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"This Satellite Dish Pulls in the WEIRDEST Stuff!" TerrorVision (1986) Review

Back when producer Charles Band ran Empire Pictures, he made some really high-quality B-movies. Bedes Re-Animator (which is probably the most famous of all of them), he made Ghoulies, Troll, Rawhead Rex, Intruder, Prison, From Beyond, and more. Out of all the films he made with Empire, I would have to say Ghost Town is my favorite, but a close second would be TerrorVion. It seems that whenever the Empire crew set out to do a film from any genre or sub-genre, they end up making the best film of that genre or sub-genre. That seems to be the case here, so step back, because we're turning on the...

TerrorVion 1986 Review

We fade in on the distant planet of Pluton. Inde the sanitation department, an alien being from that planet is apparently "flushing" a larger, more monstrous alien out into space by converting it into energy. It the cuts to one of the greatest and cheeest opening title songs of all time! We then go to the Putterman household. There's Stanley (Gerrit Graham), Raquel (Mary Woronov), Suzy (Diane Franklin), Sherman (Chad Allen), and Grampa (Bert Ramsen).

Stanley, while working on his new Do-It-Yourself-100 satellite dish, decides to show it who's boss by beating it with a hammer. The monster from earlier, in the form of the energy beam, gets sucked into the satellite. The monster can now go in and out of the TV at will and devour the quirky family. Later on in the movie we are introduced to O.D. (Jon Gries), Suzy's boyfriend, Spiro (Alejandro Rey) and Cherry (Randi Brooks), two swingers, and Medusa (Jennifer Richards), the hostess of a late-night horror marathon. Sherman, Suzy, and O.D. manage to tame the monster, and they try to train it as a pet.

http://www.badmovies.org/movies/terrorvion/terrorvion2.jpg" class="photoborder" /> I believe TerrorVion is supposed to be a throwback to the alien monster movies from the 1950s, because it is one entertaining movie! All the performers are overacting to the extreme, the monster looks cheesy, the plot is ridiculous, the list just goes on and on! There are several notable faces in the cast, including Gerrit Graham (Child's Play 2), Mary Woronov (Night of the Comet), Diane Franklin (Amityville II: The Posseson), and Johnathan Gries (Fright Night 2). They're all really good actors and actresses, but here, everyone overacts, with hilarious results. The monster itself was created by the legendary John Carl Buechler, who was a longtime collaborate with Charles Band and Empire Pictures. He did a majority of their films' make-up and creature effects, and even directed his first film with Empire: Troll. The monster is a great creation that had to have taken several puppeteers to get to move. It oozes slime out of it nostrils, it barks, and more. It's a really good and complicated effect for such a low-budget production. There's also a very nice use of color in this, with green, pink, and blue lights filling the picture. The dialgue is exceptionally corny, but I have a gut feeling that's what they intended to do.



It's hard to find someone who didn't enjoy TerrorVion at all. There's never a boring moment as director Ted Nicolaou (Subspecies) keeps the pace fast and furious. If you're as big a fan of B-movies as I am, TerrorVion is a dream movie. It's one of the best campy movies out there, and I think everyone will enjoy it, as long as you can handle B-movie greatness and have a sense of humor. I'd, without a doubt, say that TerrorVion is definitely

Rating System:

The best of the best.

A really great film.

It's OK; has its flaws.

The power of Christ compels you to stay away from this film! Death is preferable to this garbage.
ObscureCinema101 Wednesday 8/10/2011 at 02:54 PM | 80383
This was a staple for me growing up and is one of my favorite B-Horror films of all time. I've shown it to well over 300 people and cannot count how many times I've seen it myself. It was genius and I remember laughing so hard at it. "Is he a manly man!" I die every ngle time!!!! Thank you so much for giving this the review and breakdown it deserves, so many people mock me for my love for this and I embrace that :-) I am so planning a viewing party for this one again later this month. Planning it as we speak :-)
BringerOfAfterDark Thursday 8/11/2011 at 02:31 AM | 80412