The Earth Dies Screaming (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Indifferent to it
Story	Satisfactory
Characters / Performances	Satisfactory
Special Effects	Unmemorable
How does it compare to similar films?	Satisfactory

Advantages:	Very classic B&W British sci - fi
Disadvantages:	Very low budget and shows its age

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The title of the film certainly over-dramatizes the situation & is a misnomer for 2 reasons - The Earth not only didn't die, there was no screaming involved. Just a gas attack that seemed to wipe out most of mankind apart from a few survivors who decide to band together in a village to try & improve their odds.

This film has a lot going for it for such an old low budget British made movie. Decent cast, nice locations ( a rather wonderfully quaint English village that looks suspiciously like part of Pinewood) & extremely rubbish bad guys.

They eventually meet the human shaped invaders who also have the ability to reanimate the recently dead & use them as slaves and their own private army. Hang on a minute! Survivors banding together, animated dead - Isn't this the birth of the Survival Horror Genre right here in this movie?

With a handy scientist available who finally works out exactly what they are (I won't give it away, its more fun to find out for yourself!) to take out all the bad guys (well the robots at least) in the local area & kill the zombies they were controlling (who actually can die). A decent enough film, typical of the period.

The characters are well enough written, theres minimal action and its very low budget but its incredbly watchable. If you are a fan of movies like "Plan 9 from Outer Space" then you'll love this, its not as bad or as low budget as Plan 9 but its certainly in the same kind of genre.

(this review also appears on dooyoo)