Verdict
Summary
Full Moon gave filmmaker Ted Nicolaou the reigns to do pretty much whatever he wanted on a limited budget, and towards the end it turns into Little Shop of Horrors, which is … as goofy as it sounds. Yes, I sort of enjoyed Bad Channels, but just by a hair, which, I suppose, is enough.
Plot:
Aliens land and take over a radio station where a renegade DJ reports live to his listeners … who think he’s pulling a stunt.
Review:
“Dangerous” Dan O’Dare (Paul Hipp) is an edgy but desperate radio DJ for a fledgling station called Superstation 666, but he’s teetering with breaking the laws of the FCC with his offensive and stunt-filled show, some of which go on for days without interruption. His latest stunt has him locked and tied up in chains (by his own design) with a padlock with a combination he doesn’t know, and he has his listeners call in to give him random combinations to see if they’ll unlock the padlock. Whoever wins gets a new car, and the kicker is that he’s playing the same polka song on a loop to annoy everyone so that they’ll call in. Turns out that the whole thing is rigged and there is no car, which pisses off a local reporter, but then the unthinkable happens: An alien and a robot sidekick land in town and hole up at Superstation while O’Dare is broadcasting, and the alien (one of the most slapdash looking outfits I’ve seen since the gorilla suit Ro-Man from Robot Monster) begins infecting the town with its bacteria spores, turning people into walking jock-itch monsters. Meanwhile, O’Dare is broadcasting a live, in-real time account of the alien’s business, which includes conjuring the rock band Blue Oyster Cult to somehow zap gorgeous babes into test tube canisters to take with it back to its planet (I know: it’s crazy). Of course, no one who’s listening actually believes him, but when girls in town start disappearing, cops are called in to investigate and suddenly O’Dare doesn’t sound so crazy anymore.
Bad Channels is perfectly titled because it resembles one of those drive-in movies from the ’50s and ’60s with a goofy plot, hokey makeup effects, a mostly innocent approach to entertaining its audience, and even an Easter egg that sort of sets it in the same universe as The Three Stooges (seriously). Full Moon gave filmmaker Ted Nicolaou the reigns to do pretty much whatever he wanted on a limited budget, and towards the end it turns into Little Shop of Horrors, which is … as goofy as it sounds. Yes, I sort of enjoyed Bad Channels, but just by a hair, which, I suppose, is enough. Blue Oyster Cult appears as themselves and there are basically several music videos of their original songs sprinkled throughout.
Full Moon has just released a Blu-ray of Bad Channels (numbered #76 on the spine), and it’s the first time the movie has been presented in its original aspect ratio (1:78:1) in high definition, so this is the best the movie has ever looked or sounded. There are some nice bonus features, including a commentary, a trailer, a making-of feature, and a new interview with Nicolaou.
