UNCUT - The Quiet Earth (1985)

my dad loves that damn movie. "back in my day" he'd go down to the hole-in-the-wall video store across the street and rent that movie at least 2-3 times a year.

Did you notice the Blu-ray cover spoiled the last scene? I don't get it, why did they choose THAT particular picture? Just because it looks cool? Dumb, dumb, dumb. This has been one of my favorite sci-fi movies ever since I first watched it in the late 80s. I've always wondered though, did Joanne and Api just disappear when the last "Effect" happened? Or did Zac shift to a new reality when he died, and Joanne and Api both got left behind in a world doomed to be destroyed by a collapsing sun in a few days? A tragedy either way. The first half of the movie reminded me a lot of the first Twilight Zone episode "Where Is Everybody?", another "last man on earth" story.

Saw this in a NYC art house theater in'85. Quick story. As the audience arrived one gentleman kept shouting how good it was going to be. He continued through the trailers. Finally a guy behind him stood up and shouted "Shut the F - up. He never made another sound to applause.

Honestly thought you guys would hate it because it is a bit rushed and I thought it may've leaned too far into the science fiction for your tastes. But this was made in New Zealand for less than $1mUSD at a time when the film industry didn't really exist there, this was like 7 years before even Braindead and two years before Peter Jackson's first film. Film stock was expensive and shutting things down for any length of time was probably a nightmare. People there probably only got used to filming once Hercules/Xena/Beastmaster hit the scene, and then of course the big three with Jackson. The perspective stuff, especially the dolly zoom, was all great. But those walking on the wall sequences really kinda make the film for me; breaks from the hypnotic score and really successfully conveys that delirium of dimension shifting. Where I break from the two of you, though, is I thought Zack's actor had the best performance (especially the weeping Caesar scene). Some of his stuff being ADR'd was distracting, but it's probably because they had shit equipment and got road noise -- a lot of the distance shots looked terrible as well because of lack of proper lenses. Is what it is, though; fun little flick. Oh, and fuck Neil deGrasse Tyson and the distributor for having him record commentary. It's worse than you can imagine.