DVD review: Nightbeast (1982)

An alien with an appetite for blood and disembowelment is set loose on a small town when its spacecraft crashes and explodes. When sheriff Jack Cinder (Tom Griffith) and the local militia arrive on scene to investigate, a violent battle ensues, leaving only Jack, his sensuous lady deputy and a wild-eyed redneck and survivors. With a corrupt mayor unwilling to stand up against the Nightbeast’s reign of carnage and destruction, it’s up to Jack to evacuate the townsfolk and save the day! Nightbeast is written and directed by Don Dohler. The acting is bad and in some instances quite awful but there is hardly a dull moment in this, actually the pacing is skyhigh, so there is not much depth to the characters instead we get one setpiece after another. There is not much plot or logic in this, the characters mostly act or react to things happening. The camerawork and editing is pretty decent. The electronic soundtrack is nice. It´s gory as the alien disembowels, rips off heads and arms of its victims. It is, off course, all practical fx. The bodycount is skyhigh but some kills do occur off screen. Most of the make-up fx looks good. The alien make-up fx design is pretty cool and I love that it is a man in suit effect! When the Nightbeast doesn´t use his hands to tear peoplpe apart he favors a raygun. There´s gratuitous T & A, almost all of it provided by the cute MILF Karin Kardian, and we get a prolonged sexscene between two of the main characters which is unintentionally laugh out loud cheesy.
This review is based upon the region all (region 0) DVD release from Troma Entertainment.
Rating: 3½ out of 7. Honestly it´s a bit hard for me to give a fair rating as I truly enjoyed this nonstop joyride, as it´s extremely entertaining and charming with gore, aliens, gratuitous MILF nudity and decent fx. But the acting is pretty terrible, the plotholes are so big that you´d probably be able to cruise Titanic through them, the camerawork and editing is pretty decent. Definitely one to check out if you enjoy low budget and obscure horror

/JL