Head on down to the Southern swamps with us for Alien Dead, Fred Olen Ray's 1980 Zombie Space Meterorite Vampire Swamp Thing Virus (Jayson's term) movie. It takes something big to stand up to this ride, so we chose the swamp water darkness of Dirty Bastard Scotch Style Ale from Founders Brewing.
I chose this one, and while it's definitely no budget, I like it and chose it. Fight me.
Tom, our hero, is a newspaperman who really bugs Sheriff Kowalski, played by Hollywood veteran Buster Crabbe, in one of his final roles.
A lot of mention of giant animals, including opossums, but no giant opossums are seen. We found out they'd planned giant mutated creatures, but the budget wouldn't allow them. Our loss.
Everybody's poaching gators, but everybody keeps pointing out there ain't no gators no more in them swamps.
This is gator country, so we found it odd that people just go jumping in swamps willy nilly.
Let's talk about the Yankees who came down to party on a houseboat, were hit by a meteor and turned into zombies. Or vampires. Something. They kill people, sometimes eat them, sometimes just goof on them, we don't know if they can die. It's all over the place with these creatures.
Shawn Michaels, our heroine, is one of our favorite characters. Her Pappy is supposed to be all mean, but he's actually a funny old fella. There are some clever elements in the dialogue.
Giant opossums called Possotecs, translation: Large Opossums, are said to lurk out there.
Shawn Michaels has big goals: "Growin' up, gettin' outta the swamp, eatin' burgers. Stuff like that."
Fred Olen Ray as a would be gator poacher talking to his lady: "Listen, woman, I don't need you to tell me when I can hunt gators, and when I can't."
The monsters have the ability to plan and scheme. So, why not plan and scheme your way out of this backwater?
Shawn and Tom find Mrs. Griffith. Sheriff Kowalski, who doesn't like doing his job, continues his long streak of poor sheriffing.
The scene with Jimmy and his wife being dispatched by the monsters is...something. Jayson thinks it was done for comedic effect, I'm not so sure.
Tom and Shawn head out on one of the only two boats in this area. The Sheriff shows up to announce Mrs. Griffith was killed by a renigator. Possotec brought up again. Kowalski displays staggeringly poor skills as a sheriff.
Game Warden Miller is taken the gross piece of meat Tom and Shawn found on the propeller of their boat, then fondled a bunch.
Off to see Mae Hawkins, who witnessed the meteor hit the houseboat. Flashback to the Yankees partying on the houseboat. Mae's fella goes into the water, for some reason, and is horribly disfigured. Mae herself has half her face scarred.
Another random attack on a couple whose car broke down. Tom, Miller and Shawn drive by, not stopping to help the stranded couple.
Poor decision making by the gang leads to being trapped and Miller dying a really unspectacular death. And poor Pappy gets it, too!
Tom and Shawn escape on a boat into the swamp. Why? Kowalski shows up and heckles Tom for being a newspaperman, and gets the last line of the movie. "Dreamers and fools."
I recommend it. If you're into our podcast, this should be on your list. We most definitely recommend Dirty Bastard. It's a delicious beer from a fantastic brewery. If the IPA craft beer domination has got you down a little, this is a great switch up. This movie grew on Jayson, and he recommends it. It's Olen Ray's second film, shot on weekends when he could shoot, so you really have to give the guy credit. He stuck it out, and got it finished. But, it's still pretty darn funny.
Intro music for this episode is a mix of (1) Turn on The Funk (Story Blocks Audio subscription), (2) sample 1961’s The Phantom Planet [in the public domain], and (3) sample 1968’s Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women [in the public domain]. Outro music Vintage Background Jazz Atmosphere by Volodymyr Piddubnyk (Story Blocks Audio subscription).
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