During the mid-1960's, AIP was looking to create several TV movies for it's AIP-TV branch. They contracted schlockmeister Larry Buchanan to make eight of these because of his experience making low budget fares profitable. To spend as little time and money on production, Buchanan decided to base most of these from earlier AIP drive-in movies. AIP's catalog included works from Roger Corman and Edward L. Cahn and those two were who's work Buchanan decided to remake. Working with budgets much more minuscule than their originals, Buchanan sacrificed quality for small profits. Here, Zontar: The Thing from Venus is his second attempt, the first being his equally bad The Eye Creatures (1965). Zontar is actually a remake of Roger Corman's 1956 sci-fi drive-in flick It Conquered the World which featured Peter Graves, Beverly Garland, and Lee Van Cleef.

The movie begins with Dr. Curt Taylor (John Agar) overseeing the launch of NASA's latest satellite, the Laser Communication Satellite. Close friend Keith Ritchie (Tony Huston) is desperately trying to convince Dr. Taylor to stop the launch. Keith has been in contact with an alien on Venus called Zontar (actually, its real name is unpronounceable by humans but would sound closely like "Zontar") that is warning him that earthlings are becoming too invasive and if they don't stop their destructive behavior, he is going to come to Earth and enslave all humankind. Unconvinced, the launch is successful until it suddenly disappears from the radar only to mysteriously reappear minutes later. Fearing a flaw in the satellite, man-in-charge General Matt Young (Neil Fletcher) orders the return of the satellite for further investigation. What they don't know is that Zontar has hidden himself on the satellite for a free ride back to Earth. Once he lands, he hides himself in a cavern heated by an underground hot spring to simulate his environment on Venus. Three months later, Zontar is prepared and paralyzes Earth by shutting down all utilities like electricity, water, and even all motors and engines. Having since built his own radio equipment, Keith alone is able to communicate with Zontar and believes Zontar is a messiah come to save mankind from itself. He will help him even going so far as to direct Zontar in whom to control to make the world leaders understand their impending doom (apparently, everyone from the town mayor to the sheriff are VERY important people to the world!) Zontar can "grow" injectopods that resemble flying lobsters that implant their essence into humans, thereby taking control over their minds. Only Dr. Taylor can stop this menace and he needs the help of Keith if he can convince him of Zontar's real intentions.

Now, let me say this flat out...this movie is TERRIBLE! I don't mean just bad but terrible! I'd even go so far as to say that Ed Wood Jr. has some serious competition for the turkey awards in directing by way of Larry Buchanan. This movie is so bad it did registered a few chuckles from me throughout and I would barely give it an "it's-so-bad-it's-good" award. I mean the directing is horrible, the camera work is confusing and misleading, and the script is filled with aweful lines...of course, these are all courtesy of Larry Buchanan. I cringed at every line that was said, waiting for the actors to break down and cry or roll on the floor laughing. During each of his scenes, I thought actor Tony Huston would break down while stumbling through his lines because he had to keep delicately pronouncing the oh-too-silly "Zontar" name in a serious manner. Western movie veteran and B-movie stalwart, John Agar was not his Oscar best and was beyond his years getting A-list movie roles but was the most experienced actor on the set and it showed, comparatively speaking. But, besides being a victim of unintentionally humorous lines, he was made to do buffoonish acts such as fighting off an injectopod attack by throwing a twig at it and riding around on a bycycle during half the movie. Other than so-so acting from Susan Bjurman ("Martha Ritchie") and Pat Delaney ("Anne Taylor"), Buchanan used Z-grade actors and locals to fill in the rest of the cast. The "town panic run" was one of my favorite scenes - like the chaotic beginning of a marathon, on que they all run wild through town but still stay together within the boundaries of a group...hilarious stuff! Oh, Buchanan was kind enough to include some intended humor. Two US military soldiers, whose main duties are as gate guards, supply the comic relief. However, their back and forth banter could only produce a slight grin from me and it was a toss-up to see which one would be killed off if not both of them.

The special effects Buchanan uses was definitely the best he could do with what little was left after paying Agar's salary and for the NASA rocket launch stock footage but that is not saying much. I truly love those 50's and 60's sci-fi sets that used tube televisions and metal boxes as highly sophisticated engineering marvels. Throw in bad actors wearing lab coats, some flashing lights, a metal cabinet, and a coffee maker and you've got yourself a top-of-the-line satellite command center. Zontar's costume was a redeeming factor, though. It was much more scarier than its predecessor in It Conquered the World, which had a squat big-conehead like alien with large bulbous eyes. Zontar is a three-eyed winged creature that can crush it's victims by enveloping them in his wings and is impervious to bullets...whooaaaa!!! Zontar doesn't do much in this movie other than control his injectopod-stung "zombies" to do his bidding and really only waits for his victims to come to him deeeeeeep within his cavern...as a few victims foolishly do!

Zontar: The Thing from Venus should ONLY be watched during a TV horror-comedy schlockathon as long as it's filler for better sci-fi features like Day the Earth Stood Still, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Invaders from Mars. Buchanan wishes his films could attain the status of movies like these but he totally misses the mark. While profitable to the studios that hired him (only because of the very low budget), there's something definitely wrong with giving anyone the task of entertaining the thousands of new owners of the magnificent invention called the television with crap like this. There is much more entertaining schlock out there to overshadow this fare. Some say this is probably the best of Buchanan's AIP remakes and if so, I really do dread the unfortunate task of watching and reviewing the other seven movies. Look for your laughs elsewhere and for those of you into 1960's bad movie pain, here you go!