Laserblast Movie Review

Prolific low-budget producer Charles Band first gained genre attention (little of it positive) with this drive-in hybrid of Carrie and Close Encounters in which an abused wimp gets revenge when he finds a powerful laser gun dropped by dinosaur-like aliens. The more our antihero wields the death ray, the more mutated he becomes, though his tiny-budget rampage mainly zaps just an empty street, few parked cars, a mailbox, and a crudely handmade billboard for Star Wars (dream on!). Stop-motion f/x by David Allen. Later remade as Deadly Weapon.

1978 (PG) 87m/C Kim Milford, Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith, Keenan Wynn, Roddy McDowall; D: Michael Rae; W: Franne Schacht, Frank Ray Perilli; M: Richard Band, Joel Goldsmith. VHS, Beta, LV MED