Brilliant and touching

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Nightbeast (1982) ** 1/2 (out of 4)A spaceship crashes in a small town and before long an alien creature escapes and goes on a killing spree. The local police must try and find a way to destroy the alien before the entire town is dead.NIGHTBEAST is pretty much a direct remake of the director's previous film, THE ALIEN FACTOR. I always enjoy watching remakes and I find them even more interesting when the same director does them. Don Dohler was a name that I wasn't too familiar with before reading Stephen Thrower's NIGHTMARE USA and after viewing a couple of his films I must admit that I like him.There's certainly nothing original here since it's basically a remake of the previous movie but at the same time I thought both films did a very good job at keeping the viewer entertained. Both at least look like a professional movie as there aren't any major goofs that you normally see in these types of low-budget features. I also give the director a lot of credit for trying to deliver the gory goods even without much of a budget. There are a couple gory killings here that will keep fans of the genre entertained.The look of the monster is good for what it is. There's no question that this film as well as THE ALIEN FACTOR were meant to be throwbacks to the drive-in era but of course these movies offered up stuff like gore, violence and nudity. The love making scene here has to be one of the silliest that you'll ever witness but it's at least entertaining! The performances are pretty much what you'd expect from a film like this but I thought all of the actors were fun and at least kept you glued into the movie.NIGHTBEAST also has some rather silly sci-fi effects that were influenced by STAR WARS and they add some camp appeal as well. There's certainly nothing ground-breaking here but if you enjoy low- budget movies this one here is certainly entertaining in its own way.

From hardly alien sounding lasers, to an elementary school style shuttle crash, "Nightbeast" is better classified as a farcical mix of fake blood and bare chest. The almost pornographic style of the film seems to be a failed attempt to recover from a lack of cohesive or effective story. The acting however is not nearly as beastly, many of the young, aspiring, actors admirably showcase a hidden talent. Particularly Don Leifert and Jamie Zemarel, who shed a well needed shard of light on this otherwise terrible film. Nightbeast would have never shown up on set had he known the terrible movie making talent of this small Maryland town.

Don Dohler MUST have grew up during the fifties/early sixties and been a tremendously big fan of the monster-movies of that period! How else could you justify the handful of cheesy Sci-Fi horror movies that he unleashed upon the world during the first half of the 1980's? His movies all revolve on the exact same storyline of an alien monster invading a remote little redneck-town and killing the locals. "Nightbeast" is by far superior to "The Galaxy Invader" and "The Alien Factor", but still a pretty inept and laughable movie. The monster, which resemblances a hairless gorilla with fangs, lands on earth, takes out his laser gun and starts shooting random people so they disappear into thin air. He occasionally also rips hillbillies' heads off or their guts out, but he never seems to attempt to take over our planet or anything. Why is he here? Nobody knows and nobody even bothers to wonder about it. Thanks to the monster's arrival, the local sheriff also realizes that he's in love with his deputy! How convenient is that? Most of the time, you get the impression that the players completely worked without a script! They all just do and say what they feel is best, and Don Dohler doesn't mind because he's happy already for making another cheesy monster movie! There's some outrageous gore and gratuitous nudity, so I don't assume any 80's horror fan will complain. Heck, even the title can't be taken seriously, as the intergalactic King Kong eliminates as many people during the day as he does at night! It's true what the other reviewer said: they just don't make 'em like this anymore.

Economically deficient bubble-gum sci-fi hokum can be every bit as enjoyable as any entry in the big-budget ALIEN franchise, so long as you find it in your will to accept it on its own minimalist terms. A ridiculous looking alien from the abyss of space(picture a fat man with the head of a deformed walrus and an enormous, fang-bearing rictus)arrives on Earth near a rural U.S. town and instantly begins a hunt for human snacks. Despite the primitive appearance and behavior of the monster, it apparently is of a highly superior intelligence, as it's armed with a ray-gun which blasts its targets into a scatter of atoms. A cast of nondescript nobodies must find a way to stop this hungry predator before it makes a casserole of their entire white-trash community. NIGHBEAST has gore...it has boobs...it has the most unappealing love scene in film history...all the essential ingredients are here for a perfect cheese-wiz monster-mash. Do check it out...that is, unless you deem yourself "too sophisticated" for such things.5.5/10...Dohleriffic!