Anyone who wandered the aisles of a video store in the 80s remembers that H.R. Giger box art.
See, some films fade into obscurity, and others linger on the edge of our collective consciousness because of a single unforgettable image.
Future-Kill (1985) is one of those films.
It barely squeaked at the box office, and critics dismissed it as disposable pap. How Future-Kill managed to get Giger on board is the stuff of urban legend.
Edwin Neal, the co-writer and co-star (also best known as the hitchhiker from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), claimed he secured Giger’s involvement through his network at sci-fi conventions. Meanwhile, Giger’s account in Necronomicon II tells that director Ronald W. Moore emotionally manipulated him into helping, claiming the film would lose its funding without the poster. Anyway, that’s the stuff of IMDB trivia, but one thing’s for sure, many of us rented the movie on the strength of that box art alone.
The movie itself is pure 1985 – part frat comedy, part slasher, and part punksploitation that pits obnoxious college boys against a tough inner-city new-wave gang of anti-nuke crusaders (?). It’s an absolute mess of a film that tries to capture the anxieties of the Cold War in much the same way that Toxic Avenger serves as a cautionary tale against the dangers of irresponsible toxic waste disposal. The filmmakers were obviously trying to say something – about nuclear war, about rebellion, about counterculture, but they unfortunately let the B movie contrivances get in the way.
Still, it’s a fascinating piece of pop cultural ephemera that sits somewhere on the shelf between The Warriors, Escape from New York and Class of Nuke ‘Em High.
Was the movie any good? Well if you have to ask, it’s probably not going to thrill you. But all told, it’s an interesting curio that pushes my buttons.
It did what it could with what it had. And what it had was a great poster. -Pop