31 Days of Halloween - The Green Slime (1968) With Slimey Alien Spoilers

I first saw this movie late one night when I was about 12. That's probably the best time and age for the film. I still enjoy watching it; but the part of me that really likes it is my inner 12-year-old.

Synopsis

It is the future. A large space station orbits the Earth, commanded by Vince Elliott (Richard Jaeckel). A massive asteroid is spotted on a collision course with Earth. Commander Jack Rankin (Robert Horton) is sent to the space station to lead an expedition to destroy the asteroid. He and Vince were once friends, but had a falling out. In part, this was due to a decision that Vince made that got some men killed. Vince is also engaged to Lisa (the oh-so-hot Luciana Paluzzi) who once was Jack's girl.

The mission to the asteroid is successful. However, a member of the science team inadvertently brings back a strange organic substance, the Green Slime. It rapidly evolves into s horde of squat, tentacle-armed electricity generating monsters, whose blood generates more creatures. Despite the best efforts of the crew, the station is soon overrun. Jack and Vince rig the station to burn-up in the Earth's atmosphere; but Vince is killed in the process. The aliens are destroyed, Vince gets to die heroically and Jack gets Lisa. Happy endings for everyone. Well, not so much for Vince. Or the Green Slime for that matter. So, happy ending for the arrogant, annoying guy and his hot ginger love monkey.

Analysis

Luciana Paluzzi.
Do you think I'm NOT going to post a pic of a hot redhead?
Do you know which site you are on?

Toy-like miniatures. Rubber suit aliens. Unlikeable characters and clunky dialogue. A cheesy rock song with lyrics like;

What can it be, what is the reason
is this the end of all that breathes, and
Is it something in your head?
Will you believe it when you’re dead?”

In other words...completely awesome! Or, perhaps some other word!

One way to look at this film is as the side of a cinematic coin shared with another sci-fi movie that came out the same year, 2001: A Space Odyssey. While it may seem heretical to mention Kubrick's masterpiece with this firmly b-movie space opera, they do represent two types of sci-fi cinema that are still jostling for dominance. 2001 exemplifies a mix of hard science and metaphysical musings. The Green Slime is pure space opera, science fiction as an adventure movie with no pretensions of anything else. The characters in 2001 take back-seat to the technology. They are cyphers with the artificial intelligence HAL showing more personality than the men who created him. Kubrick was purposeful in what he did; his future man has reached a dead end. In contrast, the characters in The Green Slime are more "human." That they are cliches involved in melodramatic conflicts doesn't detract from the fact they are much more "alive" than their counter-parts in Kubrick's film. The color palette is starkly different. 2001 is very sterile, with lots of whites, blacks and greys. The Green Slime is a riot of color, from the bright red asteroid to the brightly colored walls and uniforms on the space station. While the future depicted in 2001 looks plausible, The Green Slime looks more like pop art.

Space opera remains more popular than the cerebral science fiction film. While the latter exist (Moon, Melancholia, and Her are recent examples), most science fiction films are more closely related to The Green Slime. While effects technology has advanced to the point that even modest budgeted films can look good, they still have space opera sensibilities. A film like Avatar, for example, looks amazing. However, it is populated by bombastic characters not out of place in a movie like The Green Slime and the story is a simplistic framework for colorful action scenes. For a time, it looked like science fiction films might take a more serious route. 2001 was seen as a masterpiece, The Green Slime as a juvenile example of B-movie sensibilities. With the success of Star Wars, however, the action-adventure space opera became the dominant style of sci-fi cinema. The children of the Green Slime live.

The Green Slime are coming for you! Well, not really.
THey're just heading out for coffee and bear claws.

Verdict

The Green Slime is a fun movie. It is bright and fast paced. The characters are archetypes and played with the intensity of wood chippers. The story is straight-forward; survival horror in space with a love triangle subplot. The effects are, um, quaint. The silly monster suits and extensive, but toy-like, miniatures add to the charm of the movie. Check it out.

Bonus: The rockin' theme!