Alien Dead (It Fell from the Sky) (Swamp of the Blood Leeches) (1980)

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This early waterlogged effort from now-notorious exploitation king Fred Olen Ray (released directly to video) is an amateurish blend of 50s-style monster movie and Night of the Living Dead zombie mayhem. The zombies in question arise when a meteor (represented by a cheap 4th of July sparkler)… More This early waterlogged effort from now-notorious exploitation king Fred Olen Ray (released directly to video) is an amateurish blend of 50s-style monster movie and Night of the Living Dead zombie mayhem. The zombies in question arise when a meteor (represented by a cheap 4th of July sparkler) crashes into a houseboat in a Florida swamp, killing the occupants but reviving them with cosmic radiation. Much like George A. Romero's ghouls, these zombies crave human flesh and are practically impervious to bullets (though apparently a good whack on the head will do the job, as illustrated ad nauseam). Preying at first on those unfortunate enough to stray into the swamp (whose deaths are blamed on alligator attacks), the ghouls later catch a whiff of the other cast members and massacre nearly everyone. The film simply ends with no apparent denouement and only a handful of characters surviving ... which may lead viewers to suspect that the director simply ran out of film. To his small credit, Ray manages to pepper the inane script with joking references to Roger Corman movies, but even Corman's stable of New World Pictures regulars would have disavowed any association with this bargain-basement nonsense. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi