Golden Oldies Week (July 27 – August 3) Something Weird Video have released such a wide range of movies over the last 30 years that trying to categorize them can be tricky. They started out as a gray market mail order distributor (aka a bootlegger) not unlike the Cape Copy Center or Sinister Cinema and eventually moved into the niche se ploit titles that would set them apart. The movies on this list are the kind of cult genre titles that were the bread and butter of many of the bootleg companies of the 90s and most were not exclusive to SWV. If you look in the catalogs or on the website these would be under categories like “Nightmare Theatre’s Late Night Chill-O-Rama Horror Show,” “Jaws of the Jungle,” “Sci-fi Late Night Creature Feature Show,” or “Spies, Thighs & Private Eyes.” Many of these are currently available as downloads from the SWV site (until the end of 2024)!

Faith One is marooned in space and its commander (Bob Legionaire) requests its immediate destruction, as it has been filled with an infectious gas. Several years later, Hope One — its crew is Colonel Hank Stevens (James Brown), Dr. John Andros (Baynes Barron), Dr. Paul Martin (Russ Bender) and Dr. Lisa Wayne (Francine York) — get a distress call and find a strange ship.

On this ship, humans make first contact and, being humans, immediately kill the alien and blow the ship up.

They meet some more aliens, like a sea monsters and crabs, as Dr. Andros dies and Colonel Stevens is all sexist to Dr. Wayne and they go from arguing to making out. You know, if you’re the only woman on a space ship with four men, maybe don’t start a relationship. It seems like things could get strange.

An American-International Pictures film, this was also known as Space Monster. It was directed and written by Leonard Katzman, whose series Dangerous Curves was on the CBS late night Crimetime After Prime Time. He was also the showrunner for Dallas.

If the monsters look familiar, that’s the alien from Wizard of Mars and the sea monster from City In the Sea.

You can watch this on YouTube.