When I saw the vote record for this title on this site, I was dumbfounded. 32 (the largest number) out of 198 people gave it only a 1!
I remember this film from when it first aired. It was one of the ABC MOVIE OF THE WEEK projects. These were short (2 hours with commercials) films produced with TV series level budgets. This film was based on Theodore Sturgeon's short story about a machine that becomes "possessed" by an electromagnetic alien life-form and turns on its operators.
Because of the budget restraints, these films had to rely more on story than showmanship.
Young Orson Wells would have been right at home working on a project like this. Filmed entirely on location. This film was a thriller where an ordinary object we can take for granted becomes an object of fear – a twist Edgar Allen Poe often used in his works. The film is heavily altered from TS's original because of the low budget. The background story of his version of the fall of Atlantis was unnecessary to the plot, so a different and simpler opening sequence was filmed: a meteor crashing into the Earth 100,000 years ago. John Carpenter would use a similar conceptual opening again years later in his remake of THE THING. This film is a story – not a masterpiece – just a story. And I felt it was a good one.
For that matter, so did most of my friends at the time felt the same way -- it was a popular movie.
How I wish wish wish this was released on DVD!
