An alien spacecraft is hit by an asteroid and forced to crash land on Earth, and in Maryland, of all places! It’s soon established that the occupant of the vessel doesn’t come in peace!

1982 was a big year when it came to alien movies. There were friendly extra terrestrials (erm, E.T.) who were a huge hit at the box office and the nasty kind, like The Thing, a box office flop but a home video hit. Nightbeast is more like John Carpenter’s variety of visitor in that it wants to harm us rather than phone home.

There’s a lot to find endearing about this horror/sci-fi hybrid. I love the fact that the movie was only made for $14,000 and looks it. It’s actually aged incredibly well though.

I also love that the alien (who looks like one of the horror masks that could be purchased in an early issue of Fangoria and in fact *could* be bought locally after the film’s release) fires lasers that make whatever it hits bright red and then disappear, leaving just ashes behind.

The fact the film was made and set in Maryland is great. There are some of the thickest Baltimore accents this side of John Waters’ movies here.

There are some gore scenes that are very full-on too which is probably why it was classed as a video nasty here in the UK.

Nightbeast is also a reminder why the 80’s were so great and why a man in a monster suit is still better than multi-million dollar CGI nonsense anyday.

Fun fact- the soundtrack was partially composed by a teenaged JJ Abrams.

No, this isn’t The Thing. It doesn’t even come close. This is low budget cheesy fun. In fact, if it was a cheese it would be a Roquefort or Stilton- smelly, pungent, but very satisfying.

3 out of 5 stars