Earth Dies Screaming, The (1965)

American test pilot and astronaut Jeff Nolan (Willard Parker) returns to Earth to find the planet has been ravaged by robots that kill by touch and then reanimate their victims as eyeless zombies.

He joins the few human survivors in England – including heavily pregnant Lorna (Anna Palk) and her moody husband, Mel (David Spenser) – in a desperate fight for freedom.

The invaders kill Vi Courtland (Vanda Godsell), but she reanimates as a zombie and is shot dead by Quinn Taggett (Dennis Price).

Taggett then knocks Jeff out and steals his car, abducting Peggy Hatton (Virginia Field) for good measure. Jeff eventually tracks them down and rescues Peggy, returning to the others just as Lorna Brenard is about to give birth to a daughter.

The survivors must find the robots’ power source and destroy the transmitter, which is controlled by intergalactic beings from a distant planet.

All ends happily enough with the remaining survivors – having destroyed the transmitter tower – commandeering a Pan Am Boeing 707 to fly south in search of other survivors.

Hampered by a muddled script, meagre budget and poor characterisations, veteran horror director Terence Fisher hit the bottom of the alien-invasion barrel with the first in his off-Hammer sci-fi trilogy that continued with the better Island of Terror and Night of the Big Heat.

The Earth Dies Screaming was shot at Shepperton Studios and on location in the village of Shere in Surrey.

Jeff Nolan
Willard Parker
Peggy Hatton
Virginia Field
Quinn Taggett
Dennis Price
Violet Courtland
Vanda Godsell
Edgar Otis
Thorley Walters
Mel Brenard
David Spenser
Lorna Brenard
Anna Palk

Director
Terence Fisher

Video