Mark of the Astro-Zombies
October. 26,2004The existence of mankind hangs in the balance as two warring factions of aliens do battle in Mark of the Astro Zombies. The film begins with an invasion of Earth by aliens who plan to turn human beings into zombies. They gather high-level government officials and attempt to get from them certain knowledge and information they will need. A kind race of aliens lands on Earth and decides to try and stop the evil ones from succeeding with their plans.
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Reviews
Really Surprised!
Good story, Not enough for a whole film
A different way of telling a story
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Loved this movie! The original Astrozombies was enjoyable horror/sci fi/espionage/ shlock and I was thrilled to know there was a sequel. This film has it all! Most importantly it features THE SEVERED HEAD OF JOHN CARRADINE! LOL! What a great idea! Both this movie and the earlier Astrozombies have a great classic "50's" sci fi vibe to em that I love. They don't make movies like this much these days. It's a hoot! Yes folks those Astrozombies are back and this time there's an army of em! They still love to swing huge machetes too. Ted V Mikels does it again and it's nice to know that fun movies like this are still being made. The design of the Astrozombies themselves is still too cheesy and cool for words. Great fun!
This movie is literally all over the place. Aliens decide to invade earth by employing astro-zombies which run around on a rampage, unconvincingly hacking and slashing people just sitting around, basically waiting to get killed. A woman reporter (Brinke Stevens) is on the scene, as well as her boyfriend who works for the CIA (and looks about half her age), an FBI agent, plus there's some crazy 70+ Joan Collins-looking woman who insists on showing marks on her breast (Aaaak!) whenever she claims she was abducted by aliens, then there's some George Carlin-lookalike doctor who teams up with a psychic or something, plus Tura Satana (from the first Astro-Zombies movie) and her dimwit henchman who looks like Vincent D'Onofrio from MEN IN BLACK who hope to cash in on the invasion. On top of this, there's plenty of random scenes of government officials sitting around a table saying vaguely important things, plus some "doctors" chillin' in an E.R., and John Carradine's head kept alive in a lab.With so many characters and so much stuff going on, this movie is totally out of control! If I had any clue as to what was going on, I might have enjoyed it in other ways, but as it is this movie is purely for laughs. Mikels certainly has improved his style since the 60's in that his newer films are much more briskly-paced, more entertaining, and action-packed (he has a funny cameo which cleverly incorporates his earlier cameos). The special effects (including some pretty decent CGI) range from laughably terrible to surprisingly good. The acting, on the other hand, is all-round abysmal with the sole exception of the only real actor in the movie, Brinke Stevens (who looks quite good in that short skirt of hers).The problem with the movie though is that it takes itself too seriously when it's obvious it benefitted the most from the unintentional comedy. The scenes of zombies running around various industrial areas and hacking people are totally hilarious indeed, but sandwiched between too many random scenes of talking heads. The film then seems to randomly cut back and forth between the many subplots, and the same zombie keeps waking up in the alien spaceship a total of about five times. Even sillier is how so much of the actors' screaming is obviously ADR, so much clearer than the regular dialog, which is often either muffled or rendered inaudible due to the constant loud music. Only the scenes involving Satana seem to be intentionally funny. I don't know how to sum this one down - it felt like I sat through 8 movies at once; bewildering, confusing, laughable, yet somehow very entertaining. It has a great beginning, ending, and some scenes in the middle, which is the best one can really expect for a movie obviously shot with no money but a lot of enthusiasm.Much better than the first film, which was 88 minutes of characters standing around explaining to each other how the Astro-Zombies work, and 2 minutes of killin'. This one's more like 20 minutes of killing, 20 minutes of aliens, and 30 minutes of characters talking to each other and looking confused, then 15 minutes of cars driving around and various other random stuff.Too bad MST3K missed out on this one - it's ten times funnier by itself than most of their better episodes.
I just got my copy of Mark of the Astro Zombies and loved it! Great Stars Tura Satana (great to see her in this sequel) Brinke Stevens (Queen of the Scream Queens!)Liz Renay (in a most humorous role)and Shanti (a welcome bad ass Ted staple).And new break out star performances by Sean Morelli (Corpse Grinders 2),Anton Funtek (Evil Zekith)and a hats off to Scott Blacksher as Zokar in a show stealing performance.And a wink to Nina Tepes for a revealing shower scene and Kimberly Lynn Cole Yowza!Great Digital effects by Master FX and Splatter Master David White.Great Monsters By Jay Gowey (FANTASTIC Dr.Demarco(John Carradine) head for his beyond grave cameo with Tura and Ted V.Mikels) and recreating the Astro Men and for the Evil Zekith.This movies story of good vs evil in a fight over Earth is refreshing and brings up current things like remote viewing,Alien abductions and possible inhabited asteroids and shocking gore for splatter fans.Ted V.Mikels has done it again like he has so many other times and remains one of our Indie treasures!If you havent seen any of Ted V.Mikels movies I suggest you do.Pull up some pop corn and put on your seat belt for one heck of a fun ride!
What a pleasure to roller coaster your way through this latest Ted V. Mikels flick! If you're a fan of Ted's previous work...or just a fan of the nostalgia of invading nefarious aliens such as were standard in the '50's and '60's...you'll have fun with this movie. It's got a variety of alien life forms, some evil, some benevolent....and of course the Astro Zombies are back (remember their first time 'round, in the original ASTRO ZOMBIES in '68?). They're running amuck again, slashing, chopping, slicing and dicing innocent citizens right and left! Nifty blood/weapons/wounds, by the way. Kudos to the fx team!Plot? Don't get uptight about it. Go with the flow! Invaders from outer space are up to no good, human villainess and her henchman are up to no good, and the good guys are trying to get a handle on it all. The joy of this film is in its amusing dialog and wonderful cast. Brinke Stevens is pretty as a picture and makes a very warm and appealing heroine. Tura Satan, perhaps best remembered from the cult classic FASTER, PUSSYCAT, KILL, KILL, is a welcome and delightfully wicked "dragon lady" type, whether wielding threatening weapons or slapping the bejeezus out of her dull-witted comic (but dangerous) sidekick, which she does frequently. It's wonderful to see another cult classic actress, Liz Renay, as the kooky, publicity-seeking "I was attacked by aliens!" gal. Liz is very funny in this role....and it's sure great to see how this lady, who was once considered a twin to Marilyn Monroe, has remained a vibrant and engaging screen personality (by the way...remember her in John Waters' DESPERATE LIVING?). And you get a little bonus in this film, too...check out a brief scene by director Mikels himself as a mad, mad, mad scientist who converses with "the head of Dr. De Marco". Lots of laughs!Just grab this one for the fun-filled ride. No deep thoughts necessary...it's an Ed Woods-type romp in low budget scifi. See it with friends...laugh and hoot and holler...it may not be Shakespeare...but it's fun!