Product Details

• Actors: Wendell Corey, John Carradine, Tom Pace, Joan Patrick, Tura Satana
• Directors: Ted V. Mikels
• Writers: Ted V. Mikels, Wayne Rogers
• Producers: Ted V. Mikels, Kenneth Altose, Wayne Rogers
• Format: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Image Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: December 26, 2000
• Run Time: 91 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000051S7M
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #120,151 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Astro-Zombies" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

ASTRO ZOMBIES - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars No! Not The Emotional Quotient Rectifier!, January 20, 2004

By 

Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Astro-Zombies (DVD)

Oh, where to start? The movie, co-produced by Wayne Rogers (Trapper John from M*A*S*H) is a bit difficult to follow, which is not one little bit surprising seeing that it is the directorial brainchild of Ted V. Mikels. The plot is fairly typical B movie fare, but has a few subplots and distractors to keep the viewer on their toes. The movie shows off the ample talents of Tura Satana as much as possible in the lead role of ruthless Chinese spy. She and her two henchmen (one is a Hispanic man who may be supposed to be Cuban, all we know is that he likes to dance around with his switchblade a lot, the other is a cranky old coot who reminds me of Abe Vigoda with constipation) are trying to get the secrets of lunatic scientist John Carradine's Astro Zombie project. When John enters the film, the problems start.

Carradine and his conveniently mute French Igor character, 'Franchot", work in a lab in a huge mansion bringing back people from the dead. This is not a good situation. While Tura is pretty (as are the good lab assistant women we meet later), and the spies vs. the CIA subplot is kind of interesting, as soon as they show the lab I cringe because only one thing happens there: Carradine explains every painful little bit of his procedures to Franchot is pseudo-science technobabble like "We must feed this memory circuit through the emotional quotient rectifier!" This just never ends. Apparently Wayne Rogers picked up a physics textbook, flipped to the glossary and started writing. Man, the Carradine stuff is just painful. The only thing that is good about John's lab is his equipment. He has all the bubbling test tubes, of course, but when he is doing his dirty work he straps what looks for all the world like a colander to his victims head; no doubt it has something to do with the dekrelnification redundancy circuiting of the gauss plasma ion generator of the prefrontal cortex of the brain stem. (But I digress. Of course John will tell you what it's for; I must have dozed for a second during that monologue.)

Eventually, the cops get involved and start looking for the Astro Zombies, who are, of course, on a killing spree. There are many plot cul-de-sacs to be negotiated, including my favorite which involves the absolute lamest 'exotic' dance that I have ever seen in a movie; yes, even worse than in Mikels' much better "Girl In The Gold Boots", from 1969 (and notably starring the same male lead.) The three spies lug around a radio detector thing that makes the exact same sounds as Spock's panel on Star Trek, and locate Carradine's lab. The spies try to hijack the Astro Zombies, but Carradine sees the error of his ways, and the good guys show up. For some reason the head lawman (we aren't sure what agency they are from, but are led to infer the CIA) brings his girlfriend to the bust. It is a wild melee and justice is served. I particularly like the John Carradine/Tura Satana joint death scene and the zombie with a machete.

This movie has some fun spots for bad movie fans like me. It has some hilarious scenes, like when the zombie holds a flashlight to the photocells in his forehead to get recharged. It also has some classic day/night confusion a la Ed Wood, and this is compounded by the fact that some of the film is way too dark, especially when the spies and CIA guys are having a shootout in the apartment complex (I may be wrong, but that apartment complex looks to me to be the exact same one from Mikels' later film "The Corpse Grinders". Did Ted live there?) The wacky plot and all it's needless but fun twists are big pluses, but I just couldn't give it more than three stars for the huge chunk of John Carradine rambling on about infusing the memory proteins in the hydrogen recombiners, or something like that. Good luck!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an endearing guilty pleasure, September 15, 2004

By 

J. H. Lesher (Canton) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Astro Zombies [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I have a lot of affection for this film. I first learned about it from the Misfit's song Astrozombies and then I stumbled across Mark Of The Astrozombies (the sequel to this movie) on video. I was astounded! I then tracked down the original on DVD and it was love at first sight. I loved the great DVD cover featuring an Astrozombie attacking a beautiful female and those great cheesy blurbs like "See: Astro Space Laboratory"! Great stuff! I put this disc into my DVD player, hit play, and I had a blast! It's been magic ever since. Folks this infamous bad movie has become like a beloved retarded relative to me. Sure it's slow in spots (it would have played better if it were only a little more than an hour long so keep your finger on the fast-forward button) but it's got plenty of entertaining moments that I adore. Truly a gulity pleasure. The sequel is something else too. Wait 'til you see the living severed head of John Carradine in that one! Mark Of The Astrozombies is a fine follow-up and an even more enjoyable gulity pleasure. Ted V. Mikels has gotten better with age! THANKS TED!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If You See John Carradine, Go Fix A Snack..., June 24, 2003

By 

Bindy Sue Frønkünschtein "bigfootsalienbaby" (under the rubble) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Astro-Zombies (DVD)

"Astro Zombies has two major flaws. #1- Not nearly enough of Tura Satana! Of course, I could watch a 3 hour movie of her just standing around smoking cigarettes!! #2- Way, WAY too much meaningless babbling from John Carradine (as the astro-scientist)! Listening to him explain everything to his henchman "Franchot" is like watching your mother-in-law knit! His scenes (which take up like a third or more of the movie) are excruciatingly painful to both mind and body! They drag on and on until inducing a coma-like state. A limbo between suicide and hysteria. The rest of the flick is cool enough, with it's solar powered zombies, spies, thugs, cops, murder & mayhem, etc. Ted V. Mikels ain't no Hitchcock, but he just might be hitch's neighbor's brother's gardener. Enjoy...