End of the World (1977)

Who payed the critics

Just perfect...

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This film gets a bad rep on this page here. Personally, I didn't think it was that bad at all. The main problem with End of the World (as every other review lets you know) is perhaps the movie's rudimentary script and the lack of trying to keep its audience stimulated. Though I do think it also works to the film's advantage.The absence of action scenes and special effects combined with the often abysmal lighting creates a pretty cool ominous atmosphere. The soundtrack plays a big part here; without the dark, droning electronic ambiance and sound effects this movie would surely turn to a chore to sit through.But there I was, end credits rolling, wide-awake and alert. In retrospect, a lot of the scenes were absolutely pointless, not bringing the ultra-simple plot forward (the story is seriously that of a 30-minute short film). Don't expect interesting characters, escaping tidal waves, thrilling suspense, lasers.... Here's what you get: a few explosions, stock footage and a cool set towards the end of the film. Deal with it, or go watch Star Wars.If you don't mind low-key cinema, give End of the World a try. A lot of people here seemed to be expecting a disaster movie, given the title. This is essentially a movie that does not care about your thirst for vibrant cinema. It's cheap 70s science fiction. Oh yeah, and Christopher Lee is great as always!

Lee plays Father Pergado / Zindar - the good father of a church and Zindar the alien wanting to take over planet Earth - OK not really they are more like ET they just want to go home - they will stop at nothing to do so - they can be violent if need be. Their home planet is a peaceful utopia. OH Lee's character has quite a few nuns on his side - they are aliens too.The film is not for everyone it is very slow and not a lot of action except for the beginning and the ending while in-between is slow. Most reviewers and critics do not like this film for various reasons.There is something about this one I like but I am in the minority for liking the film a little bit and I guess mainly because Christopher Lee is in the film.Really this film is worth 2 out of 10 stars but I have to give the film two more stars for the sheer novelty of it - Christopher Lee is an alien! 4/10

Confused, self-contradicting aliens who really need to Google "cloning" – or at least ask Ed Wood what he thinks it means."What are we going to do now?" the beautiful Sue Lyon asks her stupid husband. "The only thing we can do: go it alone." Well, of course; whenever faced with alien invaders far more powerful than you, the best thing – and the "only" thing – to do is to "go it alone". Ever consider reporting your findings to your superiors, to CIA – to the KGB, for that matter? Of course not – when one is an imbecile one "goes it alone". Here we have a moron with actual SCIENTIFIC evidence that aliens are among us, but he decides to fight them on his own. Well, not quite: he's got his equally ineffectual wife to help him defeat them. And then he wonders why his plan fails and the Earth ends up exploding like a cheap tennis-ball-sized prop! Duh.I also have a bone to pick with this whole "cloning" business. Lee and his nuns are supposed to be clones – and yet one of the nuns briefly shows a lizard-like alien limb. Perhaps the writer of EOTW is confused about the admittedly INCREDIBLY complex term "to clone". It's very likely he thinks that cloning is the process of dressing up as another person – in which case any masked ball would automatically become a clone ball and every Halloween has millions of young clones seeking sweets. These aliens aren't clones; they're merely disguised as humans. That's all. Besides, if they're such adept cloners, then why didn't they simply clone the guards at the science institute? That would certainly be a much more efficient and easier way to attain those whateveritistheywerelookingfors. No, the story isn't particularly well thought out. "Earth is poisoning the universe with its disease, so it must be destroyed". This is the kind of dialogue we've come to love and expect from Ed Wood's movies. In fact, he couldn't have written it any "better" himself. Funnier yet, only 5 minutes after informing the humans that Earth will be annihilated, "cloned" alien Lee tells the dumb scientist and his lovely wife "it's a pity that you cannot come with us, because on our planet your talents are used to build, not to destroy": this, coming from an alien who had just helped orchestrate the destruction of an entire planet, and for no logical reason than some cockamamie vague B-movie pseudo-science theory about "disease spreading throughout the universe". What, like Ed's solarbonite?Made in 1978, but plays out like a low-budget 1957 flick. This is dumb B-movie fare. And slow as hell. Almost nothing happens in the first half-hour. This plot could have been easily compressed into a 23-minute episode of "The Twilight Zone". A very weak episode, I might add, because this much bad logic is rare in that show.To give you an idea how cheesy EOTW is, the last scene has Earth blowing up like a firecracker. Ed Wood could not have done it better than that.

After witnessing a man's death in a bizarre accident, a coffee machine explodes sending him through a window and into a neon sign where is electrocuted , Father Pergado (Christopher Lee) encounters his alien double bent on world conquest and he then retreats to a convent . Meanwhile , a marriage formed by a scientist (Kirk Scott) and his wife (Sue Lyon) are investigating weird signals from beyond space , it leads them the convent where are some nuns and the Doppelganger Father Pergado who have malignant objectives .This laughable below average Sci-Fi deals with an extraterrestrial invasion from outer space formed by aliens plotting to destroy the Earth while disguised as religious figures . It's realized in a television style , terribly developed and slowly paced . This is a low-budgeted film and plenty of stock-shots about disasters and catastrophes . Protagonist duo is mediocre as Kirk Scott and the famous ¨Lolita¨, Sue Lyon , who had a bad career . Stoic and serious acting by the incombustible Christopher Lee , still today successfully playing , such as ¨Dark Shadows¨and ¨The Hobbit¨ . Support cast is very good , but really wasted , being featured by experimented veterans in brief interventions such as Dean Jagger as Collins , Lew Ayres as Beckerman and Macdonald Carey . Middling cinematography and electronic musical score by means of synthesizer , being composed by Andrew Belling and Joel Goldsmith , Jerry Goldsmith's son . The picture was produced by Charles Band and absurdly directed by John Hayes . John was a writer, director, usually produced and edited as well as often penned the scripts for his films , and occasionally actor who made a wide variety of outlandish and obscure low-budget independent pictures throughout the 60's and 70's . John made his feature length debut with the interesting 1961 drama "The Grass Eater." Hayes went on to make a diverse array of drive-in exploitation outings in such sub-genres as World War II potboilers ("Shell Shock," "The Cut-Throats"), rowdy redneck romps ("The Farmer's Other Daughter," "All the Lovin' Kinfolk"), sleazy crime fare ("Convicts' Women," "Mama's Dirty Girls"), Terror ("Dream No Evil," "Tomb of the undead," "Grave of the Vampire" , ¨Garden of dead¨), low-brow comedy ("Up Yours - A Rockin' Comedy" , ¨Five minutes to love¨), Drama (Sweet trash , Fandango) . John pops up in bit parts in the wholesome Disney family features "The Shaggy D.A." and "Treasure of the Matecumbe." His last directing credit was an episode of the horror anthology TV series "Tales from the Darkside." ¨. ¨The End of the world¨ results to be his only Sci-Fi movie and is considered a bottom of barrel flick . It might be good for a few , for the Christopher Lee hardcore fans . Rating : 3,5/10 . Below average .