Day 24: Astro Zombies!

I heart the holy hell out of Ted V. Mikels.
I first discovered him at the first Cinema Wasteland convention, when I and my BFF wandered into Ted's Q & A. I had zero idea of who he was, but by the time I left, I had already circled 'The Corpse Grinders' on my list of must - see films that weekend. By the time the weekend was over, I had a signed copy of Corpse Grinders, and a photo of me, my BFF and Ted snuggled in between us.


Ted started making movies in the 60's and is STILL cranking them out. In fact, he's just released the DVD of Demon Haunt, and his website announces a new film for 2010.

And one other thing - Ted just turned EIGHTY this year.
Yeah.

I wanted to do a mini-tribute to Ted, and feature one of his 'classic' films. I really love CG, but since I also love Tura Satana, I decided to go with Astro Zombies -which I think is equally awesome.


Why do I think this movie is so grand?

When your first scene in a movie involves a chick that looks like this:

and a monster that looks like this:

Baby, I'm ALREADY in lurve.

The monsters are the brain-child of Dr. DeMarco (John Carradine) who is making them from spare parts in his lab. Tura Satana :and her henchmen want a piece of the action. The CIA is investigating too.

There's a lot of crazy talk by Carradine about how his machinery works and lots of boop-be-boop-science type noises, and honestly sometimes the plot gets kind of lost. But I still can't help but love this film, especially for its scenes like these:

Want to check it out for yourself? You can watch it online here.

The movie might be a little confusing and silly at times, but for me, it's a feast for the eyes - and there's something about low-budget movies from this time period that just make me all swoony and warm inside.

I know that there are probably a lot of people out there who would check these films out and not be as fond of them as I am. They may not have the funding behind them that the big studios have - but they have tons more HEART than a lot of what you'll find at the cinema today. Ted truly has a passion for his art - and it shows. I think it's amazing that he's been making movies for SIXTY years - and I don't think he gets enough recognition for what he's done - not even from the horror community. (Cinema Wasteland being one of the exceptions).

So I thought I'd dedicate one day of my Halloween blogging to Ted and all the fun I've had meeting him and watching his films.

Thanks, Ted.
I hope I'm still blogging about your new films when you're ninety.

-Mother Firefly