Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1978)

A group of scientists band together to save the world from mutated killer tomatoes.

Director:

John De Bello

Writers:

Costa Dillon, John De Bello

Stars:

David Miller, George Wilson, Sharon Taylor

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
David Miller	...	Mason Dixon
George Wilson	...	Jim Richardson
Sharon Taylor	...	Lois Fairchild
J. Stephen Peace	...	Lt. Wilbur Finletter (as Rock Peace)
Ernie Meyers	...	The President
Eric Christmas	...	Senator Polk
Ron Shapiro	...	Newspaper Editor
Al Sklar	...	Ted Swann
Jerrold Anderson	...	Major Mills (as Jerry Anderson)
Don Birch	...	Old Man
Tom Coleman	...	Singing Soldier
Art K. Koustik	...	FIA Director (as Art Koustik)
Jack Nolen	...	Senator McKinley
Paul Oya	...	Dr. Nokitofa
John Qualls	...	Captain

Storyline

After a wave of reports of mysterious attacks involving people and pets being eaten by the traditionally docile fruit, a special government task force is set up to investigate the violent fruit and put a stop to their murderous spree. Included in this crack team are a lieutenant who never goes anywhere without his parachute, an underwater expert who's never out of his scuba gear, and a master of disguise who conceals his appearance by dressing as a black Adolf Hitler.

---

Plot Keywords:

based on short film | disaster | punctuation in title | exclamation point in title | monster | 

---

Taglines:

"Aaargh! ..."

---

Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Horror | Musical | Sci-Fi

---

Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

KT Entertainment

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 December 1978 (Brazil)

Also Known As:

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!

Filming Locations:

Qualcomm Stadium - 9449 Friars Road, San Diego, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$90,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Four Square Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

83 min 90 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The song "Puberty Love" was performed by Matt Cameron, who would later go on to be the drummer for Soundgarden and Pearl Jam.

---

Quotes

Ted Swan: Can I do it?
[manically laughs, then sings]
Ted Swan: Some sell, some buy, and only we know why! The wrapper's more important than the price! Important decisions are made each day, much too important for the plain folk to make. They're always in a bind, so we're here to help them make up their mind!

---

Crazy Credits

Remember... The Best Bargains in Town Are at Sunny Vale Furniture 173 East Main Street Just South of the Mervin Exit

---

Alternate Versions

The director's cut restores cut scenes, jokes, and dialoge, but also deletes some scenes from the original.

---

Connections

Followed by Return of the Killer Tomatoes! (1988)

---

Soundtracks

PUBERTY LOVE
Music by Paul Sundfor and Gordon Goodwin
Lyrics by Costa Dillon, John De Bello and J. Stephen Peace
Performed by Matt Cameron

User Reviews

The insane genius of James De Bello

(r#43)

"Worst movie of all time"? No, actually one of the most insane and hilarious spoofs ever made. Not much of a plot, obviously low budget, non-actors doing the best they can to keep the dialogue deadpan and serious (George Wilson as the bad guy is particularly hilarious), and of course rampaging, evil, flesh-eating tomatoes.

In the tradition of David Zucker's Scary Movies, James De Bello's jokes aim to be as shamelessly stupid, but still funny, as possible. And it worked for me. Some lines literally had me howling with laughter. "Could somebody pass the ketchup?"; "Wienerschnitzel!"; "Technically, tomatoes are fags"; "Well, it was pretty dark, you know... it's lighter today"; "Why not? You're a woman!", just to name a few. And how can you not love a movie that features a catchy John Carradine-esquire theme song, a deliberately badly dubbed Japanese scientist, an insane katana-swinging WWII pilot who seems to drop from out of no where and just sort of follows along, a blind policeman, a president whose main job seems to be writing his signature on papers before crumpling them and throwing them away, a UN-type organization who spends the entire movie debating what should be done about the tomatoes before deciding it's not time to take action yet, a swimming champion who eats an entire bowl of the cereal "STEROIDS", mind-numbing musical numbers, the list goes on.

You'd have to be a pretty dull person not to enjoy this. Utterly insane, shamelessly cheap and silly, but somehow awesome. I'd recommend this movie to anyone with a knowledge of awful movies and a good sense of humour.

"Mlmlmlmlmlm mneed mlmlmlmlmlmmlm..."