The Alien Factor (1978)
Alien Monsters
Film from low-budget director Donald M. Dohler about escaped alien zoo animals amok in rural Maryland. The film has the benefit of some good creature effects
Films of 1978
The Amazing Captain Nemo (1978)
Captain Nemo's Modern Day Adventures
TV mini-series released as a theatrical film in some parts of the world that resurrects Captain Nemo in the present-day. It is Irwin Allen returning to his tv roots where Captain Nemo’s adventures become a blatant attempt to copy Star Wars
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978)
Genre Spoof
One of the original genre parodies, a very silly and amateurish film that also manages to be occasionally quite funny. Three sequels and an animated tv series followed
Battle of the Stars (1978)
Italian Space Opera
The success of Star Wars saw a host of copies made over the next few years. This was one of several low-budget Italian space opera knockoffs of this period, featuring invading aliens from Ganymede
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
Space Opera
The original Battlestar Galactica tv series was an incredibly blatant copy built on the success of Star Wars. This is the pilot, which aired on tv in the US but was released theatrically to theatres in other countries
The Bees (1978)
Killer Bees Amok
This was made as a quickie cash-in on Irwin Allen’s big-budgeted bomb The Swarm. Cheap effects and ridiculous plotting cause it to topple well over into bad movie stakes
The Bermuda Triangle (1978)
Lost in The Bermuda Triangle
A film made to tap the 1970s fascination with the so-called Bermuda Triangle mystery with a name cast lost at sea on a ship as mysterious happenings start to occur
The Boys From Brazil (1978)
Nazi Cloning Experiments
Big-budget thrillers with Nazi villains were popular in the 70s. This pits acting legends Laurence Olivier and Gregory Peck on opposite sides in a conceptually ingenious plot about the attempts to clone Hitler
Capricorn One (1978)
Faked Mars Mission
The film that launched a host of conspiracy theories in which NASA decides to fake a Mars mission using tv transmissions. A clever and well written thriller that becomes an elegy to the loss of the ideals of the Space Mission.
The Cat and the Canary (1978)
Old Dark House Thriller
The fourth film version of the classic Old Dark House thriller, remade in the vein of the recent success of Murder on the Orient Express with an all-star cast of the day
The Cat from Outer Space (1978)
Cat Alien Visitor/Disney Comedy
From the era of Disney live-action comedies, this involves assorted slapstick tomfoolery as various parties try to aid or capture a telepathic alien cat that is stranded on Earth
The Clone Master (1978)
Scientist Creates Clones of Himself
One of the earliest film treatments on the subject of cloning, this comes with an intelligent and well written script in which Art Hindle creates twelve copies of himself. The original Orphan Black if you like.
Coma (1978)
Medical Conspiracy Thriller
Flush from the success of The Andromeda Strain and Westworld, Michael Crichton directed this medical conspiracy thriller, which returns to the fear of science themes that runs throughout his work
The Comeback (1978)
Psycho-Thriller
One of the films from Pete Walker, a greatly underrated director working in the British horror film in 1970s, in which pop star Jack Jones retreats to a country house only to be stalked by a psycho
Damien: Omen II (1978)
Teenage Anti-Christ/The Omen Sequel
The first of the sequels to The Omen, this follows Damien through his teenage years as he comes into his powers. Mostly though, the film seems to exist to stage more bizarre novelty death scenes
Death Dimension (1978)
Action Film/Weather Control Device
One of the film from legendary bad movie maker Al Adamson. While it has some SF elements, this is mostly an action film where Adamson has set out to mine the burgeoning Blaxploitation and kung fu genres of the day
Deathsport (1978)
Post-Holocaust Action
Terrible film made to exploit the success of Death Race 2000 with David Carradine as a mystical post-apocalyptic Range Guide. This is however a post-apocalyptic action film that prefigures much of Mad Max 2
Dr. Strange (1978)
Marvel Comics Magician Superhero
Forgotten, unsold tv pilot based on the Marvel Comics sorceror superhero. Unlike other Marvel tv properties of this era, this has an imaginativeness in its reach for esoteric spaces that favourably compares to the comic-book original
Dominique (1978)
Psycho-Thriller
A creaky old-fashioned psycho-thriller – one that draws heavily on Les Diaboliques and a contrived plot to drive somebody crazy – that came out the same year as Halloween and feels a whole world apart
Empire of Passion (1978)
Japanese Ghost Story
A Japanese ghost story in the neo-realist style where a wife and her lover conspire to kill her husband and then dump his body down a well only for him to return to them as a ghost
The Evil (1978)
Haunted House
Classic 1970s haunted film – at least the ending reveals otherwise. While most haunted house films focus on creating spooky atmosphere, this has been designed as a copy of The Omen driven by a series of bizarre novelty deaths
Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)
Psychic Link with a Serial Killer
Faye Dunaway is a fashion photographer who gains a psychic link into the mind of a killer. From a John Carpenter script but the thriller plotting is never up to the chic suggestiveness the film is given
A Fire in the Sky (1978)
Comet on a Collision Course with the Earth
TV movie about an impending asteroid collision that was intended as a copy of the big-budget disaster movie Meteor but is actually a far better film. The science and Civil Defence reaction is written with an impressive credibility
The Fury (1978)
Psychic Powers
Brian De Palma returns to psychic powers themes in this successor to Carrie, but this is a much more sprawling and often incoherent narrative with only occasional moments of De Palma’s directorial flourish
Halloween (1978)
Slasher Film
John Carpenter’s all-time classic, the film that created the slasher film and has been much imitated, not to mention multiply sequelised and remade. None of these however come anywhere near recapturing Carpenter’s eerie spookiness
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Afterlife Mixup
Warren Beatty co-directs/stars in a remake of the afterlife film Here Comes Mr Jordan. Amiably lightweight but this was over-praised at the time, inexplicably receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)
Sherlock Holmes Comedy/Ghostly Dog Mystery
Adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes novel made as a comedy vehicle for Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Given the duo’s reputations as comics, the results are fairly excruciating
The House of the Dead (1978)
Horror Anthology
Not to be confused with the Uwe Boll videogame adaptation, this is an obscure but not entirely uninteresting horror anthology from the 1970s that tells several tales set around a funeral parlour
I Spit on Your Grave (1978)
Rape and Revenge
One of the most raw and savage films ever made, this sits on a dividing line between true horror and exploitation as we experience Camille Keaton being raped with no detail spared before exacting a brutal revenge
The Initiation of Sarah (1978)
Sorority Girl's Telekinetic Revenge
A TV movie that has been construed as a blatant copy of Carrie where innocent Kay Lenz moves into a sorority house and finds occult goings-on around her
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Alien Duplication and Takeover
An excellent remake of the Cold War classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The original has now been smartly retooled for the 1970s and slots right into the Me Generation era with paranoia perfectly intact
It Lives Again (1978)
Killer Mutant Babies
This was the first of Larry Cohen’s sequels to his killer mutant baby film It’s Alive. Here Cohen uses the occasion to expand the themes in richer depth and makes a work that stands up as well as the original
Jaws 2 (1978)
Killer Shark
The best of the mostly worthless Jaws sequels. With a bigger budget, the shark attacks are more spectacular but there is nothing akin to the sustained suspense of the first film’s extended climax
Jennifer (1978)
Snake Controlling Teen's Telekinetic Revenge
A blatant ripoff of Carrie about a tormented girl who takes psychic revenge using snakes. Without Brian De Palma in the director’s chair, this only looks like a cheap tv movie
Jubilee (1978)
Punk Future
Early Derek Jarman film that acts as a snapshot of the 70s punk movement, a rambling indulgent treatise that depicts a future England that has collapsed into anarchy
Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978)
Rock Star Superheroes
A Hanna-Barbera film based around 70s rock group Kiss where they are cast as superheroes fighting a mad scientist who operates from an amusement park with an army of android duplicates
Laserblast (1978)
Teen Underdog Takes Revenge with an Alien Raygun
One of the first films to come out exploiting the success of Star Wars – a badly made teen underdog fantasy in which bullied Kim Milford takes revenge after finding an alien raygun
The Legacy (1978)
Occult Killings
One of the last gasps of the Anglo-horror cycle, this sets assorted deviltry in an English mansion along with a series of novelty deaths that trying to compete with The Omen
Long Weekend (1978)
Nature's Revenge
Excellent Australian-made Nature’s Revenge film with a couple on a weekend at a beach at siege from nature. Like the film’s obvious model The Birds, the attack occurs for never-specified reasons
The Lord of the Rings (1978)
Epic Fantasy/Animation
Way back before Peter Jackson, Ralph Bakshi made this not uninteresting animated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien. The film was not a success and Bakshi failed to return to complete the second part of the story
Magic (1978)
Malevolent Ventriloquist's Dummy
Muchly under-appreciated film with Anthony Hopkins as a performer dominated by his ventriloquist’s dummy. Great direction from Richard Attenborough, fantastic script and performances
The Manitou (1978)
Reincarnated Indian Medicine Man
The one moment of triumph from director William Girdler who takes a work that sits just on the threshold of schlock and transforms into something incredibly eerie with an injection of H.P. Lovecraft and American Indian mysticism
The Medusa Touch (1978)
Psychic Powers
Film in which hospital patient Richard Burton seems able to will terrible things to happen with psychic powers
Message from Space (1978)
Japanese Space Opera
Japanese attempt to jump aboard the Star Wars fad, a vigorous and colourful retelling of The Seven Samurai as a space opera
Nurse Sherri (1978)
Possession Film
Al Adamson was a director whose output closely resembled that of Edward D. Wood, Jr. This was Adamson’s contribution to the 1970s fad for possession and exorcism films, although is a dull film lacking even in many of the shock tropes that the other Exorcist copies pulled off
Patrick (1978)
Psychic Coma Patient
Fine Australian from Richard Franklin that jumps aboard the popularity of Carrie concerning a coma patient who demonstrates psychic powers
Pennies from Heaven (1978)
Musical Daydreams
Dennis Potter was the greatest writer to ever work in televisio. This mini-series is one of his most celebrated works, featuring characters bursting out into lip-synched Golden Oldie songs, making biting contrast to their downbeaten lives
Perceval le Gallois (1978)
Arthurian Legends
From Eric Rohmer, a director of the French New Wave, an adaptation of stories from the Arthurian legends, made in a decidedly eccentric style
Pesticide (1978)
French Zombie Film
One of the films from cult director Jean Rollin. This is a zombie film, clearly influenced by Night of the Living Dead, but with a uniquely French spin – the zombies are caused by drinking toxic wine
Piranha (1978)
Killer Fish
The second film from Joe Dante. Mounted as a quickie copy of Jaws by producer Roger Corman, Dante succeeds in peppering it with a lot of sly jokes and genre in-references
Plague (1978)
Plague Outbreak
Canadian-made thriller about the accidental release of a deadly plague from a laboratory. This is rather dull and never does anything that does not retread cliches
The Plumber (1978)
Sinister Handyman
Very odd early Peter Weir film about a strange plumber who moves in and takes over cautious Judy Morris’s apartment
Red Shift (1978)
Mysterious Connections Between Historical Eras
TV adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Alan Garner of the mysterious connections between three stories that take place in different historic eras
Return from Witch Mountain (1978)
Psi-Powered Alien Children/Disney Film
Sequel to Disney’s Escape to Witch Mountain with the psi-powered alien kids up against a villainous Christopher Lee and Bette Davis
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)
Gonzo Beatles-Adapted Musical/Classic Bad Movie
A real what-were-they-thinking turkey where someone had the idea of turning the Beatles’ album into a disco-era film starring The Bee Gees … In trying to contrive a plot around the songs and their surreally psychedelic lyrics, the film frequently makes no sense
The Shout (1978)
Enigmatic Stranger With Supernatural Powers
A film of fascinating ambiguities that stars Alan Bates as a mystery man who appears to John Hurt and demonstrates a killing shout he learned among the Aborigines
The Silent Flute (1978)
Zen Quest
Bizarre Bruce Lee conceived conceived martial arts film, a bizarre allegorical work of philosophy steeped in inscrutable Zen epigrams
Slave of the Cannibal God (1978)
Italian Cannibal Film
Another entry in the notorious Italian cannibal genre of the 70s. As with most of this genre, the film delights in pushing everything to gore-drenched extremes
Someone’s Watching Me (1978)
Stalker Psycho-Thriller
One of the lesser known John Carpenter films, a tv movie in which Lauren Hutton is stalked by a neighbour spying on her from the apartment building opposite
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1978)
Animation/Magician's Apprentice
If you don’t know who Karel Zeman is, you need to check out his films – he is quite one of the most extraordinary directors in his blend of live-action and animation. Zeman’s later films are pure animation and tend to be overlooked but are not uninteresting.
Spawn of the Slithis (1978)
Monster Movie
Independently made 1970s monster movie. The film came along about ten months too early to be be part of the great spate of B movies that copied Alien and so draws on the earlier model of The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Nothing exceptional
The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)
Star Wars Variety Show
The tv special that George Lucas would have all copies destroyed, a work of legendary badness – a Star Wars Thanksgiving special featuring most of the original cast and a series of variety performances that are mind-boggling in their ineptitude, not to mention complete and utter fumbling of everything that Star Wars was
Summer of Fear (1978)
Witch Comes to Stay
An early, little known Wes Craven film originally shot for tv in which Linda Blair believes that that cousin who comes to stay might be a witch
Superman (1978)
Comic-Book Superhero
This is where the modern comic-book superhero began on screen. A film that is almost completely successful in banishing campy silliness and taking itself seriously, allowing Superman to fly with magnificent effects. Christopher Reeve shines as the ultimate boy scout
The Swarm (1978)
Killer Bees Amok
Irwin Allen had great success in the 1970s with his disaster movies but this killer bee saga with a cast of big name stars uttering ridiculous dialogue and shabby effects proved a bomb that spelt the death knell for the genre
Terror (1978)
Supernatural Deaths
A key work of British exploitation director Norman J. Warren centred a series of supernatural novelty deaths
The Thief of Baghdad (1978)
Arabian Nights Adventure
The fourth film version of the Arabian Nights adventure, a tv movie released theatrically in some parts.
The Time Machine (1978)
Time Travel/H.G. Wells Adaptation
Largely forgotten adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel made for tv. While other versions place the story in Victorian England, this has been Americanised – where the time traveller is a weapons designer and journeys back to the Wild West. What kills the film is a painful cheapness
Vampire Hookers (1978)
Vampire Film
Filipino exploitation film that has a reputation as something more trashy than it is. A dull and aimless effort where an aging John Carradine delivers a largely incoherent performance as the head vampire
Warlords of Atlantis (1978)
Lost World Adventure
Not one of the Doug McClure Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptations but by the same people and in the same vein. Thanks to a particularly inventive script this is the best of these lost world adventures
The Water Babies (1978)
Children's Adventure/Magic Underwater World
Part live-action, part animated adaptation of a classic Victorian children’s story about an urchin who discovers a secret world underwater
Watership Down (1978)
Animation/Talking Rabbit Quest
Neglected today, this adaptation of Richard Adams’ classic novel about a quest among rabbits was one of the finest animated films of its era. This is frequently heartbreaking and touches on darker emotions that Disney and most other family films regularly sanitise.
The Wiz (1978)
All-Black Musical Wizard of Oz Remake
Musical modernisation of The Wizard of Oz relocated in New York City with an All-Black cast. Despite a clear budget arrayed, the film lumbers and never much comes to life
Zoltan … Hound of Dracula (1978)
Dracula's Dog
aka Dracula’s Dog. Most people who hear the title think this is a joke but this is a real film and one that takes a ridiculous premise – the idea of Dracula’s dog – surprisingly seriously