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The Plot: It Came from Somewhere Else begins in a small radar room in NORAD. Two technicians are monitoring the radar activity when a blip on the screen appears. Although they don’t see the blip, they’re informed by a NORAD supervisor that people in the small town of Grand Bush have reported seeing UFO’s. So naturally they turn on the news to find out what’s going on since NORAD is ill-equipped to find such things themselves. Sure enough, the news is reporting that UFO’s have been sighted over the Grand Bush area.
In Grand Bush, the sheriff (William Vanarsdale) and his deputy (Don Aldrich) are busy with Mr. Buckner (Richard Speeter) as he seems to be the focal point of their problems. However, other things begin to occur alarming the sheriffs department. Reports of people spontaneously combusting, teenage girls are coming up missing, human hands mysteriously begin to grown from the ground and the Mayer is bribing the citizens with chicklets. And oh, did I mention that the teenagers of Grand Bush are now using profanity, well, they are…
With all this madness and concern, Sheriff Munchinson makes a call to the Government and they in turn, send NASA with a truckload of marshmallows to help. They also send in special agent Art Rumbo (Larry Sutin). While Art Rumbo isn’t much help, the sheriff, his deputy, Rumbo and the doctor head out to see if they can’t put an end to all the craziness. This leads them to the kung-fu aliens now roaming the streets kicking ass. After confronting the aliens, it seems all they want is their alien leader back who was earlier incarcerated by the sheriff. After the sheriff returns their leader, we find that it may be too late as other Government officials have called in an air-strike and it may be too late to call it off.
The Takeaway: It Came from Somewhere Else is a terrible film. It’s poorly directed, edited, photographed, scripted and executed. As I began to watch the picture I also began to regret the $2 I spent on the DVD pulling it from the bottom of the FYE bargain bin. About 15 minutes into the 68 minute feature, it struck me, did the filmmakers intentionally set out to make a bad film? Could they be fans of Edward D Wood Jr.s Plan 9 From Outer Space ? What about Harold P Warren’s Manos: The Hands of Fate ? Or even worse, Coleman Francis’ The Beast of Yuka Flats ? Sure enough, and after doing some research, I found that director Howard Hassler and writer Patrick Johnson set-out to create an abomination similar to the aforementioned films. On that note, It Came from Somewhere Else is a brilliant film. It’s brilliantly directed, edited, photographed, scripted and executed.
Hassler and his team of amateur filmmakers manage to move the film along as mind-numbing as it is. The cast also manages to spew their lines with some success and from a technical standpoint, direction, editing, photography seem to work (at least on certain levels, as low as those levels may be). However, and just because Hassler achieved this goal by making a pseudo-parady, it doesn’t necessarily mean It Came From Somewhere Else is a good film. Brilliant in execution, yes, but it’s still a slow-burn and very tough to sit through because you’re watching a film mimicking other bad films. But I do recognize the success here and and give credit to Hassler and his team for hitting the nail on the so-called head. Do I want to watch the film again anytime soon? No. I will however file the DVD away and likely return to it one day knowing that Hassler successfully mimicked the films of the past without wallowing in the waste for too long. It Came From Somewhere Else is strangely the perfect implausible B-movie and one that should be considered for at least one viewing.
Film Facts: It Came From Somewhere Else was directed by Howard Hassler, produced by John Bruhn and written by Patrick Johnson. While there’s little information regarding this film online, many ‘DVD sale’ sources indicate the run time to be 89 minutes. The DVD I watched for review clocked in at 68 minutes (though it felt like 89 minutes). There are a number of ‘old’ extras on the disc that were recorded during the films production and while I’m not in the habit of going through such extras on films “I could care less” about, I did watch a short feature with producer Patrick Johnson. Johnson mentions that the initial budget was roughly $5000 but that number tripled by the time post-production came to a close. He also mentioned that they began filming in 1984 thus making it a 4-year production cycle, which isn’t too out of the ordinary for such independently produced films.
Favorite Badass Moment: There are none, no, really… Favorite Boobs or Boobs in a Scene: The secretary getting naked showing us her pan-cakes Favorite Death Scene: A news reporter spontaneously combusting
Boob Count: 1 pair Body Count: 10
IMDB Rating: 3.7 / 10 My Rating: 2.5 / 10
Final Thoughts: Brilliant on many levels. However, going over-board on everything hurt the film and it’s attempt at that brilliance.
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