Schlock Corridor: Day Twenty-Six

THE BEAST WITH A MILLION EYES

"In a scarcely populated wasteland, a powerful alien touches down and begins to wield his destructive influence over anyone or anything in its path."

 

Our movie begins with ominous narration courtesy of the titular Beast, warning the audience that the human race is doomed, then we're introduced to a depressed middle-aged farmer who lives in some nameless shithole with his resentful wife, their young and impressionable daughter, and his old war buddy, now a brain-damaged mute. Their farm is failing and the future looks grim. 

We quickly learn that the farmer's wife is desperately unhappy with her life, feeling trapped in her increasingly loveless marriage, despising the daily grind of caring for the various animals on the farm. She's even begun to hate her own daughter for being so young and optimistic, resenting the child because she might have a chance at a happy life beyond the family farm, something the mother feels is no longer an option for herself. 

You might assume things would only get worse for these people after the malevolent alien presence arrives, but you might be surprised. The entity controls the minds of simple beasts, like dogs and squirrels, and even the farmer's mute companion, but the family quickly realizes that the entity has no sway over themselves, not as long as they stick together. 

This family takes everything the entity can dish out, and they're still standing in the end. More than that, the experience of combating a malign extraterrestrial presence actually brings the family closer together, making them appreciate each other and the life they've made together, strengthening their bonds and rekindling their love as they fight to stay alive. 

That's how they defeat the entity in the end, in fact. The family confronts the "beast", which is actually a little rubber puppet hiding inside of a shiny metal box, and being confronted with the sheer power of their love proves to be too much for the poor little monster, and he drops dead, thoroughly defeated and humiliated by these "primitive beings". So basically his plan to conquer the entire planet via mind control was a complete and utter failure. 

I... I liked this movie. The Beast With A Million Eyes is a decent experience. It's a cheap production, with some wooden performances and a few odd editing choices, but it's still pretty good. The script is clever enough, and the film's climax, where the villain is defeated without the heroes resorting to physical violence, is a rarity in genre films of the era. 

In the final analysis, The Beast With A Million Eyes was more than I expected it to be, and I appreciate that it dared to try something different. 

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