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Where Have All the People Gone (TV) More at IMDbPro »
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| Index | 46 reviews in total |
24 out of 29 people found the following review useful:
Deserving of True Cult Status!, 24 July 2003
Author:
chconnol from New York, N.Y.
I was eight years old when I saw this movie (actually I saw it once again about a year after I first saw it). Anyway, I have NEVER forgotten it. The image of the clothes laying inside a car was one scene that ALWAYS stuck with me. BUT, I never knew the name of the movie. And for years I lived with this movie in my head never knowing it's name. Until about five years ago, a friend and I were talking about weird movies when I happened to mention this one. I told him about the clothes and that it starred Peter Graves. He said very nonchalantly.."oh..'Where Have All the People Gone'". OH-MY-GOD. I couldn't believe he remembered it too. This was one of the eeriest, scariest and realistic movies I've ever seen. The sense of the survivors desolation was palpable. The feeling of dread it instilled in me was incredible. Why don't they put out a whole bunch of these great 70's TV movies out on DVD? There's a huge market for this. Great to see so many people remember it like I did. If you liked the Twilight Zone, you'll like this one.
22 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
disaster-type movie that is affecting and effective, 22 October 2004
Author:
FieCrier from Upstate New York
With video stores dumping their videotapes in favor of DVDs (even if
they do not have DVDs to replace many of the titles they're getting rid
of), and with large video store chains putting mom 'n' pop stores out
of business, some unusual videos are turning up for sale.
I'd never heard of this movie, and wasn't even a year old when it was
originally broadcast, but when I saw it as an ex-rental for sale for
$2... well, actually I passed it up at first, just writing the title
down to look up on the IMDb. The comments are pretty favorable on it,
and I'm usually intrigued when a movie on the IMDb has relatively few
user ratings and no external reviews, and a subsequent internet search
fails to turn up any reviews online elsewhere. Consequently, I went
back and bought it; I'm glad I did!
It starts off with a voice-over by the young woman Deborah Anders, and
occasionally throughout the movie we get some voice-over by her, though
the movie is not entirely her narrative. The Anders family is camping
in the High Sierras, but Mrs. Anders heads back to their home in
Malibu. Mr. Anders, his two children, and a family friend remain. While
the Anderses are fossil-hunting in a cave, their friend prepares a
rabbit stew and he sees a bright light, which is followed by a short
earthquake. The Anderses flee the cave during the earthquake, and they
witness their friend's health deteriorating, and can't get and stations
on their radio anymore, and can't reach anyone on their walkie-talkie.
They make their way back to civilization: Rainbow, California,
population 250. Nobody is there.
What happened?
The movie held my attention pretty well. It is definitely a made-for-TV
movie, fading to black for commercials, then fading back up again. In
spite of that, it works pretty well. As in a number of other movies of
this subgenre, there are spooky shots of deserted towns, encounters
with dangerous animals and other survivors.
19 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
A lasting impression from a time of edgy TV movies, 20 February 2002
Author:
hippiedj from Palm Desert, California
I was 11 years old when I saw "Where Have All The People Gone?" and it
really left an impression on me. Other reviewers of this film here on IMDb
seem to be sharing the same feeling; we were young and were privileged to
see films like this one on TV at a time when they were just a bit more edgy.
It's comforting to know there are others out there my age who seemed to
appreciate these more cerebral films at such a young age! Other examples
that have stayed with me were 1974's "Dying Room Only" with Cloris Leachman,
and 1970's "The Neon Ceiling." These were very serious and even frightening
scenarios, and even schlock films like 1973's "Horror At 37,000 Feet" and
1974's "Killdozer" were edgy, truly unique, and highly
entertaining.
The idea of everyone in the world turning into dust from a bizarre solar
flare type incident except a handful of survivors here and there really
scared me. Like "Last Man On Earth," and "The Omega Man" before it and even
"Night Of The Comet" and "The Quiet Earth" much later, it's a theme that
will intrigue and never let go.
Peter Graves was a great choice for this film, and it was nice seeing
Kathleen Quinlan too. You could just feel their dread as they went through
a city and saw nothing but clothes on the ground where people used to be
(particularly seeing a playground with children's clothes scattered about),
and having to deal with dogs that seemed to be unaffected by the phenomenon,
all running wild in the streets and quite vicious.
They just don't make 'em like this anymore. They can try, and with state of
the art digital effects to boot, but it just seems you can't beat these
early 1970's TV films that relied more on dramatic content, creativity, and
substance rather than flashy effects. It seems many of us are all hoping to
find "Where Have All The People Gone?" on home video and it would be a smart
idea for whoever controls the rights for it to consider releasing it! It's
a piece of nostalgia that still holds up today and just takes me back to a
time when I really looked forward to something on TV.
16 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
Make sure your out camping and protected by a cave when the end comes., 7 June 2004
Author:
lemon993 from Staten Island, New York
Fondly remembered by all who saw it back in the 70's, this end-of-the-world flick packs a punch. I caught the last forty minutes about a year ago on an independent channel--which temporarily replaced another station that was being primed for a Spanish-language channel takeover. Could this made-for-tv movie have been inspired by the Star Trek episode titled "The Omega Glory"? There are striking similarities: most notably the state of the doomed crews' bodies. In the movie, however, the disease is caused by solar flares. You don't need elaborate and costly effects to convey the desperation and fear in the survivors' milieu. The situation itself is enough. Peter Graves sheds his B-movie threads and delivers a heroic performance as the father who leads by example and care, never loosing sight of their goal to hook up with their loved ones. The director, John Llewellyn Moxey, has deservedly earned his cult status. His television resume is impressive: The Night Stalker, The Last Child, Genesis II, Home for the Holidays, as well as the pilots for Kung Fu and Charlie's Angels.
12 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Still remember this movie!, 6 August 2001
Author:
Perri29 (perrir29@yahoo.com) from Texas (Ca native)
Judging by the other user comments I'm not the only one who saw this movie
only once and still can't forget it. I was probably about five when I saw
this and I can still vividly recall scenes from the movie. (It seems like
a
lot of us who have commented on this movie saw it at an impressionable
age;
I wonder if that's why it has stayed with us all for so long?)
I would love to find this thing on tape or catch it on television some
night. Bring back some of those wonderful willies that so easily came in
the
70's thanks to movies like Chill Factor, Trilogy of Terror, Gargoyles and
countless others.
13 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
WOW! Others remember this movie! I'm SO happy!, 15 April 2005
Author:
jester-30 from United States
I have been looking for the title of this movie for nearly 30 years! I
saw it as a nine year old back when it first aired. I remember being
creeped out to no end. In my teen years I got into scifi and somewhere
in my head I always remembered watching this movie - perhaps one of the
best apocalyptic films ever made, even if it was for TV. I couldn't
remember the name, and no one I asked seemed to recall it - so went
high school, college, even grad school... no one could help me find the
title. Then, the Internet, a late night search on Google, and thanks to
TV Tome and IMDb, I have the title. Now to get a copy! People have
commented that it reminds them of the Trek episode... nah, this film is
far more effective. It reminds me of The Quiet Earth, but the scenes
where the clothes are found is eerie and outstretches TQE, imho.
Thank you all! My 30 year quest is over! Yippee!!!!!
13 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
Did someone say scary?, 27 November 2005
Author:
bcolquho from Saco, Maine
I did. That's what this movie was. I first saw it when I was fifteen. Due to a series of solar flares, most of the people on die leaving nothing but white powder and empty clothing. A handful of survivors, including the Anders family, try to repopulate a depopulated planet. So why did the family patriarch, played brilliantly by 7th Heaven's Peter Graves, and his kids survive while his wife and so many others died? They had a gene that made them immune to the effects of solar flares. What happened to the animals? They went insane. Those who survived had to fend for themselves. When the Anders' Volkswagen bus ran out of gas, they had to siphon it from the gas tank of a car from somebody who died. Eventually, they meet up with other survivors and the rest you'll have to find out for yourselves. Too bad it hasn't been released on DVD.
7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Intelligently-crafted doomsday thriller on a tight budget..., 16 September 2008
Author:
moonspinner55 from redlands, ca
Thoughtfully considered, well-acted made-for-TV drama stars Peter Graves as a family man on an excavation excursion with his kids in the California mountains who survives a radioactive blast followed by an earthquake; slowly, the family comes to realize the astronomical proportions of the accident when they get back to town and find desolate streets. Writers Lewis John Carlino and Sandor Stern do not trivialize the situation with soap opera; the budget may be slim, but the emotional experiences on hand for Graves and his children (and two others they pick up along the way) are harrowing. Cinematographer Michael D. Margulies does terrific work behind the camera, and the direction is solid except for some stiffness at the beginning and a voice-over narration that was unnecessary. Television movies really came into their own in the 1970s, providing capable TV actors with meatier roles than what was otherwise available to them in the form of popular weekly shows. This is certainly the case with Peter Graves, who retains his laconic, low-key persona but who also excels with some hard-hitting scenes (such as a moment of private grief up in his bedroom); Verna Bloom is also terrific as a mother who has seen her entire family decimated, and young Kathleen Quinlan is outstanding as Graves' warm, maternal daughter (this is a very underrated actress giving an early performance worthy of high praise). Worthwhile, unpretentious fare, a precursor to "Damnation Alley", "The Day After", and many others.
7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
I am glad I am not the only one, 13 July 2007
Author:
DebCST from United States
I thought I was the only one that remembered this movie. I saw it when I was 10. I was up for three days worrying about a solar flare up or that the sun would not come up at all. My mom was at her wits end. After this she never let me see any scary movie...I didn't see Jaws until I was an adult. All she really had to do was say "do you remember what happened when you watched....? and I would back down on asking to see certain movies. I sometimes still get a sick feeling in my stomach when I think about it. I am sure my mother regretted ever thinking it was okay for me to watch that movie. What was she thinking anyway :D I would love to get a copy of it just to see it again and see if it was just being 10 that made it seem so bad or if it really was!
10 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
White Powder and other remembrances, 25 July 2004
Author:
Quinn (superiorsir@hotmail.com) from Anaheim, CA
Yup, I was a kid when I saw this, just like nearly all the others. Oddly, I recall it was similar to the Star Trek episode "Omega Glory" as well, what with the white powder left spilling out of people's clothes. I always wondered, since I recall that the main characters' camping companion was feverish and in seeming pain for half the day after being exposed to the solar flare before he tuned to white powder, why so many of the empty clothes with powder spilling out they happened across were in positions that indicated that the occupants had disintegrated immediately without undergoing a period of suffering (e.g. on a playground carousel, behind the wheel of a car, etc.). Oh well, I overanalyze. I remember being likewise bothered by a recent movie where an airline pilot captain had to deal with nearly half his passengers vanishing, leaving empty clothes behind (minus white powder). brr...getting' the shivers.
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