It Came from Somewhere

I enjoyed it from the start to the finish. It is one of those movies that left me smiling and ready to watch again. It pokes fun of the B movies of the 50's but it isn't a spoof, it is a love letter, and a very good one at that. The cheap props and cheesy dialogue are part of what makes it so appealing.

When a flying saucer crashes on Earth, chaos ensues. The interaction between the aliens and the humans is a lot of fun and and filled with several laugh out loud moments. The creature wreaking havoc reminded me of Frankenstein's monster. In fact, several scenes seemed to be a direct tip of the hat to the classic Boris Karloff film. It is a new film but very easily sits among the films that inspired it.

My first impression was how adorable the actors were, all doing their best to mimic teenagers from those old education films and of course, the scifi genre of the fifties. (I know I am stating the obvious, but what the heck) Yes it is Ed woodian. (Roger Coreman had slightly better production value) My favorite cheesy special effect was the ray gun that distintegrated flesh. When I was a kid and I saw Teenagers from Outer space on TV, I thought it was the coolest movie ever, giant lobsters and all! (I was seven years old) The movie also reminded me of The Invasion of the Saucer Men. Again, small town teenagers saving the earth from cabbage headed martians with their car head lights! And who can forget the crawling hands equiped with eye balls ! ICFS was great fun to watch and I applaud the homage to bad cinema. If only MST3000 were still around!

I'll start this review with a statement. The indie film world needed a film like this. Now that that's out of the way, on with the review.

It Came from Somewhere is one of those films where you sit back and enjoy it for what it is. A campy, cheese filled sandwich that oozes the cheese out of the side of the bread after you take a bite. When the opening minute of the film, actually before the actual film even begins, featured ads from a drive-in theater I knew I was in for something different. What makes this film stand out is how it was filmed. No 4K, no wide screen, instead shot in B/W, 4:3 ratio and adding to the look, screen scratches and blemishes are scattered throughout the film. It really appeared as if it was filmed in the 1950's.

Okay, so it looked as it was filmed in the 50's you ask, how was the film itself. Bad, and I mean that as a compliment. The acting was over the top, the opening monologue made absolutely no sense but that was intentional (an homage to Plan 9) The sets, I don't want to spoil anything but the interior of the spaceship, priceless. The creature, Space-Clops, is exactly what you'd expect in a film like this. I must add, not all of the film is good bad, there are several tender moments between a young girl, Mary, and space-clops that came out of no where and I wasn't expecting. That brings me to this. You kind of care about the characters and what happens to them, something rare in B films of the decade. There's horror, a love story, and a short tempered alien vaporizing everyone she sees and what you get is an enjoyable film.

Credit to where credit is due. Hermann and the cast did a remarkable job bringing the 50's back, Mystery Science Theater 3000 would be proud.

As a side note, I managed to catch four references from 50's B films, older films, and a film from the 80's, throughout its 1 hour runtime.

The acting is awful, the script is really awful and the special effects are terrible. However, that seems to be the point since the awfulness is so blatantly obvious.

They claim it's a tribute to Ed Wood and the creature features of the 50's and 60's and I agree that he would have had a laugh.

The costumes for the 'aliens' are terrible, too, but the clothing for the regular actors is pretty close to appropriate for the era.

All in all, it works. If you're concerned about wasting time, it's only an hour long.

I can't honestly recommend it unless you like spoofs and old school sci-fi, but it's not so bad.

Well, it ain't the "Lost Skeleton of Cadavra." That one was smart -and- funny.

Some movies are accidentally bad.

Some movies are bad on purpose.

Some movies are bad by design and therefore good.

Some movies lampoon bad movies, and triumph.

Some movies are designed to lampoon bad movies, badly, on purpose, and manage to miss the mark so hard they fall all the way back to accidentally bad.

This movie came from somewhere, all right. Somewhere dank and grainy and crawling with clueless film students, like that weird kid who not only sings the wrong lyrics to every song, but then goes on to unironically make a brain-rot video with the wrong lyrics, on purpose, but instead of being brilliantly funny, it comes off a bit like a commercial jingle for a really cringe local pest-control service.

Things that were over-the-top-stupid might have even hit the mark if done intelligently. Take the flying pie pan saucer, for example: calling for "evasive maneuvers" and then re-using the same scene? Just... why? Why not really yank that thing around, make it seem like the creators were actually in on the joke? Instead we get a dry and "faithful" attempt at an homage that feels like some aliens wanted to make their own "moving picture film" because they knew it was important to the war effort, or something. I wish I could give this a fair shake, but the first 15 minutes were so unrelentingly painful that I just couldn't. Like giving yourself a tonsillectomy with a slotted serving spoon and a rusty mirror.