Tubi Thursday: Night of the Big Heat (1967)

As everywhere has record high temperatures (but, of course, Climate Change 'is not real'), I find that people need to know why.

Well, this Film from 1967 may have the answer.  It's...

The Fara Island (a real place in Scotland) has some strange weather. 

While it's freezing everywhere else, it is 90 degrees and rising!

So, naturally, this Film was shot in the Winter...where it was actually cold...while they acted like it was super hot.

Strange lights seem to show up and kill people.  I can probably get a Poor Bastards of Cinema induction (or three) out of this.

The heat keeps rising.

A Scientist (Christopher Lee- getting top billing over Peter Cushing for the first time) is up to something.

Oh and a Writer had an affair and now the lady followed him home (at the worst time).

As day turns to night (as the Title implies), things only get worse...

More people die.

Communication is cut off (since heat causes static?!?).

More off-screen events- such as a landing with lights- also occurs.

What is actually going on?!?

Well, strange creatures have come to Earth, following our satellite pinging back to the source.

They create immense light and heat, killing off people and raising the temperature of the Island (and soon the World!).

So, after all of that, a rain storm causes them to short out and die.

Yep.  

The End.

A solid Premise.  A nice location.  A good Cast.  Tension galore.

So what went wrong?

The Film, in a nutshell, is melodramatic when it needs to be serious and pretty cheap when it needed to splurge a bit.  Shall I explain?

The B-Plot with the former Lover showing up and all that was, well, pretty unnecessary.  Was it the best way to build tension between the Characters?  No.  There were plenty of other ways.  This Plot also keeps intruding on things and not in a way that prolongs the Main Plot in a good way.

The other issue is that the payoff and execution of the creatures is...not great.  There seems to have been a trend around this time of making weird, silly-looking creatures.  For instance, 1966's Island of Terror has very similar creatures, but it has Peter Cushing as the Lead and not just a 'Guest Star.'  Little blobs sliding around are just not as scary or interesting as people seemed to think back then.

So, in summary, this is one of those Films where the first 2/3 is pretty interesting as you see the build-up.  When you get the pay-off, it's kind of laughable.  Oh well.  

Don't get so mad at me now that you just see red.... 

A pretty fun and tense Film, even if it gets sillier the more things are explained.  As always, getting cheap when it counts dooms this to be a pretty run-of-the-mill UK Sci-Fi Thriller.