Can't help it, I love this dorky pile of schlock. While, yes, it is a bad homage to cheesy horror films, it has a "certain naive charm."

Plot: An alien pet which has been disintegrated and shot into space (the alien equivalent of "putting to sleep") is accidentally picked up by a haywire satellite receiver (remember back when they were the size of a hot tub, rather than a dinner plate?) and begins to appear - and come out of - the various TVs of the Putterman household.

The Puttermans aren't your average family, either - Mom and Dad like to swing (and the house is LOADED with the least tasteful erotic art I've ever seen), Grampa is some kind of vet who lives in the basement/bomb shelter and tries to sell people on the ultimate survival food - lizard tail jerky ("you break off its tail, and it grows another one, then you break that one off, and it grows another one!!"), sister Suzy is a Cyndi Lauper clone, and Sherman, the baby (well, he's probably about 12) seems normal, but comments are constantly being made as to his "meds" and the possibility of being sent back to the doctor... It's like the Addams family by way of the self-serving 80s.

(spoilers)

So the alien starts to eat people. That's because it's a Hungry Beast - its insatiable appetite is what got it vaporized in the first place. It can also extrude simulacrums of anyone whom it has eaten, and speak in their voices - meaning that even after dad and mom are appetizers, they can still tell the kids to butt out when questioned about what's going on in their bedroom. ("Gross!")

Oh, and there's a lot of goo.

However, the movie takes a sentimental turn when Sherman, who has only survived by breaking every TV in sight ("securing the perimeter") and set off grenades, is joined by his sister and her boyfriend O.D. (a metalhead, complete with black leather and spikes) - they manage to make friends with the beast and start training it to speak (O.D. - "you know, like in that movie with the ugly little alien that made you cry like a butt-head.").

Nothing nice lasts, and the ending leaves you wondering just how much of the world the Hungry Beast may be able to devour.

My favorite part (among many) of this movie is Medusa - she's a late-night horror hostess (very much an Elvira clone with a head of foam-rubber snakes) who Sherman calls and tells about the monster. I also love Grampa's attitude toward TV: "War flicks and monster movies - they're both survival oriented!"

The movie is never taken seriously (even by the actors, who ham up every moment), and just plain fun to boot. In a world of cheese, this is one of those movies I come back to over and over again.

One parting warning (courtesy of Grampa): "Brain shot - gets 'em every time!!!"

Sherman Putterman is your standard alien monster film kid who has seen a monster but can't get anyone else to believe him. His grandpa (Bert Remsen in the film's best performance) is a survivalist promoting his lizard tail jerky product (the perfect food because lizards' tails grow back and you can eat it again) and hiding out in his well-stocked fallout shelter.

If it were possible for a complete parody to be called original, "Terrorvision" (1986) would be the first to qualify. This is another cheap Albert and Charles Band (Empire Studios) production, but is not as mindless as something like "Redneck Zombies" and even has a bit of lyrical (yet very silly) charm. Everyone involved is obviously having a good time and the creature is much like something Richard Carlson would have encountered in a 1950's sci-fi film, but with much more slime. Not until "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" would there be a more self-aware genre parody. Although rated "R" because of some off-color humor, it would not be worth denying middle schoolers the pleasure of viewing this film because the overall style and effect is best appreciated by that age group.

Sherman's swinging parents are Gerrit Graham (who played superstitious car salesman Jeff in "Used Cars") and Mary Woronov ("Eating Raoul").

1980's teen queen Diane Franklin plays Sherman's sister Suzy and Jon Gries (of "Pretender" fame) is her boyfriend "O.D." who is really into heavy metal music. Franklin is almost unrecognizable in her mid-1980's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" look.

Although the parody is primarily directed at the excessive cuteness of "ET", "Terrorvision" also goes after Elvira and Vampira with a similar late night horror show hostess called Medusa who wears a wig of snakes, has two enormous talents, and manages a host(ess) of semi-explicit puns.

The real star is an alien house pet whose mutation into a hungry beast forced its owners to send its atoms out into space. The film begins on a distant planet where this mutated pet is being processed at the mutated creature facility. A stray planet causes the creatures atoms to deflect through space until it finally is sucked down to earth by Sherman's father's new satellite dish.

By the middle of the film the monster has chewed and sucked its way through most of the family and their friends when Sherman, Suzy, and OD have an "ET" moment with it. The monster can mimic anyone it has eaten so the other cast members have a couple of post- demise scenes.

The madcap Putterman family find themselves being terrorized by a ravenous people-eating alien beast that gets beamed to Earth through their television set. Writer/director Ted Nicolaou pokes incredibly broad and cheerfully zany fun at America's obsession with trashy television culture, gung-ho survivalists, and kinky swingers. Moreover, it's overacted with tremendous histrionic zest by an enthusiastic cast: Gerrit Graham as kooky electronics whiz Stanley, Mary Woronov as sexy fitness buff Raquel, Diane Franklin as vibrant punkette Suzy, Bert Remsen as feisty old-timer Grandpa, Chad Allen as the spunky Sherman, Jonathan Gries as dim-witted heavy metalhead O.D., Alejandro Rey as suavely smarmy homosexual Spiro, Randi Brooks as the ditsy Cherry, Sonny Carl Davis as luckless TV repairman Norton, and Jennifer Richards as alluring, but abrasive horror show hostess Medusa. The tacky (not so) special effects, priceless zingy dialogue, goofy monster (designed by John Carl Buechler), catchy'n'groovy theme song, colorful and eccentric caricature characters, energetic off-the-wall tone, and blithely inane humor all add substantially to this picture's infectiously campy charm. Romano Albani's garish cinematography gives this movie an appropriately bright and cartoonish look. Richard Band's lively score hits the spirited spot. Sure, this flick is pretty silly and ridiculous, but it nonetheless still sizes up as a total loopy hoot just the same.