Trailer Tuesday: The Astro-Zombies (1968)

[Video Link] This 1968 piece of schlock isn't John Carradine's finest moment, but the trailer is entertaining! "The Astro-Zombies are a strange, weird, unbelievable breed of living dead in human form. Their deranged transplanted brains could only lead them to murder... watch as the Astro-Zombies attack with maniacal fury!"

Listen to the Misfits and Joan Jett playing "Astro Zombies"

Watch the opening scene here

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Drabula

my bro and i saw this at the drive-in when we were wee lads!
http://twitter.com/SoHaunted Escobar

With just a touch of my burning hand I send my Astro Zombies to rape the land. Prime directive: EXTERMINATE! The whole human race and your face, drops in a pile of flesh and then your heart heart pounds till it pumps in death.

Prime directive: EXTERMINATE! Whatever stands left.
CharredBarn

My primary brush with greatness was when I appeared in a local musical theater production of Oliver! as one of a bunch of orphans/thieves, and got to meet and “act” with John Carradine, who played Fagin. This was probably in 1970, and it was years before I learned that I had shared a stage with the Hollywood legend from The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Astro Zombies (1968) and hundreds of other films of remarkably uneven merit.
http://twitter.com/zaren Jim Schmidt

…aaaaand added to my Netflix instant queue :D
Matteo Bernardini

I remeber this from long ago: watched in the first place just because it starred the marvellous Tura Satana :p
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tura_Satana
A.

I went to see this in college, presented by horror host Dr. von Calimari.

I was disappointed; I expected it to mirror the Misfits song. ;)
J Sullivan

… and who can forget John Carradine as mad Dr. Bernardo in Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&NR=1&v=Hf64xSG0mxo
http://twitter.com/Elissa_Malcohn Elissa Malcohn

By my calculations, this trailer averages one adjective every 4.12 seconds, including two hits per second for “the beautiful, voluptuous, deadly, vicious Satana.”
snagglepuss

This REALLY needs a new soundtrack, provided by Los Straitjackets.
cameron obscura

got to see this as a triple bill w/Ted V’s Doll Squad & Blood Orgy of the She-Devisl ‘n he took questions afterwards (Tura and Dolores Fuller were also there)…quite a memorable experience!
Aaron Hodges

See also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA6P6ErY4mk
unicornrainbow

oh Tura, you will be missed. Was lucky to sit next her for a screening of Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Great experience and amazing lady.
Antinous / Moderator

This 1968 piece of schlock isn’t John Carradine’s finest moment

And yet…
gerG Maclaurin

why, that’s Tura!!! OMG, faster, pussycat, kill! kill!
millie fink

Joy joy joy. Just watching that trailer staggered my imagination.

And then I died a thousand deaths.
noah django

TURA! YESSSS!
http://artdonovan.typepad.com Art

Obscure Film Fact: A very young Al Pacino appears (uncredited) @ 0:14 secs.
http://twitter.com/tmichaels1 Theodora Michaels

And Ted V. Mikels is still making movies! There is a newish documentary about him, The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels: http://www.oldies.com/product-view/1061D.html

He is currently working on the fourth Astro-Zombies movie: http://thewildworldoftedvmikels.com/Mikels-info/films/AstroZombieM4.php
http://www.youtube.com/user/PipLagenta Pip_R_Lagenta

Wikipedia notes that this fine film was co-written by “M*A*S*H” actor Wayne Rogers. Wikipedia goes on to say that “much of the film was shot on property owned by actor Wayne Rogers”. Here I would like to express my personal suspicion that Wayne Rogers got a writers credit for The Astro-Zombies project *because* he allowed the movie to be filmed on his property.
fergus1948

I watched in terror and screamed with fear!
Jaye Thompson

A few years ago, my friends and I did a MST3K of this as a Christmas present for our good buddy. Now I watch this movie with both an appreciation for pulp horror and nostalgia for the filming of our spoof. =D

Ted Mikels is a really nice guy, too. We bought a bobble-head Astro-Zombie from his website last year and he included a bunch of freebie extras.
http://www.tedvmikels.com/bobble_heads.htm