I stayed up late to watch Terrorvision on TCM last night (recapturing some of the midnight movie madness that I grew up with courtesy of local affiliates), and lo and behold, in some of the earliest scenes (at the Sanitation Department on the planet Pluton) there is a bizarre visual joke that movie modelers might appreciate. I think it's pretty funny, but given the overall attitude of the rest of the film, I really can't tell if it was intentional, or just cheap!

The parts of the interstellar 'garbage gun' seem oddly familiar at first, and the second time they are visible, their origin is obvious. I doubt that they had to pay licensing fees, but it almost looks like they should have.

Does anyone here know what I'm referring to? I don't want spoil it right away, but I'll add it later if anyone wants to know.

EDIT - yay for the internets - the scene appears in this gooey clip at 0:12

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1iATVAaD9A

. . . I think it's pretty funny, but given the overall attitude of the rest of the film, I really can't tell if it was intentional, or just cheap!Considering that the "garbage gun" would be instantly recognized by at least 50 million Trekkies, I'd say it was an intentional in-joke.

BTW, did that guy say, "A terrible OCCIDENT has occurred"?

I think it was perhaps a combination of the two. Whoever was doing their model work was likely using whatever at-hand and it sort of came about that the specific part was an added bonus to their work. We know how SFX artists like to add as many in-jokes as they can whenever possible.

Considering that the "garbage gun" would be instantly recognized by at least 50 million Trekkies, I'd say it was an intentional in-joke.

BTW, did that guy say, "A terrible OCCIDENT has occurred"?

Yikes - that's a lotta Trekkies!! I was just wondering about the humorous intent because sometimes I see jokes where there apparently weren't meant to be any. But you're right, I guess it's pretty obvious to almost everybody what the parts are from.

BTW, I think the alien sanitation guy said, "A terrible OCCIDENT has OCCORRED." It must just be his Plutonion accent.

I think it was perhaps a combination of the two. Whoever was doing their model work was likely using whatever at-hand and it sort of came about that the specific part was an added bonus to their work. We know how SFX artists like to add as many in-jokes as they can whenever possible. That makes sense, too. I was going back and forth between the SFX team thinking "I hope nobody notices where we got these from" to "I wonder what the Trekkies will think of this?".

I also thought they might be thumbing their noses at the multi-million dollar Trek films by dismembering and distorting the image of our beloved icon into a garbage transporter, as a bit of sour grapes, maybe, since I doubt that Terrorvison cost more than a few hundred thousand to make.

IMO the best VFX are the colored lightning bolts that we see coming from the TV. Simple, yet neat and effective. The monster is kind of perfect, too, because it's so goofy-looking that it made me laugh thru the whole film.

Overall I'd say that Terrorvision is worth watching, though, for the most part, since the ending is somewhat unexpected, although they kind of give it away in the official trailer. Plus I'll watch just about anything Mary Woronov is in - I always thought Miss Togar was hot!!

(The first half of TCM's 'dangerous television' double feature was Videodrome. Now there's a film that could use a remake. As it stands, it's a very intriguing premise undone by a choppy script and laughably ponderous music. The early scene with James Woods' TV "lover" is truly unforgettable, though. If only TCM had shown The Twonky first it would've been a great triple feature!)

I love this movie!! Ahhhh the 80's