OL Episode #9 – Corpus Earthling

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OL Episode #9 – Corpus Earthling

Postby Lunkenstein on July 9th, 2006, 5:24 pm

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Original Airdate: November 18, 1963

Robert Culp returns in one of the creepiest entries of the series. This one scared me the most as a kid. Laboratory rocks turn out to be alien parasites, bent on inhabiting the bodies of earthlings in order to pave the way for their invasion. The premise may sound a little silly today, but this ep holds up extremely well. The claustrophobic atmosphere, the fear of insanity, and the feeling of being unable to run away from evil, permeate the story into a nightmare. The transformation of the rocks into aliens effect totally blew me away in my youth. It still looks great and smooth. But what scared me the most are the two characters who become hosts for the nasty creatures. First, Dr. Temple, excellently portrayed by Barry Atwater. His facial appearance after becoming a host is as eerie as those in “CARNIVAL OF SOULS” and “NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD”. And he personifies evil. The shots of him stalking Culp still give me the willies. As a child, he was a real boogeyman to me. – Yikes! Secondly, the beautiful Salome Jens as Culp’s wife still chills me when she too is inoculated. Man, OL sure featured many beautiful ladies. And to see her become like Dr. Temple still upsets me. In fact, the scene where Temple pushes her head down toward the approaching parasite upset me badly as a child. (One of those early realizations that something truly bad can happen to good people) It still disturbs me. She was a caring character, and by a chance of bad luck, is lost to the evil. Her screams in that scene are so realistic, as are the cries of agony when Barry Atwater has a face-hugger smothering him on the floor. – Whew man! Of course, one of the memorable moments is when Culp returns to his wife after she’s been possessed. A classic scene of horror: “I’ve been waiting for you...” – with that nauseating alien sound, rumbling behind her voice. – Mama!!

A superb effort all around – a dark feel thanks to the makeup, music, fx, camera work and performances. Robert Culp is great as the mentally tortured Dr. Paul Cameron. Even the voices of the rocks are good – “Go to the window listener. Now, jump...” If I ever feel like a good scare, this is the episode I throw on.

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“Someone’s been sleeping in my bed.”
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Lunkenstein
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