Saturday, March 24, 2012

#586. Oversexed Rugsuckers from Mars (1989)


Directed By: Michael Paul Girard

Starring: Dick Monda, Jean Stewart, Billybob Rhoads




Tagline:  "You'll never trust your vacuum cleaner again!"











OK, I've already said that the only reason I watched 1972's Blood Orgy of the She-Devils was its title. So there's no way I was gonna let a movie called Oversexed Rugsuckers from Mars slip by!

After millions of years away, a race of miniature martians returns to earth to check on the progress of their “human” experiment, and from what they can see it's been a total disaster. Having left humanity in charge of the planet, the aliens are disappointed to find it in such an untidy state, and decide to change things up a bit by mating humans with vacuum cleaners, so that future generations can clean the mess their forefathers left behind. 

Unfortunately, the vacuum they choose as their prototype malfunctions, and becomes a sex-starved maniac! With this horny Hoover on the loose, no earthling, male or female, is safe from bodily penetration.

Imagine a bunch of flat-broke college buddies getting together to make a sci-fi movie, and you have Oversexed Rugsuckers from Mars. There's nothing particularly "special" about any of the effects; the aliens are made of clay, and brought to life by way of stop-motion, yet never look like anything more than messy globs sloshing about. As for the humor, it aims low, and even then often misses the mark. When the alien “ship” first arrives on earth, it lands next to a vagrant named Vernon (Dick Monda), who is asleep on the pavement. One of the aliens, an anatomically correct male, climbs out of the ship and urinates into Vernon’s empty gin bottle. Shortly after the martians fly off, Vernon wakes up, and not to be outdone, rolls over and lets loose a fart. 

From there, things get downright childish, with highlights including a peeping tom, whose name actually is Tom (Billybob Rhoads), masturbating as he watches his naked neighbor, Rana (Jean Stewart), through her bathroom window; and another scene where Tom gets his comeuppance when he's raped...by the vacuum cleaner! 

Crass dialogue and tasteless humor run rampant throughout Oversexed Rugsuckers from Mars, none of which is particularly funny. I myself never laughed once, though I must admit I did smile a few times, like when the vacuum first comes to “life”, and is framed against the rising sun, a la the Monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey (they even play Also Sprach Zarathustra).

The concept behind Oversexed Rugsuckers from Mars far outshines its execution, yet I was left with the distinct impression that everyone making this film (cast and crew) had a great time doing so. Oversexed Rugsuckers from Mars may not be a good movie (in fact, it isn’t much of a movie at all; it feels more like a class project), but it has a sense of fun about it, and though it probably deserves a failing grade, I’ll give it an “E” for effort.

With maybe a little extra credit thrown in for the title.







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