Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (196 Kyuketsuki Gokemidoro

Directed by Hajime Sato

Starring Tomomi Sato, Teruo Yoshida

So bad its good!

Ed Wood would have been proud of this film, as inept as his own Plan 9 from Outer Space while trying to deliver a similar message to The Day the Earth Stood Still, genuine B Movie Sci-fi/horror junk, with all the accompanying bad acting, cheesy sound and visual effects.

An aircraft carrying a politician, an arms dealer and his wife, a young American widow and an assortment of other passengers including a suicide bomber crashes in the middle of nowhere after a close encounter with a UFO. One of the passengers (an assassin) takes a stewardess hostage and decides to make his own way from the crash scene. Unfortunately he stumbles across the flying saucer which has landed and he's drawn in, a grey blob like alien enters his brain and takes control of him. Under the influence of the aliens, he's directed to suck the blood of the other survivors. Why (as if a reason is needed) simply because humans are nothing more than warmongers so the aliens have decided to destroy us before we destroy ourselves? 

Meanwhile back on the aircraft, the politician is being more than a little friendly with the arms dealers wife, the arms dealer must know what's happening as he's lurking in the background, obviously something shady is going on here. The surviving pilot tries to rally everyone together and keep their spirits up which considering the circumstances and the passengers is damn hard work.

Needless to say, the passengers are killed one by one either by the alien controlled assassin or by their own stupidity till only two are left, they escape only to clash into a series of clich B Movie endings.

The story is complete tat; the passengers are picked for very obvious and relevant reasons. The politician and arms dealer are hand in glove, one needing a contract to supply a war being fought for no other reasons than power and profit while the other is looking for a big backhander plus some time with the others wife to push the deal through government. 

The American widow carries a framed photo of her deceased husband, Japanese style with a black ribbon, he was obviously a soldier who has died in Vietnam, during the film she screams about how his face was literally melted by napalm, needless to say it doesn't take too long before she's joined him on the other side. The film is interspersed with staccato edited images from Vietnam, shots of US troops, Viet troops and women and children, harsh and brutal, they seem totally out of place within the context of this schlock B Movie.

Interesting use of colour, terrible special effects (especially the plane crash), overwrought acting and overused storyline. Absolute tosh, only recommended to those who enjoy really ineptly made sci-fi/horror B Movies.

Despite the fact that this is a junk movie, some of the conversations between the passengers are just as relevant today as they were then, a war for profit, arms dealers and corrupt politicians conspiring together and suicide bombings, somethings never change. 

Cheers Trev

BBFC rated 12

R2 Pal dvd available from Artsmagic. Couldnt find any R1 info (arent you lucky)