Night of the Big Heat (1967)

How sad is this?

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Best movie ever!

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

For those of you who enjoy shouting at your TV, then this is definitely one for you. I was expecting more from this film due to the cast involved, however, don't be put off from watching this just yet upon my initial hearsay, as it distinctly falls under that well known cliché of, "so bad, it's good". Actually, it's bloody awful, but it's still kinda good in it's own way, and worth at least one watch for the sake of belief. Very reminiscent of 'X:The Unknown' (1956), and also the far superior of all the intense-heat movies, 'The Day The Earth Caught Fire' (1961), so much so that it's practically a hard-neck, no shame, amalgamation of both, except the drama is pretty much borderline of mid-afternoon soap operas.If you enjoy seeing lust-filled, dormant rapists bite a clenched fist before they attack, people who have immense trouble in trying to outrun poached Brontosaurus eggs, or pointing fingers at why walkie-talkie batteries aren't as delectable as car batteries, (let alone why the plastic casing doesn't melt), to name but a few perks and irregularities, then fear not, because this is the shout-fest you've been looking for.To be honest, I'd give it a 1/10 right across the board for it's acting, script, special effects, etc, but due to it's surreal and laughable entertainment value, it's getting a more than charitable 5/10 from me. You could do worse on a lonely weekday night out in the sticks.

I tried to like it. I lowered my expectations as much as I dared. What really sealed its demise was the way it took an interesting idea for an original monster siege horror, and drained 'every last particle of energy' from it. I feel they could have done so much more with the concept even with the limitations of this production.It could have benefited from a more competent stab at the science. Several references in the movie are worse than Solo's confusion of parsecs with units of time. The whole foundation of the plot is a hand wave- one with vague references to television signals in excruciating verbal shrugs that Christopher Lee looks appropriately uncomfortable delivering.The characters are boring, the dialogue is terrible, the science is gibberish, and the conclusion is anti-climactic. In the absence of any other quality, the poor visual effects and bland acting fail to drag this dull-witted movie out of the bog. Not the worst I've seen, but irritating and forgettable.

It's winter, and on the British mainland the temperatures are an accurate reflection of the season. However, right off the English coast on the small island of Fara, the temperatures are steadily on the rise, reaching triple digits by nightfall with no decrease in sight. Because of the stifling heat, glass explodes, cars overheat, TV and radio signals are drowned out by fuzz and people start behaving a little on the animalistic side. Even more peculiarly, fields of sheep are found fried, strange lights are seen in the sky, certain energy sources are being sucked dry, trails of a black coal-like substance seem to be everywhere and people are mysteriously turning up dead, with only charred corpses left to tell their fates. Understandably concerned writer Jeffrey Callum (Patrick Allen) and his wife Frankie (Sarah Lawson), who run a local inn/tavern called "The Swan," and others in the town try to get to the bottom of things before its too late. They also try to figure out what mysterious, antisocial boarder Godfrey Hanson (Christopher Lee), who has converted his room into a lab and seems to enter and exit at the strangest times with a camera and various equipment, is up to. Also stopping by the inn (where much of the film takes place) is town doctor Vernon Stone (Peter Cushing) and Jeffrey's sexy new "secretary" Angela Roberts (Jane Merrow), amongst others.Based on a novel of the same name by John Newton Chance (written under the alias John Lymington) and released in the U.S. under the title ISLAND OF THE BURNING DOOMED, this is a passable sci-fi/horror programmer from the short-lived Planet Film Productions, who also made the genre pictures DEVILS OF DARKNESS (1965) and ISLAND OF TERROR (1966) before calling it quits in the late 60s. This one's fairly well-made, entertaining and has decent production values and acting, with Lee in a major part, Cushing in a minor one and the rest of the actors and actresses doing good jobs with their roles. It's talky and slow-moving for the first hour, but strangely enough it was this first hour of mystery, character drama (including an adultery subplot) and rising tension amongst the citizens of the town that I felt was the stronger portion of the film, as opposed to the later action-oriented scenes. When finally visualized, the beings causing the heat wave, hysteria and deaths resemble giant hairy eggs. But hey, it was 1967, so that's pretty much to be expected anyway, right? Oh well. At least now I know where M. Night Shyamalan got his ending for SIGNS from.

Cheaply done fast-food sci-fi that actually works pretty well for the most part. A small British isle inexplicably has temps soar into the 90's, in the dead of winter when the temp should be around 30. A mysterious scientist named Dr. Hanson (Christopher Lee) is seen sneaking around and bizarre noises can be heard from time to time by the few island residents.The movie carefully builds tension of the unseen danger, by scattering a few clues about the nature of what the islanders are up against, without showing the menace until deep into the film. Lee has shared the screen with Peter Cushing before, and does here again. Cushing is a local medical doctor, who, like most of the characters, hangs out at a pub owned by an author named Jeff Callum (Patrick Allen). Good acting by the entire cast, and the characters are developed well.There's some good old time "monster encounter" action at a spot called (love this name) "the pit", and the film's "unseen monster" approach works well because of it. When the creatures aren't around, the film provides for plenty of interesting subplot conflicts among the characters.There are a few clichés, but they were probably fresher plot devices in the '60's when this was made. The big negative on this movie is the abrupt and poorly thought out ending, which nullifies most of the value of what the characters had been doing throughout the whole story. It's like they simply ran out of money, and quit.The movie has a dud ending, but otherwise it's a good watch for better than average sci-fi.