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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Doomsday Done Right..., January 12, 2008
Another Midnite Movie double feature masterpiece! CHOSEN SURVIVORS concerns a group of eleven men and women chosen (by the government) to be the ones who wait out WWIII. Yep, they get to repopulate the planet! Luckily, our beloved elected officials have thought of everything, sending these folks deep beneath the earth. Once there, they are greeted by a pre-recorded message telling them that the world has been destroyed. Tensions start to build as each person tries to comprehend what has happened. Unfortunately, things go badly, as a massive swarm of vampire bats somehow infiltrate the underground facility, hungry for the red stuff! Richard Jaeckel (Grizzly, Day Of The Animals, The Dark) is the military engineer. Bradford Dillman (Bug, Piranha) is the psychiatrist who just might know something the others don't. Jackie Cooper (Superman 1 and 2) is the slimy corporate executive of the bunch. CS is a nice claustrophobic thriller. THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING is sort of the british version of TARGET EARTH. The movie opens with a train crashing, a plane plummeting from the sky, etc. It seems that some alien force has unleashed poison gas on mankind! Soon, a few survivors find each other and attempt to make sense of it all. Our heroes are hunted by lumbering, annoyingly slow robots. Also, some re-animated zombies w/ eyes like boiled eggs are shambling around. Watch for Dennis Price (Horror Hospital, Tower Of Evil) as a sneaky jerk with selfish plans of his own. Both of these films are quite re-watchable. A terror-ific double bill...
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Don't forget the "second feature"!, March 1, 2008
It seems like many of the reviewers of this release have concentrated on "Chosen Survivors" in their comments. I'd just like to put in a plug for "The Earth Dies Screaming" as the movie here that I liked better. (Admittedly, an awful title if one wanted the film to be taken seriously).
A movie directed by Terence Fisher cannot fail to be of interest to genre fans. Dumb title aside, the plot is reminiscent of The Day of the Triffids; I actually find this film as good if not better than the 60's version of that. All in all, a sort of Triffids meets Village of the Damned meets Target Earth. And I can't say enough for the demo-quality black & white transfer. I know I'll be returning to this film often, something I can't say about "Chosen Survivors".
If you like 50's-60's sci-fi, do treat yourself to this set! (Four stars for "Earth", two for "Survivors" is what is behind my overall three-star rating.)
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
BATS!! ROBOTS!! RICHARD JAECKEL!!, October 29, 2007
Grab that popcorn kiddies and light up that smoke coz we gonna enjoy another fun Midnite Movies Double Feature. Usually with these discs, they try to choose two films with at least a similar theme, but these two are quite different from one another. First on the bill, Chosen Survivors, is a very fun little piece of early seventies drive-in nonsense. It deals with a group of humans hand picked to live in an underground facility in the event of a worldwide war or catastrophe. The idea is to preserve the human race, but you'd think if this was the last hope for humanity, they'd at least pick some hotter chicks(going with Dr. Strangelove's theory) and people who could respond to stress and pressure better. The facility is damn near perfect in every way except the damn bats who have somehow crept in. The survivors have to deal with a swarm of hungry vampire bats that begin to pick them off. Hey, at least it breaks up the boredom. It stars B 70s sci-fi regular Bradford Dillman. We also got Jackie Cooper, who you may remember as Mr. White from the Superman movies. And lets not forget everyone's favorite character actor Richard Jaeckel, who you may remember from The Dirty Dozen and everyone's favorite, The Green Slime. Fun movie and a good time.
Th Earth Dies Screaming tells the tale of a small group of survivors in England(I guess there actually is a bit of a theme here) who band together to fight an alien invasion. The invaders take the form of big clunky robots that electrocute you to death if they touch you. The robots are merely tools of the real aliens who we never see. If that's the biggest threat to Earth, we shouldn't be worried since the robots are extremely slow, clumsy and seemingly blind. A toddler would have no problem escaping these things. How did Earth ever succumb to this? Hell, Don Henley is a bigger threat. Plus, they are able to resurrect the dead bodies and use them also, but they move just the same and are about as threatening as the robots. It was directed by Hammer director Terence Fisher. Fisher should stick to gothic horror coz Sci-fi isn't his strong point. That's not saying the movie's a dud coz it is fun. Two more worthy additions to your Midnite Movie collection.
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