I always ask this question when reviewing a film like When Hell It Came, was the cast offered nothing better?

Set in the South Seas after some atomic testing scientists Tod Andrews, Tina Carver, and William Clark are there to study the effects of atomic radiation on the natives. It seems as though some typhoon blew the atomic debris in their direction.

But there's some nasty native politics brewing, Gregg Palmer son of the old chief is executed on some trumped up charge concocted by the new head guy and corroborated by Palmer's own wife who is two timing him. Before he dies Palmer says he's coming back to settle accounts.

By God he does when his casket is buried vertically in the ground with him growing out like a tree, one ugly looking tree with a knife that was used to kill Palmer sticking from the bark. When he's uprooted he moves like a Triffid and he's got lots of scores to settle.

They call what he is a Tabanga and he's both ugly and quite laughable instead of scary. The cast just looks anxious more like they're waiting for their checks to clear. Linda Watkins who plays the woman who runs the trading post hams it up with her cockney accent like she just came from a road company of My Fair Lady.

If you're into bad science fiction for laughs this is your film.