Monday, August 9, 2010

Coming loose at the seams: Prophecies Of Nostradamus(1974) aka "The Last Days Of Planet Earth"

Yesterday I retrieved a DVD-R off one of my DVD racks, a Toho produced disaster film called Prophecies Of Nostradamus(1974), also known by its American title as The Last Days Of Planet Earth. My DVD-R is the UPA, English dubbed version in full screen(1:33.1). I could swear that I've seen this relatively obscure Toho made disaster movie make the rounds on AMC(as the UPA version) but obviously not recently. I bought a DVD-R of this movie about six years ago. It has a haunting score and includes some marvelous special effects work by Teruyoshi Nakano, including giant bats and slugs, irradiated humanoid mutants, weird atmospheric disturbances and plenty of explosions. The movie is dreary in tone, as I would imagine it should be. The acting is serviceable though I believe Tetsuro Tamba's performance stands out. Any fan of Toho sci-fi and sci-fi in general should try and get their hands on this film(by VHS or DVD-R) as it's absolutely worth a look!

Here's a trailer I found on YouTube: