Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Terror Vision

     On the planet Pluton, a nuisance creature disposal unit vaporizes unwanted creatures and shoots them into space. Unfortunately, one of the discarded aliens has landed on Earth. More precisely, the Putterman family's new satellite dish. 

      The Putterman family is weird enough without extraterrestrial influence. Stanley and Raquel Putterman are sexual swingers and their entire house is designed to look like a porno palace. Suzy Putterman is a teenage Cyndi Lauper clone, complete with multi-colored hair and makeup that could scare a clown. Grampa Putterman is a military-obsessed peddler of lizard tail jerky that lives in a fallout shelter in the basement. 12-year-old Sherman Putterman is the only halfway normal member of the family. 

       The new satellite dish doesn't seem to be working very well, at least until the space creature is absorbed by it. Then miraculously it works, with the exception of two channels. One just shows a googly-eyed slimy alien and the other channel is a different-looking alien that seems to be pleading with humankind over something. 

      Armed with a remote the size of a small car, the Puttermans explore the wonders of satellite TV. Mom and Dad go out sex clubbing, and Suzy has a punked-out date from hell aptly named OD lined up for the night, leaving Gramps and Sherman alone for the evening. Soon lightning and tentacles come out of the TV and eat Gramps. Mom and Dad come home with another couple to have sex with, Sherman complains about a monster and Mom gets mad about him disturbing their orgy and throws him in the fallout shelter. He calls the police, but they of course don't believe him. So he calls the only person that might believe him. An Elvira wannabe named Medusa who has her own horror show on TV. She doesn't believe him either. 

      Meanwhile, the monster has eaten the entire orgy. Suzy and OD come home from their date and find the monster and think he's kinda cute. They at first treat him like a pet, then decide to exploit him on TV, so they call Medusa and see if she's interested in a real monster for her show. She scoffs at first, then says that she "might" come over. Unfortunately, the monster gets spooked when he sees the other alien on TV and eats OD's head (no big loss there). Armed with machine guns and grenades, Suzy and Sherman decided to try and kill the monster who is sitting in the indoor pool totally enjoying watching satellite TV. They throw the monstrous (pardon the pun) remote into the pool in an attempt to fry him. The other alien then comes through the TV and apologizes for the inconvenience of having unknowingly transported someone's unruly alien pet into space, specifically into their satellite dish. Suzy and Sherman tell him about how the monster has eaten their parents. The "good" alien says that their parents' DNA can be extracted from the monster upon capture, unfortunately, they'll have to live in specialized aquariums from now on. He vows to help them in any way he can. But when Medusa shows up and sees the alien with a raygun pointed at two kids, she assumes it's an attacker and smashes his space helmet, causing his head to explode from the pressure. 

      With a good alien out of the way, the monster proceeds to consume everyone that's left alive. The last scene is a half-Medusa/half-monster telling her chauffeur "C'mon C'mon C'mon, I'm in a hurry" I found it hilarious how on her show, she sounds sexy and sultry, but in real life, she talks like a Jewish harpy. 

      Everybody dies and the monster escapes. Perfect ending to a less-than-perfect movie. This film doesn't have much in the way of good acting or sharp humor but makes up for it with cheesy slapstick jokes and situations. Worth a watch, just to see all the laughable eighties cliches.

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