Aliens land on Earth to test its suitability as a range for their livestock the gargants (lobsters that live on land and grow at a fantastic pace). Thor (Bryan Grant) vaporizes the first animal that arrives near their ship-a dog-with a “focusing disintegrator” (a dime store ray gun with a flash bulb in the barrel). Derek (David Love) criticizes his needless killing, then discovers the dog’s tag-and argues that this is no location for the gargants, since intelligent life is present. When the captain (King Moody, Get Smart) disagrees, Derek threatens the crew with his own disintegrator, then produces a book that he says tells all that is wrong with his people’s current way of life. The captain disarms Derek. When Derek escapes the captain sends Thor after him.
"Yeah, Jimmy, she's with this new alien. Oh? Kryptonite hunh?"
Derek escapes to town where he meets Gramps Morgan (Harvey B. Dunn, The Bride of the Monster), the most eager to rent landlord in history, bested only by his granddaughter Betty (Dawn Bender), who is incredibly eager to date clueless men who randomly show up in weird jumpsuits to rent rooms. Betty introduces Derek to the basics of Earth teenager life, while Thor kills his way through town. There’s also the (not so small) matter of the rapidly growing gargant left in a cave and the coming fleet with their gargant herds….
Nope, that's not just some reflective tape on a jumpsuit. That's a space suit, son!
Teenagers from Outer Space is classic campy, so-bad-its-good entertainment. There is the requisite amusingly terrible acting and purple dialogue and the needed low budget, paired with overreaching ambitions. No film this cheap should attempt aliens, space ships, gadgets, disintegrations and a giant monster on a budget that wouldn’t pay for a big productions catering. This leads us to animated gunfire, a single classroom skeleton used for the victims of the disintegrator, and jump suits with electrical tape for trim for alien uniforms. The embiggened gargant is the silhouette of a lobster with dubbed in screaming noises. Teenagers from Outer Space also features one of the silliest (and oldest) “teenage” sirens you’ll ever see and Betty’s reporter boyfriend who spends the film driving finding skeletons while Betty cavorts with Derek. Why this film needed all of these plots when it couldn’t afford them is unclear, but the result is comedy gold. Even the plural Teenagers in the title leads one to believe that there might be a whole gang of alien teens on the rampage, but instead we get just two.
"He said Jesus was a lobster, let him make a resurrection!"
Teenagers from Outer Space is a must-see for fans of B-movies, bad science fiction, and camp. You can watch it in its entirety at Hulu and the Internet Archive or you can watch it at Netflix Instant with Mystery Science Theater 3000 (an excellent Joel episode, but it is edited a bit from the original).
The League of Dead Films 