Zontar the Thing from Venus (1967) starring John Agar
Zontar the Thing from Venus tells the story of an alien (Zontar) that takes advantage of a brilliant, disillusioned scientist. To make Earth, a paradise, of course. Once Zontar’s conquered it. And killed everyone who stands in the way …
Review
Frankly, Zontar the Thing from Venus is the worst John Agar movie I’ve ever seen. Why? He made a living at doing cheesy monster movies. And, making them enjoyable. So, what’s wrong here?
- The acting is horribly wooden.
- The pace is quite slow.
- The incredibly bad monster costume.
- Pulling the “super duper laser device” that can kill Zontar out of nowhere, in the last 10 minutes.
- Of course Zontar’s invulnerable to bullets. Why? Because!
- Very high body count. See the Cast of characters for details.
Cast of characters
- John Agar (The Mole People) … Dr. Curt Taylor. The protagonist. He’s trying to stop his friend from helping Zontar take over the planet. Good acting in a bad movie.
- Susan Bjurman … Anne Taylor. Curt’s loving wife …. Eventually mind-controlled by Zontar. She sets one of Zontar’s mind-control things on him, but he escapes it. Shortly after, he kills her!
- Tony Huston (Curse of the Swamp Creature) … Keith Ritchie. The deluded genius. He feels that no one appreciates his genius …. Until he’s contacted by Zontar. Both his wife & Curt think he’s a little crazy, until the invasion begins. At the end, he confronts Zontar …
- Pat Delaney (The Bat People) … Martha Ritchie. Keith’s loving wife. She tries reaching Keith, over and over. Eventually, she goes to the cave where Zontar’s hiding. To kill him. But, it murders her. The only other decent actor in the movie.
- Neil Fletcher (Beyond the Time Barrier) … Gen. Matt Young. Mind controlled, about to meet with and blow up the President. But Curt kills him.
- Warren Hammack (Attack of the Eye Creatures) … John – Rocket Scientist at Zone 6. Mind controlled, murders Louise, killed by Curt.
- Colleen Carr … Louise – Zone 6. Murdered by her Zontar-controlled coworkers.
- Jeff Alexander (The Black Cat 1966) … Rocket Scientist at Zone 6. Mind controlled, murders Louise, killed by Curt. I’m sensing a pattern here …
- Bill Thurman (Close Encounters of the third Kind) … Police Chief Brad Crenshaw. Mind controlled, murders Louise, killed by Curt. Body count keeps rising. …
- Andrew Traister … Sgt. Magalari. Killed by Zontar …
- Jonathan Ledford (The Amazing Transparent Man) … Zone 6 Gate Guard
Editorial review of Zontar the Thing from Venus courtesy of Amazon.com
Step back in time to the golden age of classic science fiction movies.A cult classic b-movie. An alien named Zontar befriends an Earth scientist who helps him come to Earth. Zontar claims he can solve all man’s problems. But he has other plans as he manages to take control of the whole world’s power supply and proceeds to do the same with our minds.