The Cremators (1972)

An alien life form that is a huge ball of living matter invades earth, and replenishes itself by absorbing people.

Director:

Harry Essex

Writers:

Harry Essex (screenplay), Julian C. May (story)

Stars:

Maria De Aragon, Marvin Howard, Eric Allison

Cast

Credited cast:
Maria De Aragon	...	Jeanne (as Maria de Aragon)
Marvin Howard	...	Dr. Iane Thorne
Eric Allison	...	Dr. Willy Seppel
Mason Caulfield	...	Mason (the hippie)
R.N. Bullard
Cecil Reddick	...	Medical Examiner (as Cecil Redick)
Tim Frawley
Jax Jason Carroll
Ola Kauffman
John Barnum	...	Merv (as Barney Bossick)
Al Ward	...	Phil
Chuck Hillig
Jim Ragan
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
David Essex

Storyline

An alien life form that is a huge ball of living matter invades earth, and replenishes itself by absorbing people.

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Plot Keywords:

yacht | sunset | hospital | eye witness | speculation | 

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Taglines:

Great Balls of Fire: Scorching! Ravaging! Engulfing!

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Genres:

Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Also Known As:

Dune Rollers

Filming Locations:

Agoura, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$50,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Arista Productions Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

75 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Version of Tales of Tomorrow: The Dune Roller (1952)

User Reviews

An enjoyably dreadful piece of sci-fi schlock

An evil lethal bright orange yellow fireball comes to earth and goes on a rampage in a remote lakeside area; the flaming thing rolls over various hapless folks and reduces them to ashes. It's up to nerdy scientist Dr. Iane Thorne (blandly played by Marvin Howard) to figure out a way to stop it before it's too late. Writer/director Harry Essex, who also wrote the scripts for the classic 50's fright features "It Came from Outer Space" and "The Creature from the Black Lagoon," pukes forth a 50's style micro-budget clunker that boasts all the necessary bad movie vices to qualify as a real four-star stinker: the flat acting from a lame no-name cast (flash-in-the-pan 70's drive-in flick starlet Maria De Aragon in particular just takes up space as fetching love interest heroine Jeanne), sluggish pacing, ragged editing, rough, grainy cinematography by Robert Caramico, meandering narrative, a roaring, overwrought score by Robert Freeman, several ludicrous touches (the fireball stalks people before it kills them!), and a hackneyed "it ain't over yet!" ending all combine together to create one laughably lousy and leaden lump of a total stiff. Only Doug Deswick's surprisingly nifty special effects manage to impress. A shamefully unsung crud anti-classic.