If you’re an aficionado of old movies and TV shows, you’ll likely recognize most or all of the following names. Jack Palance; Martin Landau; Cameron Mitchell; Neville Brand; Sue Ann Langdon; Ralph Meeker; Larry Storch; David Caruso. What is the link? All eight of them played in the 1980 “B” sci-fi/horror film, Without Warning. (Its total budget was $150,000, half of which went to the more famous pair of Palance and Landau. Can’t imagine what the others earned. Other than Storch, who had a brief scene as a doomed scoutmaster, and Caruso, as a doomed teen, the others all appeared in a barroom scene of about ten minutes in length.)
THE ALIEN TERROR IS HERE ON EARTH
Yep, that was the film’s tagline. The towering alien, played by Kevin Peter Hall, has come to Earth to do a little hunting. Sound familiar? In later years Without Warning was acknowledged as being an influence on the awesome 1987 film, Predator. Interestingly, Hall also played the alien in that film, as well as its sequel.
Martin Landau as the deranged Fred Dobbs.
Anyway, no synopsis here, just a quick overview. We see two men who are hunting killed by these flying, jelly-like creatures (really gross) that inject needle-like tentacles into their flesh. This is followed by four “teenagers” (the actors’ ages ranged from 24-29) out for a swim in a nearby lake. One couple (including David Caruso’s character) is quickly killed, while the other spends the rest of the film running from the alien. Along the way they encounter the moderately weird Joe Taylor (Palance), who wants to kill the alien, and the mentally deranged former Army sergeant, Fred Dobbs (Landau), who thinks an alien invasion is imminent. Those two veterans have most of the best scenes in an otherwise mediocre “B” movie.
Speaking of well-known actors appearing in “B” movies for a payday: check out my post, “ ‘B’ Movies: Burial Grounds For Old Actors?” Also, the late Kevin Peter Hall had an interesting—if tragic—background. I wrote about it in my post, “Harry And The Predator: A Sad Ending.”
The alien is not as scary as its jelly-like “weapons.”