This is how it should happen. Everyone dies at
once. Quietly. Peacefully. Worldwide euthanasia. Just lay down and die. Let
the Earth breathe again. This very low-budget English sci-fi film begins
in wonderful fashion. The director plunges right in. A train crashes. People
drop to the ground or on the street. Dead. Then the credits barge onto the
screen in dramatic fashion as the camera pans the dead bodies in their awkward
positions. Directed by Terence Fisher with a sharp knife that cuts out all
the fat and just leaves in mystery and suspense. He manages to do it with
a small cast, a few cheap looking robots and an empty town (Shere in Surrey).
He caves in a bit to conventionality in the end which is too bad - how about
if the baby had no eyes.
Like all the Walking Dead films there are of course a few survivors who were
insulated for various reasons - flying, in an oxygen tank, in a bomb shelter
and they come out to a world that is dead. No radio. No TV. They collect
in this small English town trying to figure out what is going on, where should
they go. Only a handful of them. This is a Lippert Production so naturally
he brings over an American actor who I have never heard of - Willard Parker
- and of course he takes command. That is what Americans do. Lippert always
had an eye out for the American market. Other actors of note are Dennis Price
as the dick - there always has to be one - and Virginia Field (married to
Parker for 40 years) in her last film though a bit of TV to go.
These creatures in space suits roam the town but don't seem particularly
powerful unless you get too close. But then the people begin to rise. With
dead white eyes. There are some tense scenes here and for me this is a terrific
cheap sci-fi film. With a great title. Fisher smartly leaves nearly everything
unexplained - because these people are isolated and have no way of knowing
- the audience is left in the dark as well. I mean aliens, robots and
zombies. What more could anyone want?
