The Day the World Ended (2001)

When a series of strange and grisly murders begins to plague a remote rural town residents suspect Jennifer Stillman (Kinski) a big-city child psychologist who has recently moved to the area is to blame. Undeterred by the town's hostility Jennifer launches herself straight into her new job as the school psychologist and soon befriends and helps a young boy Ben (Edner) who is being bullied. Ben the adopted son of the local doctor displays strange behaviors and abilities and believes that his real father is an alien monster. As more and more murders unfold will the town finally realize that the murderer walks among them but is not human!System Requirements:Running Time: 90 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating: R UPC: 043396073616 Manufacturer No: 07361 Product Description

IT CAME FROM INNER SPACE...

THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED has Nastassja Kinski (Cat People, To The Devil... A Daughter, Blind Terror) as Dr. Stillman, a NYC psychologist who takes a small town position as an elementary school therapist. She gets the cold shoulder from nearly the entire town, which seems to be hiding a dark secret. Stillman meets a boy who appears to have telekinetic powers. The boy is feared / shunned by the townsfolk. So, the two outcasts are drawn together. A series of mutilation murders begins, commited by a slithery, be-tentacled monster (designed by the incredible Stan Winston) that is somehow connected to the boy. I loved this one! The characters are fun, w/ Randy Quaid (Independence Day, Parents) as the town doctor being a standout. The school principal and nurse are hilarious, especially in their "love" scene! As killer-kritter movies go, TDTWE is well above average. No, it has nothing to do w/ the goofy (though entertaining) Roger Corman original, but that's a good thing... June 21, 2008

Too much swearing and blaspheming

The actors were very good. Randy Quaid did excellent performance and so did Nastassja Kinski. She really played a convincing role. However, I did not care for the vulgar sex act and the swearing and usage of blaspheme. Is not a movie to watch in mix company. I am sorry I purchased it. I wish I known ahead of time about the language and the sex I would have passed on it. March 14, 2007

"Just remember, we're not from around here."

I have yet to see the original The Day the World Ended, directed by Roger Corman and released in 1955 by American International Pictures (AIP), but I did get a chance to see this 2001 feature of the same title...I wouldn't necessarily call it a remake as in reading the synopsis of the original movie apparently it dealt with survivors living in a post apocalyptic holocaust, forced to fend for themselves against a fleshy headed mutant...this updated, made for cable version features none of that...directed by Terence Gross (Hotel Splendide), the film stars Nastassja Kinski (Cat People, Unfaithfully Yours) and Randy `Cousin Eddie' Quaid (Vacation, Kingpin). Also appearing is Bobby Edner (Haunted Lighthouse, Welcome to Paradise), Harry Groener (Road to Perdition), Lee de Broux (Pumpkinhead), Debra Christofferson (Mousehunt), Neil Vipond (Phobia), and Stephen `Ned the Head' Tobolowsky (Basic Instinct, Sneakers, Groundhog Day).

Kinski plays Dr. Jennifer Stillman, a therapist and native New Yorker who's recently taken a position working for a school district in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in a small town called Sierra Vista. Upon arrival she finds she has her work cut out for her as she meets Ben McCann (Edner), the adoptive son of the town's doctor Michael McCann (Quaid). Seems most of the residents of the town, especially the children, regard Ben as some kind of freak (they're not too far off as it turns out Ben does possess some spooky, freaky deaky mind powers). Ben's mother, before she died, claimed Ben's father was from outer space, and Ben believes someday he'll return and take Ben away (I sort of suspect mom was pretty promiscuous, and told her son this only because she probably couldn't say for sure who his real father was...). As Stillman begins rooting around in Ben's past, the townspeople get edgy (seems certain individuals have something to hide), and soon we see the arrival of an entity from space, something large, squishy, and covered with hurty tentacles which it uses to rip peoples faces off, quite deftly, I might add. As the townspeople mobilize into an armed posse to scour the wooded areas for the killer (the body count is on the rise), Stillman continue her prying ways, and Ben's repressed memories start coming forth, indicating perhaps those recently slaughtered may have all been a apart of something that happened not too long ago involving the death of Ben's mother. Eventually various truths are revealed, along with a few more individuals de-brained (aliens sure seem to like them juicy noggins), as the good (and not so good) folks of Sierra Vista learn the hard way the past, while buried, isn't necessarily gone.

In and of itself this film was pretty decent, with a seemingly good amount of effort from most involved. The main bone I have to pick with the movie is while it shares a title with his predecessor releases some fifty years prior, that's about all it shares. None of the original story, as I understand it, has remained intact, and given the story that was used, it didn't really tie in with the title all that well making me wonder what was the point in even keeping the title? A more appropriate title might have been The Day the World Ended for One Particular Little Boy. The film does pay homage to that which had been released before in one, small way, as at one point Ben and his adoptive father are watching the original Roger Corman feature on television. Thanks for throwing us that meager bone...ah well...the story was kind of fun I suppose, but really, it didn't offer up any surprises because most of it I'd already seen in some format or other (the `twist' element reminded me a lot of story featured in the Twilight Zone movie released in 1983). I thought most of the performers competent and capable enough, but there seemed a lack of strength, particularly because there wasn't a solid lead actor (most of the performers were of the character actor variety, including Quaid). Ms. Kinski did well, but I thought she was slightly miscast in the role, as I just found it hard to buy off on this obviously metropolitan oriented individual taking a job across the country in some bumf**k, backwater mountain community for no, proper reason. Did she lose a bet? Was she doing it for kicks? Maybe she just wanted to see how the other half lived. Despite the issues mentioned (some of them fairly major, from my standpoint), the movie still comes off reasonably well. The creature effects, provided by Stan Winston, were professional as the monster really did look like something from a 1950s science fiction movie, only instead of a guy in a rubber suit, it looked someone had taken that idea and given the technology at hand, created a real, living, breathing monster. I did get a little annoyed with the character of the kid, especially once the killing starts and he never shuts up about the creature being his father and how he was the only one who truly understood it and all. I'll tell you what, if'n I were that kid, once I got a look at the ugly, slavering beast I wouldn't have been as willing to go around telling everyone it was my father. Had it been up to me, I probably would have sent the kid into the woods to be with his `father'...have fun, squirt, and don't forget to send us a postcard from whatever crab nebula you end up in...I did like the `conspiratorial' aspect of the story, and I kept hoping it would result in a bigger payoff, but we got what we got. All in all I thought this not an outstanding feature, but slightly better than average, and worth a look if you enjoy science fiction tinged with horror...just don't expect something along the lines of the original feature (again, which I have yet to see, but given the synopsis I've read, the two have little in common).

The picture, provided in both fullscreen and anamorphic widescreen, looks decent enough, and the audio, available in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Surround, comes across well. Extras include a `making of' featurette, a fairly large photo gallery, filmographies, a creature effects commentary with Stan Winston and Shane Mahan, subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Thai, Chinese, and Korean, and trailers for other DVD releases like Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Night of the Living Dead (1990), and The Blob (1988), the last tentatively scheduled for big screen remake in 2007.

Cookieman108
May 22, 2006

The Day the World Ended 1956

After the Atomic destruction a hand full of people find them selves in a valley that escaped the initial radiation. Naturedly the mix is of innocent and not so innocent women and men. This is not just any valley it was especially picked by a survivalist that expected the big one to be dropped and scoped out a valley with lots of lead around them.

Slowly encroaching on them is a strange mutant that has physic powers. Like the mutated monkeys on the atoll where they tested the bomb, this is probably the new generation of people replacements. Luckily he (it) still has a hankering for blonds in swimsuits.

There is also the possibility of contaminated rain bringing radiation to the valley.

One of the fun scenes in this Rodger Corman movie is when they throw a dummy off the cliff and you are supposed to believe it is a blond.

January 7, 2005

SMALL TOWN CHARM?

Perhaps the most chilling aspect of this well done, High grade B movie is the town itself. Leering people who don't want a newcomer around; and of course, they have a secret they don't want exposed, either. Nastassia Kinski brings a mature warmth to her role as the unwanted school psychologist, and Randy Quaid scores as the gruff Dr. McCann, who is the adopted father of young Bobby Edner, who has some pretty mysterious powers.
The atmosphere is appropriately spooky, and although we don't see the creature much, you can see Stan Winston's print on it, and there are no CGI effects, sort of an homage to those great B movies of the fifties. The inclusion of the original "Day the World Ended" is clever, and helps us remember this is not really a remake, as much as an homage.
Creepy and crawly, it entertains. October 15, 2004

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