They Came from the Ether is written and directed by James Pronath, who previously executively produced The Girl Who Played with the Dead. Cast members include Tom Gore, Bradley Eugene Greer, Paul Gibson, Christopher Fisher, Jack Byrd, Sherry Sparks-Jenkins, Jillian Teetsell and Kevin Darbo with appearances from Linnea Quigley (Return of the Living Dead, Creepozoids) and Judith O’Dea (Night of the Living Dead). This award winning, hour and a half long film was created in the style of science fiction b-movies from the 1950s.
The plot follows, “John Henry, a down on his luck salesman, who is given a chance at success by a alien visitor, trading technology for help in human experimentation. Blinded by his ambition, the salesman opens the doorway in which the alien can develop the means to control the human race. It’s left to Detective Mike Washburn, who is investigating the town’s missing persons, to get to the bottom of the disappearances.”
Honestly, I didn’t expect much from this movie when a screener came across my desk. I thought, “wow, this does look pretty low budget,” but I put it on with the anticipation of seeing legends Linnea Quigley and Judith O’Dea in action. With that said, I have to eat my words and praise They Came from the Ether for what it accomplished. It delivered. The amount of work put into making the film look like it was straight out of the 1950s is phenomenal and everything was on point. The slang, the locations, the props, the cars, the clothing… Wow, pre-production and set design for this one had to be pain staking, but it was well worth it. I see now why They Came from the Ether has screened at a number of festivals and has taken home a couple of awards. You can’t hate this movie, especially when it’s a throwback so full of nostalgia you’ll think you’re watching another entry in a marathon of flicks like The Flying Saucer, The Man from Planet X, Invaders from Mars and It Came from Outer Space.
The only criticism I have for They Came from the Ether has to do with the use of CGI during some of the spacecraft scenes. If you’re going to go all the way with something, then go all the way! I would have loved to see a homemade UFO attached to a string being held over a model set. Just to give it an extra layer of old-school science fiction. By using crappy CGI, it took away from the depth of nostalgia that makes the movie so great to begin with. And, I also could have shaved off a few seconds here and there of unneeded content, but that’s just me! All things considered, if that’s my only two complaints… that’s got to mean this one is a pretty decent flick. Excellent acting, suspenseful and fun… It’s also a triumph for filmmakers trying to do something different on an independent budget and it succeeds in bringing the essence of science fiction back to movies. This is going to be one movie I’m going to remember for a while!
Final Score: 8.5 out of 10
