Zontar, the Thing from Venus

Zontar, the Thing from Venus
Directed by Larry Buchanan
Written by Lou Rusoff
Larry Buchanan
Hillman Taylor
Starring John Agar
Susan Bjurman
Music by Ronald Stein (uncredited)
Cinematography Robert B. Alcott
Distributed by American International Television
Release dates
  • 1966 (1966)
Running time
 80 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $22,000

Zontar, the Thing from Venus also known as Zontar: The Invader from Venus is a 1966, made for television, science fiction film, directed by Larry Buchanan and based on the teleplay by Hillman Taylor and Buchanan. It is a low budget color 16mm remake of Roger Corman's It Conquered the World (1956) which also featured an alien invader from Venus.

The movie is arguably Buchanan's best known.[1]

Plot

At a dinner party with their wives, NASA scientist Dr. Keith Ritchie (Tony Huston) reveals to his colleague Dr. Curt Taylor (John Agar) that he has secretly been in communication with a three-eyed, bat-winged alien from Venus named Zontar who he claims is coming to Earth to solve all of the world's problems. However, as soon as Zontar arrives on Earth via a fallen laser satellite it quickly becomes obvious that the skeletal black creature has a hidden agenda as it begins causing local power outages that stop telephones, automobiles and even running water from working and it starts taking control of people's minds using flying lobster-like "injecto-pods" that sprout from its wings. Only after his wife is killed does Ritchie finally realize that Zontar has come not as a savior but as a conqueror, and he goes to confront the hideous alien in the sulfur spring-heated cave that it has made its secret base.

Legacy

The movie was satirized in a sketch on the October 30, 1981 episode of SCTV that guest starred Bonar Bain (brother of Conrad Bain) as a human agent helping the planet Zontar take over Earth.

It was also the inspiration for Zontar the Magazine from Venus published in Boston from 1981 to 1992.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Goodsell, Greg, "The Weird and Wacky World of Larry Buchanan", Filmfax, No. 38 April/May 1993 p 64

External links


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