Review of The Earth Dies Screaming (1964) by Orlok W — 15 Nov 2012
Stumbled across this quite by accident, watching Tom Waits videos on (What Are You Looking At) You Tube. The TW song Earth Died Screaming is named after it. It's an enjoyable British sci-fi/horror from 1965 with a quite visibly low-budget but the acting and direction (by Hammer veteran Terence Fisher) more than atone for it.
Dennis Price plays a selfish cad as he does so often and so well. Willard Parker is mighty fine in the lead; his character continues the grand sci-fi tradition of having a hero called Jeff (see Plan 9 From Outer Space).
This Jeff (of the subspecies Nolan) even has heroic eyebrows. The opening tableaux of people succumbing to a gas attack is great and although the rest of the film cannot match up to it, it's still pretty good.
The score, by avant garde composer Elisabeth Lutyens, is beautifully haunting too.
This review of The Earth Dies Screaming (1964) was written by Orlok W on 15 Nov 2012.
The Earth Dies Screaming has generally received mixed reviews.
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