Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

classicsoncall Maybe a little bait and switch going on with the title? I didn't see any beast to speak of, and the million eyes? Sorry, just one big one at the end of the picture framing what might have been a bat. But at least my perception of the alien space ship was seconded by many other reviewers for the picture - it looked to me like a tricked out coffee pot! You know what was really bizarre? After that lengthy conversation between Mom Carol (Lorna Thayer) and daughter Sandy (Dona Cole) on why they call the creepy looking caretaker guy 'Him', because they didn't know what his name was and the poor mute couldn't tell anyone, guess what? It must have been a secret Dad Allan (Paul Birch) didn't share with anyone because all of a sudden he began calling the guy Carl. What was that all about? Well I don't go out of my way to see a Roger Corman film, but if one shows up on TCM or any other cable channel I'm not about to let it pass by without a look. This one had the same kind of dystopian feel as Corman's later picture "The Last Woman on Earth", with the same minimalist trappings and scant cast of characters. But then again, where else would you find a German Shepherd, a cow, some chickens and a bunch of birds all going berserk at the same time. Well wait a minute, I wonder if Hitchcock ever saw this film.Catching this picture on Turner Classics the other night I was surprised to see host Ben Mankiewicz conducting a short interview with Roger Corman himself! I don't know when that segment was originally produced but Corman looked absolutely great (ninety years old this year!) and not at all like I pictured him. Among other things, Corman explained what it was like making pictures on a limited budget, his preference actually because the bigger the budget, the more accountability there was to the studio financing the picture. This one looked like there was no accountability at all.

dougdoepke A teapot monster from outer space seeks human form from a farm family in a secluded part of a desert.I know I'm in a minority, but there are commendable aspects to this drive-in special. Too bad snooty Hollywood never gave Oscars to horror movie productions. Because I would sure give one to Lorna Thayer for her calibrated portrayal of volatile Carol Kelley, farm wife and mother. In my book, she delivers a gamut-of-emotions equal to the industry's more celebrated actresses. After all, as wife and mother, she's been going slowly nutzoid on that god-forsaken farm. Now she has to traverse emotional stages to adjust to the new realities. And she does it in finely nuanced fashion. As the father, Paul Birch too, is much better than expected for one of these 50-dollar Corman specials, while unknown Leonard Tarver may have no lines, still he's got just the right kind of confused, intimidating presence. Too bad he was in only two films. Finally, Dona Core as daughter Sandy is pretty wobbly, but sure looks the winsome part.To me, the movie could be a sleeper, if filmmakers had figured out something more imaginative than a tea pot monster. The spinning kitchenware is about as scary as collecting stamps. The desert and farmhouse scenes along with the superior acting really deserve something less hokey. But then producer Corman astutely figured his drive-in fans wanted something they could laugh at. We fans sure got it here, even if the monster wasn't in a rubber suit. I just wonder if Hitchcock caught this flick, what with the marauding birds that attack people. Then too, I wonder if Dan Mainwaring, screenwriter of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), didn't also catch the 80-minutes since there is a thematic resemblance.Anyhow, the movie's well directed and photographed. No effort at prettying up anything—the shack the family lives in, for instance. In fact, a number of the desert visuals are striking. So, this 50-dollar special does have some redeeming features. And a salute to you Lorna Thayer for refusing to walk through a role that could have been just another easy payday.

stephentec While this is a very low budget film, a bit of editing would have helped, and there are several continuity mistakes it has a interesting plot line and some of the acting is good, I just watched it for the first time since I was a kid and I enjoyed seeing Paul Birch again. While not a great film it does bring out some of the feelings of the mid 50s about who we are and what makes us human. As noted in other reviews there are a lot of mistakes, for fun try to find them, the biggest problem was not making enough use of the different treats and showing way too much running back and forth. But with only 6 actors they had to fill with something.

Scott_Mercer Okay, first the good news. An interesting premise. How an alien invasion effects a few people in an isolated house. A premise that Roger Corman tackled to a much more competent result in THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED, and its crapptacular remake by Larry Buchanan IN THE YEAR 2889. This time we have a farmhouse. The alien presence that lands in the desert (represented by an annoying audio hum) takes control of their farm animals, who start to menace the humans. On its face, a ludicrous concept, BUT, a great filmmaker, Alfred Hitchcock, took the same silly premise (livestock attacks people) and made a great film, THE BIRDS, out of it. Clearly, Alfred Hitchcock is not at work on this project.This could have been a much better movie, but it is torpedoed by horrible writing and acting. The actress playing the wife, in particular, is just one of the worst actors I have ever seen. Every line reading stiff, every emotion unbelievable, every sentence awkwardly-phrased. The actress playing the daughter is not much better, and the lead playing the farmer is merely mediocre. The directing is not much better, but I would classify that as merely bad instead of gut-wrenchingly unbearable.The inappropriate canned music cues mentioned by others certainly don't help matters any, (okay, at least they are not as bad as MESA OF LOST WOMEN), and the way the animal attacks are staged is NOT scary in the least, but HILARIOUS.The works of Ed Wood, at least, are suffused with a rollicking love of film history and the horror or crime genres, and Ed's overstuffed dialog is more apt to bring a smile to your face than a gaping look of disbelief. Ed's baroque, odd turns of phrase are all part of the fun.The dialog in this film is not fun, just boring and unserviceable. Just like the rest of the movie. Yes, you can make a worthwhile film on a super low budget. But this movie ain't it.