TerrorVision
Tags: satire

Plot synopsis:
On an alien planet named Pluton, an alien garbage disposal converts a monstrous mutant called a Hungry Beast into energy and beams it into space. Meanwhile, on Earth, the Putterman family is getting satellite television, courtesy of a temperamental DIY antenna. The reception is poor at first, but suddenly strengthens when a bolt of the alien energy hits the dish.
Sherman Putterman and his ex-military, survivalist grandfather set out to enjoy a night of horror films hosted by the buxom Medusa. Meanwhile Sherman's parents go out to meet some swingers and his sister Suzy goes out with her rocker boyfriend O.D.. Sherman and his grandfather eventually fall asleep, but are awakened when the Hungry Beast materializes out of the TV and eats the grandfather. Sherman's parents later arrive along with swingers Cherry and Spiro. Despite Sherman's plea, his mother locks him in the fallout shelter so he will not ruin their evening.
Sherman tries calling the police, but they take him to be a prank caller. He also calls Medusa, but she dismisses him as a psychotic. Later, the Beast travels through the television into the house's sex-themed "Pleasure Dome", eats Cherry, and imitates her to lure Spiro. Sherman's parents also get eaten after they discover the remains of the swingers. Sherman uses some plastic explosive to break out of the bunker as O.D. and his sister arrive.
Sherman's sister doesn't believe his story about a monster, and when they check their parents' room, they find imitations of them, their grandfather and the swingers. Soon after though, they encounter the Beast in another room. It chases after them, but relents at the sight of O.D.'s heavy metal paraphernelia, which he finds appealing due to its resemblance of his caretaker's gloves. They then discover that they can subdue the Beast with food and television, and teach it a few words such as "TV", "music" and their names. They consider using the Beast for profit, and call Medusa in the hope of securing a TV appearance. She is initially dismissive, but shows interest when they promise to hold a party.
However, the Beast becomes enraged and eats O.D. when its alien captor appears on the TV to warn the earthlings that they must destroy their television equipment to prevent the Beast from spreading. A police officer arrives to arrest Sherman for the prank calls only to be eaten by the Beast. Sherman breaks all the TVs he can find, and eventually the Pluthon alien captor appears through the television to exterminate the Beast. Medusa arrives at the house and kills the Pluthon Alien, mistakenly believing that he is in fact the Beast that Sherman and Suzy have described to her. When the real monster arrives, it sucks the group of three into its mouth with a powerful gust of air.
The next morning, Medusa's chauffeur is woken up by a crude imitation of his employer hiding in the back seat of his car, demanding to be taken to the TV station.

Review: This interstellar alien cop is the only one who can blast the gross alien creature into oblivion but...well, I'm sure that you are interested in finding out the rest, so go see this movie!TERRORVISION is a funny, hilarious horror cult film that has plenty of humor to liven this movie up.
It is a stupid film at times, and the cast definitely overacts, but if you are looking for a nice, relaxing horror film that offers a very different style from the rest of the horror movies in this genre, then TERRORVISION is recommended for you!This film was again produced by the one and only Empire Pictures, and you know what that means: cheesy special effects and acting galore!
If you thought that your own family may be "dysfunctional," hey (trust me), the family portrayed in this movie will add new meaning to that word!For a fine sense of humor that will appeal to cult film fans, TERRORVISION is destined to become that next "special" classic.
Wacky sci-fi horror comedy with a terrifically animated cast featuring Mary Woronov, Gerrit Graham, Diana Franklin and John Gries with vividly chintzy special effects by John Carl Buechler.
The cartoon-like premise is quite original and mock-serious in its approach, which sees the Puttermans a suburban family getting a new satellite TV which draws in a hungry outer space monster (which looks great).
His grandpa (Bert Remsen in the film's best performance) is a survivalist promoting his lizard tail jerky product (the perfect food because lizards' tails grow back and you can eat it again) and hiding out in his well-stocked fallout shelter.If it were possible for a complete parody to be called original, "Terrorvision" (1986) would be the first to qualify.
Although rated "R" because of some off-color humor, it would not be worth denying middle schoolers the pleasure of viewing this film because the overall style and effect is best appreciated by that age group.Sherman's swinging parents are Gerrit Graham (who played superstitious car salesman Jeff in "Used Cars") and Mary Woronov ("Eating Raoul").1980's teen queen Diane Franklin plays Sherman's sister Suzy and Jon Gries (of "Pretender" fame) is her boyfriend "O.D." who is really into heavy metal music.
Franklin is almost unrecognizable in her mid-1980's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" look.Although the parody is primarily directed at the excessive cuteness of "ET", "Terrorvision" also goes after Elvira and Vampira with a similar late night horror show hostess called Medusa who wears a wig of snakes, has two enormous talents, and manages a host(ess) of semi-explicit puns.The real star is an alien house pet whose mutation into a hungry beast forced its owners to send its atoms out into space.
A stray planet causes the creatures atoms to deflect through space until it finally is sucked down to earth by Sherman's father's new satellite dish.By the middle of the film the monster has chewed and sucked its way through most of the family and their friends when Sherman, Suzy, and OD have an "ET" moment with it.
The kids try and train the alien pet who unfortunately isn't normal, even to alien standards and proceeds to eat friends, relatives and almost anyone who drops by.Parts of the film remind me of Eating Raoul, The Big Bus and a little bit of Bucakroo Banzai as it plays like a cartoon.
Terrorvision was one of those 80's cult classics that I never got round to watching until now, I went in expecting very little but came away quite amused.Telling the story of an extraterrestrial being beamed down to earth into a families satellite dish and running rampant with an unearthly hunger its a scifi comedy horror that actually entertains.With a host of familiar faces and a retro soundtrack this creature feature actually looks quite good considering its age.
It reminded me of Critters (1986) and alike that the creators didn't take it all too seriously.Over the top, silly yet at the same time quite horrific this is a true 80's gem and a lot of fun.The Good: Great creature effects Likable cast All looks the part The Bad: Feels very dated in places Things I Learnt From This Movie: If you prank call the police they'll block your number Being "Greek" in the swinging world means you're gay.
Though, everybody just thinks it's part of some sort of bizarre sci-fi movie.Only the doomsday prepper grandpa- who sells lizard tail jerky (the truly replenishable food supply)- and his grandpa's boy grandson, Sherman, are paranoid enough to take the ominous warning seriously...and they are fully equipped for the job.While his parents are out swinging (and I don't mean dancing...), and his sister is out with her punk rocker boyfriend...the monster beams itself out of their TV, and into their home...eating grandpa and the TV repair guy.
So many great one-liners, like: "Holy Tomato!", "This is the dumbest movie I ever saw."...and my personal favourite, "this dude's into metal!!!".The monster is also pretty sweet.
The result is an off-the-wall comedy that feels like a 1950's monster movie, staring 'Leave it to Beaver', as filtered through 'Adult Swim'.The daughter, Suzy, played by Diane Frankin ('Better Off Dead' / 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'), has the hair and make-up of an animated Cindy Lauper and an over-the-top valley-girl gab.
Together, this group inhabits a home that looks like a cross between a sex spa and a Patrick Nagel exhibition on ecstasy.Wacky from minute one (the theme song being one of the film's high points), the family has just hooked up their new satellite dish while, simultaneously, far across the cosmos, a creature that can only be described as a booger with eyes, is being transported in exile by a humanoid-lizard alien that we don't learn much more about until the film's climax.
Here in Britain during the 1980's, Empire pictures, Vestron and Entertainment in Video were the undisputed kings of straight-to-video masterpieces, including such brilliant rubbish as 'Robot Jox', 'Rawhead Rex' and...TERRORVISION!Character breakdown: an alien called a 'hungry beast' that materializes through people's televisions and is 'into metal', another alien called Pluthod who's here to save earth from the 'hungry beast' that just happens to be a friendly pet on his planet, a bi-sexual Greek swinger called Spyros and his beautiful but incredibly dizzy wife, a military obsessed mentally unstable Grandpa and way too young for guns hyper-active mentally unstable Grandson, a Cindy Lauper-a-like teenager, her Heavy metal freak boyfriend 'O.D.', her swinging satellite T.V. and exercise obsessed parents and an alcoholic Elvira-type T.V. host.I won't tell you the 'plot', but I defy you to put all these characters and elements together under one roof (yes, all the action takes place in one house!) and create a movie!I had the pleasure of owning this wonderful piece of garbage on video a few years ago and I'm begging whoever owns the rights to it now for a DVD release!.
The cast is great too; and from the over-the-top performances, it looks like everyone had a good time making this film.
If you've ever wondered why the Band family's Empire Pictures went bust after a few years of operation, a look at their movie "TerrorVision" will answer a lot of that question.
Our plot, such as it is, concerns the comically over-the-top Putterman family, consisting of a swinging, sexually liberated Mom and Dad (played by Mary Woronov and Gerrit Graham), their imaginative son Sherman (Chad Allen), daughter Suzy (an oh-so-80s fashion victim who resembles a cross between Kelly Bundy and Cyndi Lauper) and the military-obsessed Grampa.
Throw in a busty "Elvira" wanna-be TV horror host (here called "Medusa") for no good reason, add a brain-dead headbanger in a W.A.S.P. t-shirt (one of my favorite 80s bands; you hear their song "Tormentor" for about two seconds while the kids channel surf, prompting Grampa to rant about "moral decay") and you've got true Z-Movie heaven in a box."TerrorVision" is obviously not to be taken seriously, so if you're a "real" horror buff, just leave this one on the shelf and find another movie.
I loved this film so much that during my early party days i would wake up hungover on a Saturday morning and watch this with a large coffee to recover.Great hammy performances all around from true B-movie legends, great colours, cinematography, fantastic set designs, special Fx, brilliant creature creation - this movie is a beautiful weird world unto itself - highly recd'd for true fantasists!!
Rest In Peace Grampa and I remember you simply by my favorite Terror Vision Quote which you delivered so profoundly " Horror stories and monster movies are educational, survival oriented, they always neutralize the enemy in the end".
Others in the host family are: Mr. Graham's wife-swapping partner Diane Franklin (as Suzy), their punky teenage daughter Mary Woronov (as Raquel), cute blond pre-teen son Chad Allen (as Sherman) and lizard-loving old Bert Remsen (as Grampa)...Young Allen tries to tell the family there is a monster in the television, but everyone is too self-absorbed to believe him.
Unfortunately for Stanley, his satellite is a perfect receptor for a load of extraterrestrial garbage that just happened to be converted into energy and zapped into his backyard: a hideous, two-ton alien blob with eyes and a never-ending appetite.The real star of this film is Diane Franklin, as big-haired Suzy Putterman.
So bad and so good this one can be contradictory but it's happen in this picture,all family has an odd kind,the grandpa has a bunker expecting a third world war,the couple living a open mind marriage seeking for new couple to do swing,all house is decorated with sexy paintings,the girl dating a punk odd guy,the boy is almost normal in the house,so when the monster show up on TV all crazy things gonna happen,the grandpa and medusa stolen the show......funniest trash Sci-Fi-horror!!
The first and most important scene missing is when Mr. and Mrs. Putterman return home for some adult orientated fun with friends, i.e. spouse swapping, and they leave the very sexy Cherry, played by the adorable and desirable Randi Brooks, all alone, (bikini clad!) looking at the monster-filled TV screen saying, "What are you looking at?", and then the movie cuts away.
"Terror Vision" is a sci-fi/monster schlockfest that features some creative creature features, along with cult movie actors Mary Woronov and Gerrit Graham.
Even the monster is so silly looking, how can anyone not like this movie?
I said that for a couple of reasons: one, despite the movie apparently being set in boring, staid 1980s suburbia, the house the characters live in looks like something out of "A Clockwork Orange".
TerrorVision is rather a interesting movie titles when i was searching for some good old cheesy horror movie and now i finally know why.From the wacky sitcom like characters to the awesomely bad fashion sense this movie is just scream the 80s and i love it.The monster look cool and there are many gross out gore scene but the sexual innuendo in this movie is surprisingly heavy.I'm not sure the parent is suitable to raising children when the whole house decorate with nude pictures and they often have an orgy with strange people.Other than that it still a very fun horror comedy so check it out if you have time.
It's often hard to tell where the plot is going, and while that can be a good thing in some movies, TerrorVision is a little too in love with its own wacky sense of humor.
Later, as Stan and his wife Raquel entertain a pair of fellow swingers, their kids, Sherman and Suzy, try to tame the alien beast, which has started to eat members of the family, starting with their grandpa.Charles Band's Empire International Pictures churned out numerous low-budget B-movies in the '80s; some were atrocious (Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama, Ghoulies, some of them were actually quite good (Trancers, Reanimator), and a few were just plain silly.
TerrorVision definitely falls into the latter camp, being an offbeat sci-fi/horror/comedy full of bizarre situations, quirky characters, and crazy special effects, all served up with a garish aesthetic.The result is totally bonkers but quite a lot of fun, the entertainment factor helped immensely by a memorably daft monster (that liquefies and assimilates its victims) and suitably wacky performances from a game cast that includes statuesque cult B-movie favourite Mary Woronov, the lovely Diane Franklin (Amityville II, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure), Gerrit "Beef from Phantom of the Paradise" Graham, and that blonde who sings Duke of Earl in The Man With Two Brains..
It gets off to a good start with a catchy title tune performed by The Fibonaccis, then proceeds to descend into cartoonish lunacy.A great big gross creature - looking like a cross between a bulldog and a toad - is disposed of by aliens on a distant planet and is beamed down to Earth by the satellite dish of goof ball swinger Stanley Putterman (Gerrit Graham, who takes the overacting honours).
The always welcome cult icon Mary Woronov plays Stanley's wife Raquel, Chad Allen and the delightful, foxy Diane Franklin are their kids Sherman and Suzy, Jon Gries is dorky metal head O.D., Bert Remsen is the nutty Grampa who swears by lizard tails, Alejandro Rey and Randi Brooks are swinging couple Spiro and Cherry, Sonny Carl Davis is the hapless Norton, Ian Patrick Williams pops by briefly as police officer Nutky, and the ubiquitous Frank Welker does the voice of the monster.In addition to the aforementioned song, there's a decent score by Richard Band, impressive production design and set decoration, and lots of effects; the creature itself is the work of John Carl Buechler and his crew at MMI.Objectively speaking, it's not exactly a "good" movie, but it is fun, and may serve as a real blast from the past for people who just ate up stuff like this when it was new.Six out of 10..
Any horror in the film is laughable; but like the rest of the movie, it's not laughable in the funny kind of way.
this is the most dumbest horror film i have ever seen but it wasn't meant to be scary.i saw this in a video store across from where my mom used to work i never did rent it.but when another video store was having a going out of business sale i bought it for three dollars.and you mean fake it was a lot fake than the three ones i used to get it with.green blood in it that was stupid and when the kids try to reason with that creature.and the most crazy scene is when the monster had the parents the people next door and the old man in bed like they was making out.it was like that one movie video dead.and to tell you the truth i think they make that crap on purpose..
While, yes, it is a bad homage to cheesy horror films, it has a "certain naive charm."Plot: An alien pet which has been disintegrated and shot into space (the alien equivalent of "putting to sleep") is accidentally picked up by a haywire satellite receiver (remember back when they were the size of a hot tub, rather than a dinner plate?) and begins to appear - and come out of - the various TVs of the Putterman household.The Puttermans aren't your average family, either - Mom and Dad like to swing (and the house is LOADED with the least tasteful erotic art I've ever seen), Grampa is some kind of vet who lives in the basement/bomb shelter and tries to sell people on the ultimate survival food - lizard tail jerky ("you break off its tail, and it grows another one, then you break that one off, and it grows another one!!"), sister Suzy is a Cyndi Lauper clone, and Sherman, the baby (well, he's probably about 12) seems normal, but comments are constantly being made as to his "meds" and the possibility of being sent back to the doctor...
- "you know, like in that movie with the ugly little alien that made you cry like a butt-head.").Nothing nice lasts, and the ending leaves you wondering just how much of the world the Hungry Beast may be able to devour.My favorite part (among many) of this movie is Medusa - she's a late-night horror hostess (very much an Elvira clone with a head of foam-rubber snakes) who Sherman calls and tells about the monster.
"TerrorVision" is one of the cheesiest creature features of all time.**SPOILERS**Installing a new satellite dish, Stanley Putterman, (Gerrit Graham) and his family Racquel, (Mary Woronov) Suzy, (Diane Franklin) and Sherman, (Chad Allen) begin rifling through their new stations and constantly come across a particular alien creature in their searches.
Something with an atmosphere of 'Monster in My Pocket,' the family arrangement like 'Meet the Hollowheads' mixed with the humor of 'Doing Time on Planet Earth.' And of course, the filmmakers and everyone else (maybe) realize just how cheesy the movie is, and that's exactly why they can have so much fun with it.
The daughter is a new wave / punk hybrid with multi-colored hair that dates a head-banger named "OD." Their parents are still living in the 1970s and don't want to give up their swinging lifestyle.Top all that off with a big slimy monster that looks like a twisted version of Jabba the Hutt, an alien taken straight out of a 1950s sci-fi film, and a late-night TV host and you have all the ingredients for a film written and produced by B-movie king Charles Band.
TerrorVision is a funny, hilarious horror cult film that has plenty of humor to liven this movie up.
There are a lot of one-liners, cheesy special effects and the film can be stupid at times but it was still an OKAY movie, I would not see it again.
This 1986 sci-fi/horror comedy tells of an alien monster invading an obnoxious family's home after their new TV satellite transports it from it's planet.