The Earth Dies Screaming – 1964 | 62 mins | Science Fiction | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Slowand somnolent sci-fi directed by Hammer veteran Terence Fisher on a shoestringbudget. Slow-paced but creepily convincing, Fisher does manage to injectatmospheric menace into the village-under-siege scenario, but is hampered by Canadianémigré Henry Spalding’s run of the mill script and stereotypedcharacterisations.

Abeautiful summer’s day in England, but the peaceful tranquillity is due to analien gas attack that has wiped out the entire population and caused some to bereanimated as zombies. Amongst this devastation in a quaint North Englandvillage arrives American test pilot Jeff Nolan (Willard Parker), fresh fromhaving tested a new vertical jet. Nolan takes refuge in a nearby hotel in thevillage and encounters Quinn Taggart (Dennis Price) and Peggy (Virginia Field),two people from the South who headed North hoping to find citizens. They arequickly draw by a post-party married couple, Vi (Vanda Godsell) and herdrunkard husband Eddie (Thorley Walters). All share the same unifying factor,that during the previous evening they were in purified air conditions.

Theirnemeses soon appear in the shape of two mechanical robots walking up thestreet, Vi runs out to greet them in the mistaken belief they are militaryassistance, and is killed by the robots deadly touch. Another pair arrive inthe shape of a young couple heading from London to Liverpool, prickly Mel (DavidSpenser) and his pregnant wife Lorna (Anna Palk). The band decides they mustdefend themselves, so venture to a local Royal Engineers TA drill hall for anunrewarding hunt for munitions.

Thatevening proves to be eventful, firstly a patrol robot appears at the rear ofthe hotel, and then the eyeless zombie corpse of Vi awakens. In the morning,self-centred cad Taggart decides to knockout Nolan and go his own way withPeggy, but the zombies in the village cause the two to part. Having run downone of the aliens in his Land Rover, Nolan discovers they are robots, and giventhe oscillating signal blocking their radio, sets out to discover the source.