Nightbeast



A fugly-looking alien out for a joyride in our solar system gets hit by a wayward asteroid and crash lands in the small rural town of Parry Hall. In an apparent act of extreme space road rage, said alien then proceeds to laser-blast just about everyone he sees out of existence, while occasionally slashing and munching on the people he chooses not to pulverize. It now rest on the semi-capable shoulders of Sheriff Cinder and his rag-tag group of deputies and volunteers to not only clear out the town to prevent as many casualties as possible, but to also figure out a way to stop the beast, because the useless mayor never bothered to ask for help from the state police like he said he would. Thanks, ya dick.


You kind of deserved this, you drunken a**hole.

Nightbeast is a sci-fi/horror outing from 1982 and was made by notorious cult film director Don Dohler, a man who is perhaps best known for making cheesy Z-grade schlock like The Galaxy Invaders and Fiend. Nightbeast was Dohler’s third film, but is also actually a (very) loose remake of his first film, The Alien Factor, which came out in 1978. That film also involved a rag-tag group of police and volunteers fighting off murderous aliens, but with a very different outcome and a lot more rough edges you had to sit through. Miraculously, Nightbeast actually manages to be a bit of an improvement from Dohler’s first alien invasion attempt. But because this is still a Don Dohler movie, it still ends up being a hella cheesy mess, no matter how many improvements he may have tried to make to the original concept.



Though Nightbeast isn’t necessarily advertised as a remake it should be pretty apparent that that’s what it is if you’ve ever watched The Alien Factor (which I wouldn’t necessarily recommend, because that film is…woof. But I digress…). For starters, the basic story is almost exactly the same, with the biggest change being that no one ends up coming to help the town deal with the crisis, and instead of being forced to deal with three different aliens, the characters in Nightbeast only have to deal with one. But if that still wasn’t enough to convince you, then the fact that the film uses the same actors, many of whom return to play the exact same roles as the earlier movie, should be enough to convince you. So that means that Nightbeast is either a remake, or the town of Parry Hall is not only highly skilled in the art of resurrection, but has also been forced to deal with not one, but two completely separate bouts of murderous, angry aliens killing their populous, giving that town some of the worst luck with extraterrestrials outside of maybe Roswell, NM.


Hey, you fellas didn’t hear someone yelling about an anal probe again, did ya?

Luckily though, Dohler seems to have learned some things from his earlier films, as Nightbeast is actually one of the few remakes that is leagues better than the original. Which still isn’t really saying much, because it’s still pretty much a Z-Grade cheese fest, but since Alien Factor was basically a Triple Z-Grade film it’s still a mark-able improvement. The picture quality is better, the framing is better, and there aren’t large sections of plot dedicated to slowly wandering around in the woods (this time when they’re in the woods they’re running!) In short, in the short 4-ish years between the two films Dohler learned how to more competently shoot and compose a (slightly) more compelling tale. Thank god.



That said though, Nightbeast is still a Don Dohler film, so it’s still kind of a mess (okay, it’s still mostly a mess). The pacing is inconsistent, with the first half being fast, action packed, and (surprisingly) pretty fun, and the second turning into a bit of a mellow, stalky slow grind until the end finally rolls around. Most of the actors are still the same, so there’s not any noticeable improvement there. And for some reason there’s about half a dozen side plots going on that have no real connection to the rest of the story, and seem to just be included to add more action, DRAMA!, and conceivably runtime, to the film.



But what makes this movie more entertaining than the original are all the oddities, and boy howdy, this film is just chock full of them. The alien creature’s design is creepy, what with the fangs and the claws and his penchant for eating people, but it’s all horribly mitigated by him wearing what looks like some kind of shiny mylar disco suit. Disco boy also carries around a laser gun that makes people (and occasionally items) dissolve into shiny disco sparkles, while leaving behind a charred, black outline of their body on the ground that’s reminiscent of what happens when a cartoon character explodes. For some reason said laser gun can also dissolve things like cars, but not things like short brick walls, because then what would the other actors have to hide behind? There’s this weird biker guy who just seems to be hanging around town for the hell of it. The mayor’s house is extravagant upstairs, but has a downstairs den that looks like something out of your creepy uncle Ben’s basement that you were never allowed to go down into for reasons you were never told. And it also has one of the most un-sexy sex scenes you will ever see, and I’m sorry for everyone who was involved with it. But I mostly feel bad for Tom Griffith, because he had to show his flat, pasty ass to the world, and I feel doubly sorry for the audience because in no universe did anybody want to see that.


“Don’t laugh! I got it on discount!”


Seems appropriate that Disco Boy would dissolve everyone into shiny disco dust.


Hahahahaha! Are you kidding me? Hahahahaha!


Here, I’ll give you his white, pasty chest instead of his white, pasty ass. You’re welcome.

So, props to Nightbeast for being marginally better than the film that inspired it. But it’s still schlock. It’s cheesy, it’s cheap, the acting is unimpressive, the effects can be bloody, but usually end up being hilarious instead, it has too many miscellaneous plot points, and the decent pacing falls apart around the half-way mark. But, it’s also still kinda fun, and is one of Dohler’s more competent films, so props for that. Still, it’s not great, but if you can appreciate the cheesiness it can definitely be amusing. If you’re looking for quality, however, then you should steer clear.

Nightbeast is available on a variety of streaming services.

Nightbeast is also available on DVD and Bluray.

Helpful Links: