and survived!'

Okay, people will be divided when they watched this flick. First of all it's spoken in German and in particularly in Bavarian. So some my turn their face away when hearing this. On the other hand it's been subtitled in English and I must say that there are almost no mistakes in the subs because sometimes German flicks do have weird English subs. The other reason why people don't like it is because it looks like a flick from the fifties. And that means, a lot of blah blah before things go wrong.

If you can stand both then you will actually like this flick. Myself not fund of fifties sci-fi and horror flicks did actually like it because when the aliens do walk amongst humans it do offer some gory moments.

You don't want to watch it for the acting because it's a bit stiff and naturally when some actors are trying to talk English it becomes a bit funny.

As I said earlier, the effects for such a independent were rather good. The aliens do look frightening and the opening sequence did offer some gory effects. Once the aliens walk it's all done by the actors itself but I can't say that I saw how they did some affects nd that's rather good (ofcourse I know but you can't tell).

Indeed not for all horror buffs walking this earth, just for those who do like the fifties. Sure, some scene's are a bit too long (the bar for example) but it do have it's moments here and there.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

This rather strange film takes place in Germany right after World War II with a farmer finding an extremely large skull buried in the middle of his cornfield. After examining it closely he sustains a deep cut on his hand which then causes him to scream out in pain. The scene then shifts to a year or two later with a young woman named "Maria" (Judith Gorgass) delivering food to a medical clinic where a young doctor by the name "Robert Holzlein" (Florian Kiml) works and just happens to be in love with her. Realizing that her step-parents would be extremely upset if she were to become romantically involved with him she gently rebuffs his flirtations and goes about her business with her next stop at a local American military base nearby. As it so happens, one of the young pilots by the name of "Captain John Welles" (Siegfried Foster) also has feelings for her but once again she brushes off his advances and heads back home. However, everything changes when the body of a young woman is found in the woods which unites both Dr. Holzlein and Captain Welles in their efforts to find out what happened and protect Maria at all costs. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a low-budget film which suffered directly as a result with incredibly bad dialogue, bad acting, poor costumes and laughable portrayals of American soldiers. On a side note, I should also mention that having an American Army general directly in command of Air Force pilots isn't something that happened very often--especially in the scenario depicted in this film. Be that as it may, it really didn't matter that much as the film itself simply wasn't that good and for that reason I have rated it accordingly.

Members of a small, rural Bavarian community and the staff of a nearby American airbase come under attack from flesh-hungry reanimated alien corpses, buried on Earth (under crop-circles) as part of an extraterrestrial plot to take over our planet.

Zombies From Out Of Space is an ambitious indie homage to the schlocky sci-fi/horror movies of the 50s, but one that sadly bites off more than it can chew, ultimately failing to live up to its impressive B-movie style promotional art and packaging (it was the cool poster that first caught my attention and eventually convinced me to part with my cash for a signed DVD).

Some lovely camera-work and impressive visual effects bode well, with a few particularly well executed shots of crop-circles and flying saucers belying the almost non-existent budget, but the film is let down by a clumsy script that features numerous redundant scenes and lousy performances by an enthusiastic but sadly not very talented cast (several of whom ill-advisedly attempt American accents).

Director Martin Faltermeier throws in some fun gore during the zombie alien attack finalé, but to get there one has to endure some real dross, including a dreadfully dull romantic triangle between local girl Maria (Judith Gorgass), scientist Robert (Florian Kiml), and US captain John Welles (Siegfried Foster), lots of boring jibber jabber, and a completely pointless scene at a dance that turns into a brawl.