Movies From Beyond: The Omega Man & Ed Wood

Welcome again to the weekly whirlwind of the weird we call Movies From Beyond. We have been watching some real gems lately and so thought it only right to let you know what we think about them, whether you like it or not.  

Firstly though, we think it is our duty to let you know that the horrendously-under appreciated Zone Horror on Sky has started showing The Twilight Zone every night before Tales From The Crypt. Now that’s an evening in in anyone’s book (book of the dead maybe?)   

So onto this week's Movies From Beyond - The Omega Man and Ed Wood…

With all the hoo-ha surrounding Will Smith’s new cinema outing I Am Legend, we thought it was only right to check out one of the originals on HD-DVD: The Omega Man, starring gun-toting NRA spokesman / madman Charlton Heston. As with a lot of older movies that have been spruced  up for high definition releases, it looks pretty average - maybe we should have saved the extra fiver and just got the standard DVD release. The movie is really interesting, being the last man on the face of the earth is a fairly lonely experience; the signs of madness are done well and the nightly attacks from ‘The Family’ really help to ratchet the action up, all the while Chuck runs about in a tight-fitting leisure suit firing off machine guns and hearing payphones ringing. It suddenly occurred to us whilst watching The Omega Man that it has been parodied in an excellent Treehouse of Horrors episodes of The Simpsons, which sort of took the edge off a bit.  

Another big cinema release at the end of the month is Sweeney Todd with Keith Richards wannabe Johnny Depp, who also starred in a movie directed by Tim Burton (obviously) called Ed Wood about the king of the B-movie; Edward D Wood Jr. This is the man who brought us Plan 9 From Outer Space - believed by many to be the worst film ever made. We would have to disagree. The film follows Ed as he makes his way into filmmaking while dressing up in woman’s clothes, making his own special effects and striking up an unlikely friendship with Count Dracula himself; Bela Lugosi, who made his last ever appearance on film during Plan 9 From Outer Space.  

This is one of the best biopics around and once you see it you will want to dig out some of Ed’s other work like Night Of The Ghouls and Glen or Glenda. All in all this movie really honours a guy who's a bit of a legend around here.

[story by Simon Woodley]