Devil Girl From Mars

Poster tagline: THE FANTASTIC NIGHT OF TERROR THAT MENACED THE FATE OF THE WORLD! SIGHTS TOO WEIRD TO IMAGINE! DESTRUCTION TOO MONSTROUS TO ESCAPE!!! This film, more than any other, confirms the rule that the more enticing and exalted the posters, the dumber the film. The premise, a Martian woman and her deadly robot terrorize a small hotel somewhere in the Scottish Highlands in order to capture the male race that has become extinct on Mars, is straight out of Ed Wood's pen, but the potential for guilty pleasure entertainment is considerable, so I wouldn't be as harsh in my assessment as my colleagues here. There is, for example, the scene when they introduce the powers of the robot, which evaporates a tree, a tractor and a barn with laser beams, or the hypnosis scene, and, in fact, all the moments when the actress in the role of the martian with a serious face recites her threats. The way the film takes itself terribly seriously, the way the actors passionately deliver their lines, the deadly serious themes that are dealt with (the desire for family, the fear for one's fellow man, the willingness to sacrifice oneself for the good of the whole), all against the backdrop of the "threat" of a woman in a leather coat and a robot, who moves slowly like a snail and looks like a refrigerator with a light bulb for a head; all this, and the idea that people really experienced it in the cinema 60 years ago, takes on a kind of Dadaist dimension. And that’s exactly what I enjoy in films like this. Moreover, visually it was quite cute, the model of the flying saucer was adorable, its landing was pretty good and the overall theatrical stylisation (one house, a couple of trees around and a glowing spaceship) didn't bother me, on the contrary, I quite enjoyed it. So I give it a merciful 3*, even though I may end up roasting in "critics hell" :o) (22/02/2013)