Main Cast: Kim Milford, Gianni Russo, Ron Masak, Dennis Burkley
Release Year: 1978
Country: US
Run Time: 87 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Billy (Kim Milford) has the same problems that many teens have to endure. His mother is inattentive, local cops target him for speeding tickets, his girlfriend's grandfather hates him, and teenaged bullies make fun of his van. Billy finds the keys to his emancipation in the desert, when he stumbles across a laser gun left behind by a pair of aliens. As he exacts revenge upon his unsuspecting tormentors, he becomes overwhelmed by the power of the gun and turns into a crazed, green-faced monster. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
Review
Laserblast is 87 minutes of low-budget fun for those who don't take their sci-fi seriously. Originally marketed to capture some of the massive Star Wars audience (the film is mentioned several times, most memorably when Billy blows up a billboard advertising the runaway hit), Laserblast delivers ridiculous stop-motion aliens, space-age weaponry, dope-smoking policemen, and dozens of exploding cars. Fans of professional nerd Eddie Deezen will want to watch to see his most shrill, eye-popping performance ever as Froggy, one of the bullies who gets his comeuppance after attempting to rape Billy's girlfriend. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
Barry Cutler - Jesse Jeep; Mike Bobenko - Chuck Boran; Eddie Deezen - Froggy; Keenan Wynn - Col. Farley; Roddy McDowall - Dr. Mellon; Cheryl Smith - Kathy Farley
Credit
Barbara Scott - Costume Designer, Michael Rae - Director, Jodie Copelan - Editor, Richard H. Band - Composer (Music Score), Joel Goldsmith - Composer (Music Score), Steve Neill - Makeup Special Effects, Charles Band - Producer, David Allen - Special Effects, Harry Woolman - Special Effects, Paul W. Gentry - Special Effects, Jerry Wolfe - Sound/Sound Designer, Frank Ray Perilli - Screenwriter
Laserblast is a low-budget 1978science fiction film. It stars Kim Milford as "Billy Duncan" and Cheryl Smith as "Kathy Farley." This film is notable for Eddie Deezen's debut (as "Froggy") and for a four-minute cameo by Roddy McDowall as "Doctor Mellon". The plot involves a constantly put-upon young man's discovery of a laser cannon, his ensuing rampage after continual exposure to the weapon's radiation mutates him into a wild, destructive lifeform, and his eventual death at the hands of the aliens who left the cannon behind on Earth in the first place.
Loner teenager Billy Duncan (Kim Milford) despises the town he lives in and everybody around him. He struggles to maintain his job, and to deal with the popular teenagers that torment him on a daily basis. While out in the desert, trying to ease himself after being assaulted by one bully in particular (Eddie Deezen), Billy sees something strange in the distance. Upon approaching it, he finds that a UFO has landed, and a group of reptilianextraterrestrials are exploring the earth's surface. Billy hides behind a hill while the creatures stalk around the desert, before the UFO departs. When it is gone, Billy walks to the spot where the aliens landed and finds that they have left behind a Death Ray, which he steals and uses to get revenge on his enemies. However, the more Billy uses the laser, the more he finds himself changing; before he long, he has been turned into a psychotic, Demon-like mutant, upon which he tries to seize control of the town that he lives in to avenge himself for the years of abuse and misery he has suffered for so long. But before he can proceed to kill more innocent people and terrorize more citizens than he already has, the aliens return and kill him with an even more powerful Death Ray, ending the reign of terror that Billy would have unleashed upon the earth. The aliens apologize for leaving the laser behind, and for the damage they have caused. After they depart, Billy's former girlfriend mourns over him, and wishes she could have saved him from the Laserblast.
Roddy McDowall's name is misspelled in the ending credits as "Roddy McDowell".
Alien conversation from the movie is used in the opening of "A Dios Alma Perdida" by Static-X.
Billy Duncan, armed with the laser cannon, blows up a Star Wars billboard late in the film.
The "East Coast, Southern California" town depicted in the final scene is actually a left over 1920's Chicago set. Note the "S.M.C. Cartage Co." building in the background after Billy gets vapour actioned to death. The infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre took place in the S.M.C. Cartage Company garage, Chicago
An early promotional article on the film misspelled the title "Laser Blast", whereas the film's official title is spelled as one word.
Steve Neill, who was makeup artist on the film, also designed and created the alien ray gun and the pendant.
The design for the Alien creatures was based on drawings of prehistoric turtles that Dave Allen had seen as a boy in the Field Museum.
The Alien language was created by a playing a recording of a presidential speech backwards and twice the normal speed.
Influence
In May 1996, it was featured in episode 6 of the 7th season of the movie-mocking television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). The episode made particular note of film-critic Leonard Maltin's relatively high two and-a-half star rating of the original film, ranking it higher than acclaimed films such as Taxi Driver, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, or Being There, and as good as celebrated films such as The Great Santini, Unforgiven, or Sophie's Choice. Maltin's questionable criticism would later be revisited when the MST3K crew reviewed the film Gorgo, where Maltin made a cameo.
