Bad Channels

Yes, of course the movie is campy, ridiculous, pointless and under budget. But it is a gem in the Early full moon vault. I love it! Own it and watch it from time to time. IT makes me chuckle. Much better than many of the Recent jokes Full Moon is releasing.....Hard to find...however, check Ebay....

6 out of 10

'Bad Channels' is one of the worst SF/horror movies ever made. It's so boring and unfunny that you could almost think it was directed by Ted V. Mikels of 'Blood Orgy Of The She-Devils' fame. In fact it was directed by Ted Nicolaou who previously made the useless 'TerrorVision'. Now that was one lame so-called comedy, but this one is even worse. Getting through to the very end was a real chore even with the fast forward on the remote in constant use. The other guy responsible for this crud is Jackson Barr who also scripted 'Trancers 2' (a.k.a. 'Future Cop 2'). Now that wasn't the greatest movie ever made but at least it was entertaining. I don't know what went wrong here but it's really one to miss. Even a soundtrack by Seventies Rock Gods Blue Oyster Cult and some allegedly "clever" parodies of music videos (a generic 80s hair band, a grunge thing, and a sorta Mr. Bungle/Primus one) can't save this utter waste of time. Paul Hipp (an Abel Ferrara semi-regular) leads a mediocre cast, which includes former MTV Veejay Martha Quinn and various other nonentities, in a ridiculous tale of aliens taking over a radio station with the plan of capturing Earth women, shrinking them and placing them in bottles. Why are they doing this? Who knows. Who cares. There is ONE, count 'em, ONE laugh in this whole movie and that is a cameo by b-grade legend Tim Thomerson, and that doesn't even happen until AFTER the final credits. This movie stinks on ice. Avoid at all costs!

Here's a sci-fi / horror B flick for the MTV generation, a positively goofy and cartoonish piece of lightly entertaining trash. Paul Hipp stars as "Dangerous" Dan O'Dare, a controversial radio disc jockey doing a marathon at isolated station KDUL. Well, along comes an alien, a bipedal monstrosity with a hilariously oversized head and a faithful robot. The alien (Michael Deak) takes over the station, and puts into a motion a plot to kidnap and shrink hot young woman by hypnotizing them with rock video styled visions.

"Bad Channels" has to rank as one of the silliest things that Full Moon produced. If one is looking for "cheese ball" entertainment, they could do worse than this. The various rock acts are passable, with Sykotik Sinfoney rating as the WTF highlight. This act dresses in various costumes and plays some pretty absurd stuff. All of the creature and makeup effects are pretty tacky, but that may only add to the appeal for some in the audience. That robot has to be seen to be believed.

The cast is basically okay. It is cool to see MTV VJ Martha Quinn in one of the leading roles, as ace reporter Lisa Cummings. The cast includes other familiar faces as Aaron Lustig, Ian Patrick Williams, Michael Huddleston, and Sonny Carl Davis. Sexy co-stars Charlie Spradling, Daryl Strauss, and Melissa Behr give it all their all as they dance away in what they think are these rock videos.

The truly worthy component is a score by the veteran rock band Blue Oyster Cult. Folks do have to wait through the closing credits for the best joke in the movie, a cameo by a Full Moon franchise character. As always, it's a pleasure to see this actor in anything.

Five out of 10.

I like Full Moon films, they have a certain charm to them despite on the surface being seven shades of awful. If it weren't for Full Moon we wouldn't have had the Puppet Master franchise, Doll Man, Gingerdead Man, Evil Bong and countless others.

Bad Channels is supposedly part of the Puppet Master universe but I can confidently say I don't see the connection.

It tells the story of a "Shock Jock" who comes into contact with aliens intent on using his radio station equipment to kidnap women............somehow.

Not the most intriguing of plots and truth be told it's execution is even worse. It looks like a Full Moon film with the same plasticcy special effects and that's okay, the general quality of the film however isn't.

It's just so, bad! The characters, the script, the concept, it's like a weird artsy student film and I have to say I think this is likely the worst Full Moon movie sadly.

I'd suggest that anyone beyond the most hardcore Full Moon fan avoid this one, it isn't horror, it isn't comedy, it's just the absolute pits.

The Good:

Full Moon feel

The Bad:

Extended musical segments

Pretty much everything to be honest

I had never heard about this 1992 horror sci-fi comedy titled "Bad Channels" before now in 2023, as I happened to stumble upon the movie by random chance. And of course I opted to sit down and watch it, on account of it being a movie that I hadn't already seen.

Writers Charles Band and Jackson Barr put together something definintely unique and strange here. But it was working out in favor of the movie, because the storyline was so corny and cheesy that it was actually a fun movie to watch.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but the actors and actresses put on good performances to bring their characters to life on the screen.

The special effects in "Bad Channels" were actually working out well in favor of the movie. Some of the special effects were pretty bad, but still worked out fair enough as they were so bad that they became fun to behold on the screen. And then other effects were rather nicely made, such as the creature seen towards the end of the movie.

If you enjoy a sci-fi horror comedy that doesn't take itself particularly serious, then give director Ted Nicolaou's 1992 movie "Bad Channels" a chance. I was definitely entertained by this cheesy early 1990s movie.

My rating of "Bad Channels" lands on a five out of ten stars.