Product Details

• Actors: Bobby Van, Ruta Lee, Mala Powers, James Craig, Grant Williams
• Directors: Harry Hope, Lee Sholem
• Writers: Stuart J. Byrne
• Producers: Harry Hope, Oscar Nichols
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Shout Factory Theatr
• DVD Release Date: September 19, 2006
• Run Time: 83 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000GG4XV0
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,276 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Elvira continues her late-night horror tradition with the MOVIE MACABRE series which finds the buxom Mistress of the Dark hosting a selection of her favorite campy horror classics. This volume features DOOMSDAY MACHINE (1972) a hilariously bad space-ploitation cheapie about orbiting astronauts who attempt to repopulate mankind after Earth is destroyed by a nuclear holocaust.System Requirements:Running Time 83 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: NR UPC: 826663101041 Manufacturer No: DVDSF10104

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Space Junk, December 6, 2007

By	Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"The Doomsday Machine" is a dreadful sci-fi thriller set in the future year of 1975. Essentially, the Chinese develop a nuclear weapon that can rupture all the faults of the earth. In a bit of forward thinking, the US government alters a seven man space mission to Venus to add three women to the crew, enabling continuation of the human species after nuclear Armageddon. The film is hilariously cheap: numerous completely different models represent the spacecraft; diverse stock footage portrays much of the space launch and almost all of the nuclear devastation; and most amusingly of all, Casey Casem co-stars as the Air Force officer who does the countdown (!) for the space launch. There are various subplots, including my favorite about two crewmembers who get stranded in space after a repair gone awry, who then happen to notice an abandoned Apollo capsule within floating distance. Contrary to what Douglas Adams wrote, I guess space isn't really that big after all.

The special effects are dreadful (especially the airlock induced eyeball bleeding scene), while the acting is mortifying: the reactions to the earth being destroyed are especially priceless. The conclusion is obviously tacked on...essentially the main ship just goes away, while the Apollo capsule gets a voice warning from Venus not to land and a promise that the last two humans are embarking on a new adventure, followed by more stock footage of a real rocket.

This movie has possibly the worst continuity I have ever seen (and I have seen every film made by Ed Wood) and is utterly laughable in every regard which is why it was an ideal candidate for Elvira's "Movie Macabre" series. The host segments are modestly amusing, but the real attraction is the bottom of the barrel grade-Z film itself. I highly recommend this film to connoisseurs of laughably bad movies: everyone else needs to stay far, far away.

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone's favorite horror hostess is back again!, April 21, 2008

By	Johny Bottom "Insane and lonely guitarist" (Jacksonville, NC) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Who didn't stay up late on Saturday night waiting for Elvira to host a movie so dreadful that no one would ever watch it, unless Elvira herself was there to help us along with her own brand of slapstick comedy? Well now we can watch Elvira again and again as we collect her DVDs so we can relive those terrible movies and Elvira's one of a kind charms.

Doomsday Machine is by far one of the worst movies I have ever seen and I collect and live to see rotten movies. B grade movies from the 50s and 60s are really great, but the 70's brought us some films that are just beyond bad. Doomsday Machine is bottom of the barrel entertainment and it is hard to believe that this film was made by professional adult movie makers. I think Elvira had the ending of the film pegged. It is such a tacked on ending, that the actors obviously didn't even want to be in it. There is just a 'space painting' with a voice telling the new Adam and Eve about there next great adventure.

The plot is simple enough, the Chinese decide to destroy the world with a Doomsday Machine. But before they can do this, America launches a manned ship to the planet Venus. Now what confused me (an Elvira) was that throughout the movie, the astronots are in 4 different spaceship models! There is stock footage galore, and the space scenes are extrememly crude paintings that the director probably stole from an elementary school art class. This movie is just plain bad, bad, bad. It is enjoyable enough with Elvira to prod it along, but without Elvira, no one in their right mind could possibly watch this.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific garbage for the hardcore bad movie junkie., December 2, 2007

By	Jake Cremins (New York) - See all my reviews

I didn't quite know what to expect from this DVD--anything that's an episode of a movie-related TV show is kind of suspect when it comes to actual movie quality--so imagine my surprise to find that Shout! Factory actually remastered 'Doomsday Machine' from a film print (!), and that it looks about as good as it's ever going to. The DVD, furthermore, provides the option to watch the movie by itself or with Elvira popping up to provide commentary once in a while; the only drawback to this is that, if you choose to watch the movie alone, you're still going to get the occasional artifical fade to black that wasn't in the original film. Since this is 'Doomsday Machine,' it's not as though it's a great compromise to the movie's original artistic intent or anything.

As for the movie itself, if you read the jabootu.com recap (as I did) before watching it, you know exactly what kind of junk you're in for. It's amazingly bad, and I mean that as a recommendation. If you love awful cinema, don't hesitate to get this; it's highly enjoyable with or without Elvira's asides (though frankly, I myself needed them much as a drowning man needs a life presever). Or, if you prefer--and why wouldn't you--get the Elvira Double Feature with 'Werewolf of Washington,' which gets you another entire movie for less than four bucks more.