UFO: Target Earth — UFO: Target Earth(DVD)
UFO: Target Earth is a US regional Sci-fi film from the mid-70s. It’s a very low-budgeted affair, with some issues with both acting & editing. But there is a key interesting idea/ concept, as well as a few moments of subtly eerier disquiet, tripped-out visuals & quite a neat resolve. Here from the resurrectors of forgot & lost B movies Cheezy Movies is a new DVD release of the film.
UFO: Target Earth( aka Target Earth) is from the year 1974. It was filmed in and around Atlanta, Georgia- with the main locations being a local university and a lake surrounded by woodland. It was written & directed by one Alessandro De Gaetano- he had five other credits to his name- these went from desert set horror regard witchcraft Haunted (1977). Onto Scoring (1979) a comedy set in the world of professional women’s baseball, through to Bloodbath in Psycho Town (1989) which regards ‘video’ demons causing chaos in a film school. With his final two films appeared in the late 1990s- taking in sci-fi horror Project: Metalbeast, and Butch Camp which apparently is a comedy regarding a closeted gay man.
The film opens with pre-credits of a moustache & suited man(who we never see again) interviewing a series of three or four different people regarding UFO sightings. When we get into the film we meet our lead Alan Grimes (Nick Plakias) an early twenties electronics student- it’s nighttime, and on the phone with a friend- all of a sudden the line switches, and he’s hearing a conversation between a few high ranking air force officers regarding a UFO sighting.
This first sends him to see a thick grey-haired astrophysicist who won’t put his career on to help Alan, then to the General from the phone call- to see if he can pry any information from him. Then one night when drinking alone in a busy bar he is approached by Vivian(Cynthia Cline) who gets a ‘feeling’ from him…after interviewing another woman who has had an encounter on a nearby lake- the pair head to said lake to see if they can make any trance of UFO.
As the film unfolds at the lake, we see the two setting up their equipment, then they separate with her to go on a wonder in the woods- with weird chanting voices mixed in with the glumly plodding organ to spaced out electro-acoustic soundtrack playing. Midway through middle-aged/ tightly permed Dr Mansfield (LaVerne Light) turns up to help with her male technician. The group believes that an alien ship has sat on the bottom of the lake for the last twenty or so years.
The film runs at one hour and twenty minutes- it’s fair to say for the first fifty or so minutes the pace is very slow, at points rather awkwardly/ jarringly nonsensical. The acting all around is not great- for our leads Plakias is often rather flat/ bland, Cline shifts between troubling and subdued to moments of hamming it up. I guess the only semi-decent actor here is Light, who is a little soap-like in her delivery, but relatively believable in her role.
The best of the film is found in its last twenty-five minutes- as the group get to the lake, and they start contacting the aliens via psychedelic TV screen graphics, and the cast starts to become ill/ unfold- with a grimly effective resolve.
Moving onto this recent DVD, and the print here is very VHS-like- this is made worse unfortunately due to several technical issues with the original film- like uneven lighting, clumsy cuts, and moments of bland acting. As with all Cheezy Movies- this is a bare-bones affair, with only a trailer reel as an extra.
If you can forgive the acting & early pacing issues then UFO: Target Earth is a 70’s curio- which will be appealing to those who like low-key sci-fi films, with some interesting ideas, cheap but effective tripped-out visuals, and moments of eerie disquiet.