An eerie blue-tinged meteor crashes down to Earth, landing on an island 200 miles off the coast of Africa. There it becomes embedded in the rock. When a small construction crew tries to move it, this allows a mysterious cosmic entity to take possession of the "D9er" bulldozer, and use it to terrorize and murder the confused workers, one at a time. Our heroes have to do some serious thinking as to how to defeat their enemy, since they reason that you can't "kill a machine".
This minor cult classic, a TV movie from the mid-70s, benefits from an amusing story that calls to mind other "killer vehicle" yarns like "The Car", "Christine", and "Maximum Overdrive". Since it obviously didn't have a huge budget, it wisely concentrates on story over spectacle. That said, 'Killdozer' actually benefits from a minimum of cheese and serviceable special effects, as the filmmakers do a decent job of convincing us that this mammoth machine is operating on its own. (And that's after its fuel line has been cut.) The movie has good atmosphere, and the relatively trim running time of a vintage TV movie. So director Jerry London ('Shogun') and company obligingly cut to the chase efficiently, giving us a couple of fine action scenes, some appreciable humor (they never take this thing too, too seriously), and capable performances by an array of tough-guy character actors in these blue-collar hero / victim roles: Clint Walker ("The Dirty Dozen"), Neville Brand ('The Untouchables'), Carl Betz ('The Donna Reed Show'), James Wainwright ("Joe Kidd"), James A. Watson Jr. ("Airplane II: The Sequel"), and a baby-faced Robert Urich, post-"Magnum Force" and pre-'Vega$'. Wainwright, as the increasingly unstable Dutch, delivers the standout characterization.
'Killdozer' is a good deal of fun, no matter if it likely wouldn't really scare anyone. It's a nice little diversion, co-scripted by noted sci-fi writer Theodore Sturgeon from his own short story. Some of the best shots involve the Killdozer (truly just as much of a character in this thing as the human actors) just "watching" the men.
Seven out of 10.
This minor cult classic, a TV movie from the mid-70s, benefits from an amusing story that calls to mind other "killer vehicle" yarns like "The Car", "Christine", and "Maximum Overdrive". Since it obviously didn't have a huge budget, it wisely concentrates on story over spectacle. That said, 'Killdozer' actually benefits from a minimum of cheese and serviceable special effects, as the filmmakers do a decent job of convincing us that this mammoth machine is operating on its own. (And that's after its fuel line has been cut.) The movie has good atmosphere, and the relatively trim running time of a vintage TV movie. So director Jerry London ('Shogun') and company obligingly cut to the chase efficiently, giving us a couple of fine action scenes, some appreciable humor (they never take this thing too, too seriously), and capable performances by an array of tough-guy character actors in these blue-collar hero / victim roles: Clint Walker ("The Dirty Dozen"), Neville Brand ('The Untouchables'), Carl Betz ('The Donna Reed Show'), James Wainwright ("Joe Kidd"), James A. Watson Jr. ("Airplane II: The Sequel"), and a baby-faced Robert Urich, post-"Magnum Force" and pre-'Vega$'. Wainwright, as the increasingly unstable Dutch, delivers the standout characterization.
'Killdozer' is a good deal of fun, no matter if it likely wouldn't really scare anyone. It's a nice little diversion, co-scripted by noted sci-fi writer Theodore Sturgeon from his own short story. Some of the best shots involve the Killdozer (truly just as much of a character in this thing as the human actors) just "watching" the men.
Seven out of 10.