A crazy psychedelic sci-fi monster mash made in Japan with an American cast, The Green Slime is great fun on many levels. A bunch of groovy astronauts blow up a menacing asteroid which threatens planet Earth and accidentally bring a gooey green hitch-hiker back to their plastic space station. The evil little blob feeds on electricity and soon grows into a small man in a rubber costume with dingly dangly tentacles and a glaring red googly eyeball. This kinda cute looking but dangerous creature goes on the rampage and starts electrocuting all and sundry whilst a glamorous lady in a silver space dress has a love triangle with our two macho heroes.

Aimed primarily at schoolkids, The Green Slime actually has elements of the later sci-fi horror Alien and its first sequel Aliens, as the green slime creature begins to replicate itself and the movie becomes an all-out battle between the creatures and a bunch of space marines! The special effects are dated but fun, the monsters look like something from The Power Rangers tv show and the space station designs are colorful and funky. On its original release in the States (in 1969) The Green Slime had great box-office but terrible reviews. The New York Times wrote: “The dialogue is wooden, so is most of the acting by a cast including Robert Horton, Richard Jaeckel and Luciana Paluzzi. And a dull and obvious romantic triangle continually squashes the terror potential at the ripest moments.”  But of course that’s exactly why the film has so much charm when viewed today. I originally saw this back in the early 80′s on my local ITV station when they used to run Thursday night sci-fi seasons and I remember being soooo excited about seeing this movie. Believe me, I wasn’t disappointed and if you approach it with the right attitude, you won’t be disappointed either.

Review by Richard Gladman