Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1978)

Director: John De Bello

Starring: David Miller, George Wilson

Run Time: 87 mins

Certificate: PG

 

Plot Outline: After a series of reports about tomatoes killing people, a special government taskforce is set up with the mission to stop the killer tomatoes before they take over the world!

The Review: One of the most infamous so-bad-it's good films of all time, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! is just an amazing waste of time to which I have no clue how it's become as popular as it has. No one involved here has taken this seriously at all and, at a time when horror/comedy wasn't the rage, it's surprising to see this actually got a green light to be made. It's blatantly obvious that this was intended to be as silly as it is, the title alone being a major clue to that. And silly it gets with a cheesy soundtrack and even cheesier moments of madness involving tomatoes. If the idea of killer tomatoes doesn't have you rolling around or slapping your head already, then I guarantee you will by the end of this. The film actually manages to turn the tomatoes into some sort of a threat surprisingly enough, with classic scenes like the spoof of Jaws with swimmers being picked off by floating tomatoes or the car attack moment where two people are trapped inside by a barrage of tomatoes launching kamikaze attacks on the windows. If there was only the slightest hint of seriousness involved, there's no way these would work the way they do. There's the scene with the army fighting the killer tomatoes in the streets with flamethrowers and tanks. If you think it sounds silly, it's because it is. It looks immensely silly but in the same way, it looks real because by this point you're a believer that the tomatoes are alive. It's not really a coherent film though and looks like someone put a camera in front of different people messing about and put it all together. The acting is almost non-existent here and dialogue seems to be made up on the spot most of the time. But that's to be expected. I didn't tune in here to see now-famous actors making their screen debuts (although a certain George Clooney did appear in one of the sequels). Don't raise your expectations and you might be pleasantly surprised a few times throughout here. Ironically enough it's a scene without the tomatoes that made me laugh the most. It's the scene in which about eight scientists and military personnel cram into a tiny room for a meeting and they have to crawl over one another to fit into the chairs at the table. Sad but true.