Bad Movie Review: Damnation Alley
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- More than a movie. An adventure you'll never forget… for all the wrong reasons, we review bad sci-fi movie, Damnation Alley.
You can now support Dark Corners on Patreon and see our uncensored reviews: www.patreon.com/darkcorners
Buy on Amazon UK: amzn.to/2R9eHl5 USA: amzn.to/2t1GETV
Subscribe: bit.ly/19qoZ5p
Facebook: on. RvhRdc
Twitter: / darkcorners3 @DarkCorners3
Summary: In the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust a group of survivors, mostly US Air Force personnel, travel from the western US to Albany, New York from where a radio broadcast has been received. Led by a no nonsense Major, Eugene Denton, they travel in specialized vehicles built specifically for survival in harsh conditions. Along the way, they are joined by an attractive young woman when they stop in Las Vegas, are joined by a young boy when they meet desperate survivors in the desert, must face hoards of killer cockroaches and survive a major flood in Detroit.
A special thanks to our Dark Cultist Patreon supporters.
Shadows - Brent Beebe, Chris Hewson, Chris Weakly, Christie Bryden, Colleen Crouch, Conner Brennan, David H. Adler, Hidden Trail Video, iForgot, Joseph Dougherty, Micheal Bailes, Steve Scibelli, Brad Webb, Henry Brennan, Godessoftransitory, Allan Liska
Acolytes - Dark Roast, Dave Smith, Lavaughn Towell, Mark Buckley, Paige Holland, R Lagdao, Raven House Mystery, Russ Chandler, Simon Ash, Simon Esslemont, Uwe Marquardt, Alex B, Amber Wesley, Tony Belmonte, Amber Wesley,
Initiates - Alexandra Virgiel, Bob de Builder, Brian Ullmark, Clifford Parson, Derek , Double-U, Felix Weibig, GadgetBlues, Greg Galanos, Greg Hartwick, Jakub Kabenski, James Smith, Karl Bunker, Martin Vlachynsky, Maria Gd, Melissa Hayes, Popeye Otaku, Stephen LaPlante, Tim Smith , Roop 298, VC, Jonathan Olds, Terry Le Croix, Barry P
Written and presented by Robin Bailes @robinbailes
Directed and Edited by Graham Trelfer
DARK CORNERS OF THIS SICK WORLD S10E11
#BadMovieReview #DarkCornersReview #CultMovieReview
I’m lucky enough to not only have seen this masterpiece in its initial release, but at a drive in theatre. Ah, the 70’s
Ah the good days when you could drive to a theater and not leave your car but still watch the movie.
Whoa ……save a few ladies for the rest of us, you stud😂
I had hopes that, after the pandemic was over, the drive-in movie revival would continue. But, alas....
I was really surprised Roger Corman and the guys at The Asylum didn't jump on this chance, and offer their movies first run to the drive-ins.
I guess I am lucky enough not to have seen this movie in the 70s
Went to the Winchester theater in San Jose CA to see it
When I was a kid, I thought Jan Michael Vincent jumping between buildings on his motorcycle to escape ravenous cockroaches was the coolest thing ever. ; D
From now on I suggest that all cool things be measured on a scale of One-Popped-Collar to Jan-Michael-Vincent-Jumping-Between-Buildings-To-Escape-Ravenous-Cockroaches.
@@davidhanson4909 It seems like a logical system of measurement.
So did the makers of Fallout!
Movie defined by one scene? Easy, Basic Instinct with Sharron Stone.
Network, Howard Beale: I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!
I love the scene where rubber roaches are being pulled along on some cling film lol, this had a bigger budget than star wars, wow
God knows where the money went. Probably up the producer’s noses.
@@Ektalon How do you think they came up with the script?
@@varanid9 Ah, the always-reliable Steve King 80s Writing Method!
@@varanid9- well, it certainly wasn't by reading the book they paid to base it on! The premise was something Roger Corman had done numerous times already, so, if you buy Roger Zelezny's novel, you'd think the least you would do is use what makes it different from everything Corman did.
In the original story, Hell Tanner is a Hell's Angels type biker, not a member of the Air Force. I guess the studio thought American audiences weren't ready for that kind of hero.
American audiences were, just watch any post apocalyptic movie Roger Corman made! 20th Century Fox suits? Weren't.
OK it was a crap movie adaptation of Roger Zelazny’s “Survival Run.” But the real star is the Landmaster, which truly is real, and still exists. Its story is far more interesting than the movie.
Because Dean Jeffries is a golden god and now it's under the protection of Gene Winfield. However I find it funny, this movie when up against Star Wars whose Sandcrawler looks like the Landmaster's juiced big brother.
Yeah, it's kind of weird to make a video about "Damnation Alley" without mentioning Roger Zelazny. Maybe not the literary genius people make him out to be, but definitely a notable figure in sci-fi and fantasy.
@@leesherman5192 yep, and “Survival Run” is not the only Zelazny in my library.👍
This movie is so bad I watch it every time it’s on
Virgin forever!
1977 was the year for cheap science fiction with Damnation Alley and Laserblast topping the list.
Laserblast came out in 1978. There's a scene where the transformed teenager laser-blasts a Star Wars billboard.
And yet LASERBLAST still had better special effects than DAMNATION ALLEY!
George Peppard's career is a strange, sad thing to witness. He started out as a highly regarded stage actor, having studied at the Actors studio in NYC and came up through the generation of actors that gave us Cassavetes, Ben Gazzara and Peter Falk, but apparently was such a temperamental person he became box-office poison by the early 70s, and drifted on to TV, where he perfected the glib, cigarello-smoking cynical hero. If you look at any of his work in the 70s, from this to The A-Team, he's doing the same schtick, just coasting along.
The A-Team is from the '80s. And I actually enjoy Banacek, as well as The Groundstar Conspiracy.
Okay, I stand corrected on the date and, while I'd love to see The Groundstar Conspiracy (based on a novel by LP Davies, whose work left a big impression on me) Banacek, while initially clever, soon became formulaic - there was always a replica of something, somewhere - and Peppard was already doing his smooth, laid back, cigarello smoking schtick.
@@AdamqK The Groundstar Conspiracy and Who? would make a good double-feature.
I just watched a few episodes of "Banacek" on prime, and they were as good as I remembered them.
Peppard was a talented actor but very difficult, and I believe, a drinker
This sounds like it has very little to do with the novel, in which the hero is a biker who rides between the two surviving city-states in the US, one on the west coast and one on the east.
He has a cool ride through most of it, as I recall.
@@julietfischer5056 he has the Landmaster, basically. And yes, it is a cool ride.
The original novel by Roger Zelazny is pretty decent and could make a good film. But this wasn't it. And George Peppard's 'tache deserved its own movie.
Actually, screw a film. Make it a mini-series and, with the right budget and competent people, it could be a masterpiece.
ArchEnema 67 Now you're talking! I read the whole Amber series in one go a few years back after reading 'Nine Princes' & 'Guns of Avalon' as a kid. It was the strangest thing...I didn't like those two books all that much when I first read them but, unlike many other books I read back then, they always stayed with me somehow and I found myself thinking about them from time to time over the intervening 20? years, wondering how the story came out. Then one day they crossed my mind again and I thought to hell with it, I'm going to find out! You're right, they could make a spectacular series if done right.
Would have been better if Sam Elliot had played the Major, he would have brought his own mustache and wouldn't have cost any extra in make up.
I always thought John Carpenter could have done a good version with Kurt Russell in the Hell Tanner role.
I kinda feel that, if the Suits need a franchise to hang it on, it’d squeeze into Escape from New York’s universe without damage. Hell Tanner is pretty similar to an older Snake Plissken.
Great take. Yes the studio heads loved Damnation Alley and hated Star Wars. I agree totally. If you’re gonna put a bunch of odd ducks in a super vehicle and have them travel from set piece to set piece, then yeah, they’d better interact. The best thing in this film (besides Dominique Sanda) is the score by the legendary Jerry Goldsmith. Oh, and I used to pass the Land Master on my way to work every day. Dean Jeffries’ shop was in Burbank just off the Hollywood Freeway and it was parked out front.
George! Bullets go up - bullets come down - it’s the law! The laws of gravity vs celebratory gunfire.
TRUMP VOTER: I don't believe in your laws, MAHNNNN!
:: fires gun into the air- three seconds later bullets come down right through the top of his red MAGA Cap, killing him instantly::
🤣🤣🤣
And I thought I was the only one who remembered this movie.
Clearly, no.
I though it was a tv movie-of-the-week kind of thing. Never knew it was a theatrical movie. Being a car guy, I remembered the truck, which has shown up occasionally in other things.
That vehicle reminds me of Ark II.
Great review! My suggestion for defining moment in film goes to “Scanners” for its exploding head scene.
Iconic single scene? Basic Instinct. Honorable mention: The Crying Game.
I'm sure there are some non-genital related ones too.
Leslie Nielsen: "Nice beaver."
Priscilla Presley: "Thank you. I just had it stuffed."
*Hands him stuffed beaver.
How many people remember anything about Hitchcock's Saboteur besides Norman Lloyd falling off the Statue of Liberty at the end?
I first watched this film in 1981 or 82 on NBC when I was about 10, and thought it was an network made for tv movie.
I remember reading about it in Starlog magazine--but the first I saw it was the same as you! And you're right--I remember...it was on NBC!
Did I spot a very young Jackie Earle Haley playing the teenage kid that they found?
Maybe he needed a Rorshach test!
You are correct sir
Yes, but I don’t think he was necessarily that young. He just always looked like a kid because he wasn’t very tall or muscular. He was in the movie breaking away (1979) two years after this one.
Haley was everywhere in the 70s and 80s. He was the go to rugamuffin with an edge. He was great as the greedy little scavenger in an episode of The Planet of the Apes tv series.
@@archenema6792 Ever see "The Watchmen"??
I love how their mobile home is supposed to be a bad-assed armored all-terrain vehicle, impervious to explosions and anything that's shot at it, but the independently-gimballed front and rear sections are connected by panels of stretchy fabric. -- spandex, in other words.
Are you denying that spandex isn't the most durable substance in the known universe?
@@drdarkeny 🤣👍
You completely misread this film. It's actually about a cool-looking truck driving around the desert. I do remember something about there being some people inside the truck, but they weren't very important.
"That One Scene" - Society (1989) certainly fits.
I thought that thing on Peppard's upper lip was one of those mutant cockroaches .
A movie defined by one scene? How about "Soylent Green is people!"
It is! Thanks for giving that away!*
*yes, I'm j/k
I think of Chuck Connors shooting the priest in the confessional, Edward G. Robinson's death scene, and the women coming with the apartment Joseph Cotten's rented being referred to as furniture even before I think of that closing line.
If there's any infamously bad movie defined by one scene that tops them all, it's Silent Night Deadly Night 2. "Garbage day." Need I say more? I almost went with Troll 2, but that film has so many iconic bad scenes.
I always thought this would have worked better as a TV Series... where each week 'The Team' shows up in a different region & finds some bizarre problem to resolve. Sort of like the 'Planet of the Apes' Series. (Which Jack Earl Haley also appeared in.)
@I'm On Your Roof It is! Also 3 Roddenberry Pilots! ('Genisis II', 'Planet Earth' & 'Brave New World'!) Heck... Most U.S. TV Sci/Fi at this time was 'The Fugitive' in a Science Fiction setting!
You just described THE A-TEAM.
@@drdarkeny That too!
A shoe like what you describe, but for little kids, is Ark II: A few people drive an armored RV equipped with scientific equipment and go around trying to help people out in the post apocalyptic world.
George Peppard's "Banacek" was his best work.
He kissed Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."
I read Roger Zelazny’s book with wide eyes back in the early seventies. When I heard about this movie staring Jan Michael Vincent I was very excited. Talk about massive disappointment. Whoever wrote this peace of crap must have stopped reading the book at the dust cover.
The scorpions going after the "girl" who fell off the bike terrified my 8 year old self.
I just found out the 'white teenager' is Jackie Earle Haley. Wow, such humble beginnings.
Why do you say that?
Until seeing this review, I had no idea he was a child actor. Talk about making the transition!
Yes, I was very pleased with myself when I watched this movie a few years back and recognised him as Rorschach 😊
The destruction of the bunker uses footage from Operation Crossbow another George Peppard film
According to Wikipedia the original "Star Wars" had a budget of $11 million whereas "Damnation Alley"'s was $8 million. It only made back half.
I heard the numbers flipped around - STAR WARS cost $8 million, DAMNATION ALLEY cost $15 million.
It's my understanding that this movie was a HUGE inspiration for the c-RPGs Wasteland and Fallout.
How did you come to this alleged "understanding"?
@@JohnVKaravitis I'm pretty sure the people behind Wasteland and FO have pointed to Damian Alley as a inspiration. The leap from giant scorpions in this movie to the radscorpions of FO for example.
That said I don't have a handy source to quote, thus I made sure to point out that I wasn't 100% sure.
The book was part of the inspiration for Wasteland. Fallout was originally going to be a sequel to Wasteland.
Ouch!! Damnation Alley, Wrath of Khan, Terminator.....Paul Winfield should just keep out of Sci-Fi, its bad for your health.
Don’t forget *Darmok!*
Maybe The Ten Commandments, with the parting of the Red Sea? Or the chariot race from Ben Hur?
When I heard the term Killer Cockroaches, I envisioned giant flesh eating cockroaches, not the regular sized cockroaches.
Parasite 3D (1982). There’s this scene in which the parasite bursts out of a woman’s face in 3-D glory. Set in the post-apocalyptic year of 1992, the movie costars a young Demi Moore eight years before she costarred with Patrick Swayze in Ghost
Speaking of which, *Parasite* is now on blu-Ray in Real 3D!
It's a problem when the most memorable thing in a movie is an armored Winnebago.
No mention that the explosion was because an airman fell asleep and dropped a lit cigarette on a stack of Playboys? Come one that was just asking for a joke.
'Damnation Alley' is one of those movies which had high concept but never delivers. Therefore, I always felt it could make for a solid remake.
I used to drive by that vehicle everyday. It was at Dean Jeffries' shop on Caheunga.
The yellow sleeping bag scene from The Prophecy. I sat there thinking, "Okaaaay. ...well thats different".
That was the first movie I saw Armand Assante in.
One of the all time worst movies of the 70s. That’s why I love it! So bad it’s actually good.
It upsets me so much that the producers of this movie cut the one scene which ties it all together. The Orkin man shows up and kills all the cockroaches. Apparently there was a contract dispute between Orkin and Raid. Orkin was signed, but Raid had the exclusive extermination contract with 21st Century Fox.
OH well.
;) j/k
George Peppard's last gasp at major studio stardom. With that jet black stache....which looks ridiculous with his silver/white hair......he always puts me in mind of Tim Conway's Mr. Tudball from "The Carol Burnett Show".
sleepaway camp.
There should be a law that says, if you're going to change the source material so much that it's unrecognizable, you have to change the title. How different is Damnation Alley from Zelazny's book? Tanner is a frikkin' *Hells' Angel* in the book.
The Landmaster's a pimp ride but I wouldn't think that sheet of grey pantyhose between the two sections would be very durable.
Another movie from that era (or epoch) that pays more attention to machines than people is The Final Countdown. Like Damnation Alley, it's centered on a monumental event which leaves everyone running around for two hours before the script just abruptly (but selectively) slaps the reset button. Aside from a deliberately-ignored time paradox, no decision made during this Navy recruitment film posing as an action thriller has any consequence whatsoever.
That may be (for *The Final Countdown)* but I still love it. Still remember seeing it in the theaters in 1980/81.
They just needed a giant ape, a robot, and an adversary with asthma.
Oh where do i begin? The pottery wheel from Ghost, the exploding head from Scanners, the boombox from Say Anything...
If you can find them, you too, can hire the A-Team!!!
If you think about it... It IS the A-Team! Each character has an A-Team counterpart!
A movie famous for one scene would be the first "Mission Impossible" film with Tom Cruise hacking the computer while hanging from the ceiling.
That one scene. I can't believe I haven't seen it in the comments but I have to say it,
"Deliverance"
Director Jack Smiths' directors cut, which he delivered in late 1976, ran for 2 Hours and 15 Minutes. After _Star Wars_ became a hit, and with Smight already working on a different project, Fox took over editing of this flick and exised *45 Minutes* of footage. From what I can gather, the majority of which was character based stuff, including a love triangle.
I got this from the wiki. Same for this tidbit:
_"After the production moved to Flagstaff, Arizona, Jan-Michael Vincent became drunk, and insulted the local Native American residents, who in turn "befriended" him and gave him peyote, which caused a three-day delay in filming when Vincent became intoxicated, and could not be found"_
I read somewhere that the ending we got was not the original, that it was supposed to be bleak and dark, but the studio forced a "happier" ending where the Earth literally turns around and puts itself back on its original axis and fixes itself. It's like watching the end of Superman: The Movie all over again.
I too found the early scene of bombs hitting different cities very cold and effective.
At High School I took up film appreciation instead of sport , this was one of the films we watched. I don't remember it being so bad. I guess my taste in movies was a lot lower at 18.
Tracking down a mysterious signal in a post-apocalyptic word? Wasn’t that the plot of On The Beach?
I was watching bad movies at a friend's place a few years ago and, by the time we got around to this one, I was so munted that I thought the protagonists were traveling in a mechanical scorpion on tank tracks and hunting aliens. It's very strange to learn what this movie really is...
Which would've been a far better film than the one we got.
The recent "Cats" will be defined by the scene where anthropomorphic cockroaches are eaten by an anthropomorphic cat. I know you usually do not do anything less than a decade old, but you should make an exception for Tom Hooper's Cats , it is a schlock horror masterpiece!
Skimming by this I thought the thumbnail was a bunch of people standing around a cyber truck. lol
As for movies with "that one scene" . . . Dark Star. Bomb number 20 and "Let there be light . . . ."
Damn but I loved this movie when it first came out. Granted I was 12 and also liked The 6 Million Dollar Man and Dukes of Hazzard. Never accept media recommendations from pre-teens. Ever.
I have to believe Roger Zelazny's original story was infinitely better
A craptastic favorite of mine. Some might recognize a young Jackie Earle Haley who played Freddy Kruger & Rorschach in THE WATCHMEN. Of course, 70s kids will know him from BREAKING AWAY or BAD NEWS BEARS , and roles on tv shows like PLANET OF THE APES or THE WALTONS.
Attractively tinted states, Rasputin's gas station. 😆😆😆😆
The 1st scanners film it's always set up by just that 1 scene in the beget in in Annette said you never seen our guys head explode Disappointment city👌👌🐒🐇
I remember watching this on cable. In my defense, I thought it would have to get better.... it didn't
Ah a true classic. Don't forget the giant scorpions. It's not all about the armor plated roaches.
They thought those trucks were going to be so badass, they wouldn't need much more. Romero thought the same about Land of the Dead, so much so, he planned to name the film after the truck; Dead Reckoning.
I vaguely remember this from childhood - in fact I thought it WAS from the A-Team.
It is good to see that, after all these years, Robin finally figured out what to do with his hair.
If I may make a suggestion, please review anything by Neil Breen.
"Killer cockroaches!" I used to drive by Dean Jeffries garage on my way to Burbank and fantasized about buying the Land Master (my favorite sci-fi vehicle apart from the Chariot in "Lost in Space) when it was put up for sale. I wonder who got it? Kudos to Jackie Earle Haley.
After every nuclear apocalypse the Department of Public Works survives to keep the roads immaculately paved.
They got lucky and picked up rorschach
One scene defining a movie? There's the burst-chest scene from Alien. Also the I'll Be Bock moment in Terminator. And maybe the pea soup spurt in The Exorcist. Plus the final revelation from Planet of the Apes and "Heeere's Johnny" from The Shining. Why do these scenes tend to appear in horror/sci fi?
Dead Man's Walk. The scene where Johnny Lee Miller is trying to stop the drunk cowboy (Tim Blake Nelson) from shooting at a Mexican fishing at night by latern light. The cowboy kept thinking he was an Indian, then says, "Mathlida 'et that big turtle" and passes out. You can see Miller is trying not to laugh.
Sleepaway camp is defined almost entirely by the end scene where it’s revealed that Angela is a trans dude
I saw this movie a bunch when it first came out. Even managed to cadge a tear-sheet poster for it. I loved it. BUT....what did they do to the color?? It wasn’t army green in the original (see movie poster) and I even saw the beast in person-in LA at a used-car lot. I would have taken a test drive in it, only it was after midnight...
And I noticed a scene where it wasn’t green. So WHO MADE IT GREEN??! I must know.
It's a terrible adaption of the book . Hell Tanner is the last of the Hells Angels no way is he ex military.
And certainly not such a pretty-boy!
@@OmnivorousReader and probably wearing the same demons he was born in.
Demins
I'm intrigued by the idea that the vehicle somehow inspired the development of the Casspir, that came out in 1980.
Peppard celebrating by shooting his gun in the air is the most American thing ever.
This movie was the result of an extremely chaotic preproduction, production and postproduction. The biggest: the producer Alan Ladd took a lot of budget and used it for the Star Wars production. More than 45 minutes of story was cut. 20th Century Fox were the total responsible of this really bad sci-fi mess
I love it when a poor script comes together. At least Mr Vincent would trade in the armoured Winnebago for a cool helicopter a couple of years later.
My understanding is that this film had MULTIPLE re-writes on the script! that may have served to water-down the human interest!
Finally got my fix for the week!!! Lol thank you💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
I remember watching this movie on the ABC Friday Night movie of the week on Network tv...classic
I literally posted a review of this movie on my TH-cam channel the day before you guys did!! What a coincedence!
I liked Damnation Alley, but then I was drunk and really high when I saw it.
Very loosely based on Roger Zelazny's novel Damnation Alley(1969), which was about saving the world, or at least US East Coast.
Peh Pard. Not Pep Ard -- I will also accept John Hannibal Smith. XD
Ok I get it I'm correcting your name pronunciation way too much... but I do love your reviews :) I may have to pay you to do a review of a couple of my favorite movies.
worth adding to monster kid collection for the giant scorps and killer roaches
This film did so well it went in and out of American Theaters in record time. For the 1979 UK release it was paired with another movie called "Thunder and Lightening."
2:15 that sunset is not "attractively tinted " that's what the sky looks like in the USA at sunset. The sky really has pink clouds at sunset.
Just where does one get an RV like that !?!?
I saw this in '77. Why? I was bored and the theater was a short walk from my house. It was so bad I walked out after 20 minutes or so. I hardly ever do that.
F.Y.I there is a sci.fi version of Stagecoach called Neon City,with Michael Ironsides and other good actors.I think more people need to see it.
WHERE DID YOU GET THAT "CABINET...." TSHIRT?????
.
AMAZING FILM.
Amazon I think.
I have the poster for this movie!!!
Lucky!
The problem was that Fox spent nearly double what they did on STAR WARS on a movie adaptation of a book that read like it might cost a tenth of that, at most. Roger Zelazny's original story was essentially a biker film set in the postapocalypse, which you know Roger Corman could have done for under a half million easily - so you wonder what stunning level of incompetence Jack Smight used to waste so much money on what looks like a B-picture.
Fair, though I don't think Jack Smight is really to blame. My understanding was that he wrote the original script, which was not far from the book (and which Zelazny liked), but that the studio then brought in Alan Sharp to write a revised version (which Zelazny never heard about).
That big truck thing looks like the big ships from Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey.