Bad Channels

Fun campy sci-fi/horror with a score by Blue Oyster Cult

After the sighting of a UFO near a remote radio station in SoCal, an extraterrestrial takes over the station with a DJ & a crewmember stuck inside. The being apparently wants to use the air waves to apprehend attractive females, but the process involves shrinking them.

"Bad Channels" (1992) is amusing in a hammy way with its creative story and three great rock/metal video sequences: “Somewhere in the Night,” written & sang by Ron Keel, “Touching Myself Again” by DMT and “Manic Depresso (I’m So Happy)” by Sykotik Sinfoney. This was the only movie score done by Blue Oyster Cult. They also have two songs on the soundtrack, “Out of the Darkness” and “Demon’s Kiss.”

It's cut from the same cloth as, say, "Hard Rock Zombies” mixed with "Shock 'Em Dead." Fans of "Trick or Treat" (1986) should appreciate it, although it’s not as serious as that one. Like I said, it’s very campy.

It sort-of sets up events in “Dollman vs. Demonic Toys,” which came out the next year and is also a sequel to “Demonic Toys.” There’s a post-credits sequence that shows Dollman just outside of town talking about getting together with the female that's still shrunk. (Dollman is otherwise nowhere to be found). The statuesque Nurse Ginger, played by Melissa Behr, resurfaces in “Dollman vs. Demonic Toys.”

Other notables on the feminine front are: Martha Quinn (Lisa Cummings), Charlie Spradling (Cookie) and Daryl Strauss (Bunny).

The flick runs about 1 hour, 28 minutes, and was shot in Los Angeles.

GRADE: B-