Review – They Came From Beyond Space

So the Moon is “beyond space”? Because that’s where they came from. Actually, they were originally from another galaxy, but that wouldn’t be “beyond space” either. Normally I wouldn’t nit-pick the title of a silly Freddie Francis flick, but this one bugs me for a couple of reasons. First, the picture is based on a novel called The Gods Hate Kansas, which would have been a much more interesting name (despite the fact that the whole movie is set in rural England). And second, the title implies something Lovecraftian, which this certainly isn’t. Instead, it’s a disappointingly run-of-the-mill sci fi tale of aliens landing on Earth, possessing the bodies of scientists, and giving everyone else the plague in furtherance of their scheme to build a spacecraft that will allow them to return to their home world. At the beginning it seemed like it might have a chance, particularly with Francis at the helm. But by the time characters are putting colanders on their heads in order to keep the aliens out, well, it isn’t funny enough to work as a comedy and it’s too goofy to work as anything else. Mildly amusing