The Killings at Outpost Zeta

If you can get past the bargain basement costumes and sets, there's the germ of an interesting story here. The premise - an elite team heads to a remote planet to investigate a series of deaths - is a good one; so much so in fact that you wonder why more sci-fi films haven't used it. Admittedly the plot does then develop along predictable lines but some thought at least was given to dreaming up an unusual monster and there's perhaps more science than you'd expect from such a cheapo production. The alien landscape is pretty good too and shows what can be achieved with a red filter, a smoke machine and a bit of imagination.

On the downside, the aforementioned sets and costumes are pretty laughable: everything is red or white, or red and white. Some of the acting is pretty shocking too, although it must be said they don't have much to work with. The last half hour drags pretty badly, after a sprightly opening.

So, in summary, certainly no classic but not a total waste of time either.

'The Killings at Outpost Zeta' has corny dialogue spoken by bad actors in scenery from low budget British TV SF and is made worse by an intrusive and terrible electronic music score. The plot is essentially that of 'Alien' and they use 'Starfleet' as the authority behind the mission. I guess Star Trek has no copyright on the name 'Starfleet'. Really, it's no worse than many a 1950s B Movie and it passes the time. One for fans of corny, bad science fiction and sort of loveable on that level. I saw it on Talking Pictures which is a great source for old movies both good and bad.

I saw this film on television back in the mid-80s when my local FOX affiliate was airing "Bad Flix." In other words: the network (and viewers) recognize this as a bad movie, yet like a car accident, people can't help watching. This is such a bad movie, it's entertaining!

The plot is very similar to "Aliens," with a group of space travellers landing on a barren planet in order to learn what became of an earlier expedition team. The answer (also like "Aliens") is that they were killed one-by-one by a deadly creature... and the same fate awaits the latest band of spacefarers!

Bad sets, bad costumes, a derivitive storyline, and particularly bad special effects (the laser guns our heroes use are pathetic). Yet, like "Aliens," this film is very suspenseful at times; you find yourself wondering who'll be the next to be killed and under what circumstances. (Come to think of it, isn't that why we also like Mob movies?)

Worth watching, provided you go into it knowing it's a "bad flik" and just enjoy it as campy sci-fi fun. Look for Jackson Bostwick, who played superhero Captain Marvel on the first season of TV's "Shazam!"

Unbelievably bad Alien knock-off (made just a year later). Everything is bad; the script, the acting, the effects, all bad. Yet for some reason it still has charm. There's an innocence to it that almost makes you feel, 'Bless 'em, they tried!' Not enough to save it from a 4/10 though.

The Robert Emenegger/Allan Sandler directing team are back for YET another science fiction movie. It seems that over the course of four or so years that they made every type of science fiction film possible, and a few impossible. This is one of their more straightforward outings, a straightforward riff on ALIEN with astronauts being taken down by a mysterious alien creature.

The problem with the output of these guys is that their films just don't have the budget to convince for a second and that remains the case here. THE KILLINGS AT OUTPOST ZETA has a cool title and that's about it. Otherwise we get poor scripting, an almost total lack of suspense, and a final reveal of the menace that'll have you laughing rather than frightened.

The cast is headed by Jackson Bostwick, who was equally poor in the same team's ESCAPE FROM DS-3, and Jacqueline Ray, who later starred in the equally abysmal BEYOND THE UNIVERSE. While I continue to admire the efforts of these guys to churn out sci-fi fare on a non-existent budget, there's no denying that the majority of their films are simply rubbish.