Laserblast - 1978
By The Bottom Reel Editorial Team ·
The Ultimate ’70s Drive-In Alien Rampage Movie
Overview
Laserblast is a 1978 American independent science fiction film directed by Michael Rae and produced by Charles Band, the future founder of Full Moon Features. Released on March 1, 1978 by the Irwin Yablans Company, it’s a low-budget exploitation film that tried to ride the post-Star Wars sci-fi wave. It’s now a cult “so-bad-it’s-good” staple, immortalized by Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1996.
Plot
In the California desert, two stop-motion aliens execute a green-skinned mutant and leave behind his laser cannon and power pendant. Ostracized teenager Billy Duncan Kim Milford finds the weapon. Bullied by local toughs Chuck and Froggy, harassed by cops, and dumped by his girlfriend Kathy Cheryl Smith, Billy straps on the cannon and discovers it works.
The pendant fuses to his chest, slowly mutating him green and amplifying his rage. Billy goes on a murderous rampage: he blows up Chuck’s car, kills Dr. Mellon, and terrorizes the town. Meanwhile, government agent Tony Craig Gianni Russo investigates. The aliens return to reclaim their weapon. In the climax, Billy – now fully mutated – destroys a Star Wars billboard, fights the aliens, and is finally disintegrated by their ship. The tagline: “He’ll blast you to oblivion!”
Cast & Crew
Billy Duncan – Kim Milford
Kathy Farley – Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith
Tony Craig – Gianni Russo
Sheriff – Ron Masak
Colonel Farley – Keenan Wynn
Dr. Mellon – Roddy McDowall
Deputy – Dennis Burkley
Chuck Boran – Barry Cutler
Eddie – Eddie Deezen screen debut
Director – Michael Rae
Producers – Charles Band, J. Larry Carroll
Writers – Franne Schacht, Frank Ray Perilli
Music – Richard Band, Joel Goldsmith first film score for both
Cinematography – Terry Bowen
Stop-motion aliens – David W. Allen first major collaboration with Charles Band
Spaceship model – Greg Jein built in 2 weeks
Social Impact & Reception
Context: 1978 was a boom year for sci-fi due to Star Wars. Laserblast was one of dozens of quickie cash-ins, hoping to play drive-ins and grindhouses. Yablans advertised it with End of the World as a double feature.
Critics: Overwhelmingly negative. Variety 3/8/78: “If Steven Spielberg advanced the likelihood of intelligent extra-terrestrial life in Close Encounters, then Charles Band sets it back 20 years”. The Review of the News: “The only thing eerie about Laserblast is the thought that the people who made this loser are still running around loose.” Janet Maslin, NYT: script had “holes and inconsistencies”. Linda Gross, LA Times: lacked “credibility, psychological motivation and narrative cohesiveness”. It’s in The Golden Turkey Awards as one of the worst films of the year.
Redeeming quality: Critics consistently praised David W. Allen’s stop-motion aliens and Terry Bowen’s desert cinematography.
Audience/Cult status: The film bombed but became a cult item. Spectrum Culture: “panned and mostly confined to the drive-in circuit… all shade thrown has only solidified its cult classic status”. It was the final episode of MST3K on Comedy Central in 1996, introducing it to a new generation. Fans call it “a time capsule of everything that made 70s B-movies so endearingly bizarre”. Reviews today: “painfully obvious sets,” “clunky, cheesy, and unforgettable,” “a bona fide Charles Band classic and one of the weirdest science fiction tales ever told”.
Budget vs. Box Office
Production Budget: $280,000
Theatrical Release: March 1, 1978. No wide release – it played drive-ins and small theaters.
Box Office Gross: No figures reported. Box Office Mojo lists “Domestic –, International –, Worldwide –”. It made no significant theatrical money.
Revenue model: Reissued on VHS, DVD, Blu-ray by Full Moon Features. The Collector’s Edition Blu-ray includes a commentary by Charles and Richard Band. It’s now streaming on Tubi and Prime.
Profit: With a $280K budget and no reported gross, it likely lost money theatrically but became profitable over decades via home video and licensing. Charles Band reused the alien sound effects in Static-X’s 2001 song “A Dios Alma Perdida”.
Ratings
IMDb: 2.9/10 from users. Consistently ranks in the IMDb Bottom 100.
Rotten Tomatoes: No Tomatometer score due to insufficient reviews. Cited reviews are negative: 2/5 from Robert Roten, 2/5 from Scott Weinberg. Audience score ∼21% like it on Blu-ray.com.
Metacritic: No score listed.
Rating: PG Runtime: 80–87 minutes.
Bottom line: Laserblast is pure 1970s drive-in schlock – an angry teen, an alien laser, stop-motion monsters, and a Star Wars billboard getting vaporized. It’s “incomprehensible,” “has more holes than the laser-ravaged landscape,” and is “one of filmdom’s worst productions”. And that’s exactly why genre fans still watch it. As SciFiHistory.Net put it: “ours is the only fandom that consistently celebrates the good, the bad, and the irreplacably ugly”.