[Inspector Abberline]

The Astro-Zombies

A string of mutilation murders are happening.and the CIA seem to think that it is ex government scientist played by John Carradine as Dr. DeMarco and his hunchback assistant William Bagdad as Franchot (why are all scientist assistants hunchback;s) are to blame.Well Carradine has been experimenting on peoples brains in order to achieve some sort of telepathy,in a most ridiculous plot idea since,well just take a look at your local multiplex,there;s plenty of dumb ideas there,he creates mindless astro zombies,so he can fill there empty brains with,well stuff I suppose,Whenever Mikels wants to show us we are in laboratory ,we tend to get whole lot shots of test tubes filed with colourful liquids ,large beakers filled with even more coloured fluid and bunsen burners,and brightly coloured organs just left on the table.Add to all this is the rather sexy Tura Satana as errr Satana as a kind of sexy bond like villain,usually lounging around puffing on a fag and showing off her rather shapely legs.Of course the problem with mindless astro zombies is that they usually go on killing sprees,which in turn brings in the authorities,usually clean cut men in sharp suits who even when they are undercover they still look like men from the CIA. Satana gets a bit kinky when questioning anybody by stubbing out her full strength capstan out on there face,and then just shooting them. Ted V Mikels who co wrote the script with TV Mash Wayne Rogers literally throws everything into the mixing bowl,spys,hunchbacks,scantily clad ladies,brains in fish tanks and some minor blood letting. Unfortunately for Mikels instead of going over the top with his astro zombies,the film is endlessly bogged down with scenes of exploratory dialogue between the cast,like this plot needed explaining. Unlike most other low budget science fiction and horror movies they tend to have a charm and sense of fun,this is severely lacking from Astro Zombies as it seems to take itself far to seriously,with its close ups of cars going through puddles and women fondling microscopes,although when the astro zombie loses his power source due to jumping on people,he manages to evade capture by powering himself up with a torch and shining it into his noggin ??? Ideally you need to be a fan of brains in dishes and high school science equipment.