The Day It Came to Earth (1977)

A glowing meteor falls into a secluded pond into which Mafia hitmen have dumped the body of one of their victims. Students from the local college use the pond for a swimming hole. Then the fun begins.

Film Overview
"The Day It Came to Earth" is a low-budget sci-fi scary movie directed by Harry Thomason in 1977. The film headline consists of George Gobel, Bobby Porter, and, to its benefit, Rita Wilson in her debut role. Notably, it blends aspects of unidentified flying things and the undead, all set versus the backdrop of an eerily desolate cemetery.

Plot Summary
The plot of "The Day It Came to Earth" unfolds with a meteorite landing on the grounds of a deserted, remote cemetery after bouncing off from the earth's atmosphere. As a subplot, the film indicates that the meteorite might be stationary from an alien spacecraft. Unbeknownst to everybody, the meteorite has a distinct ability to restore the souls of the deceased.

On the other hand, a pair of callous and ill-intentioned gangsters go into the cemetery to hide a remains in an open grave, in an attempt to dispose of proof from their sinister actions. To their plain horror, they develop that the unusual meteorite that crashed has animated dead bodies, resulting in zombies beginning to rise from their tombs.

Scare Sequences
The scary escalates when six university student - three young boys and three women - decide to commemorate their success in exams by taking a dive in a regional lake. Rather, they erroneously stumble into the same scary graveyard where undead bodies are coming alive because of the alien meteorite's supernatural impact.

The film provides its share of spine-chilling series as the trainees are stalked and terrified by the reanimated corpses. The zombies do not look for flesh or brains but appear to be intent on recovering the transcendent things, causing an awesome sequence of occasions as the students try to escape and endure their experience.

Ending
The ending loads an unforeseen punch. Eventually, the trainees handle to escape the zombies, leaving the meteorite behind. The movie ends by revealing the zombies going back to their graves, meaning the peace they obtain once the meteorite is back with them. It subtextually indicates that the desecration of their graveyard by the gangsters was the real reason why the dead had actually risen, and recovering the alien meteorite was a method to their end.

Conclusion
"The Day It Came to Earth" takes a non-traditional approach to the zombie genre by joining together the supernatural element with alien sci-fi. The cinematography profits from the low-budget aesthetic, magnifying the bone-chilling result with fittingly spooky graveyard scenes. The plot's ingenuity depends on its representation of zombies, not as flesh-eaters however animals yearning for peace, interrupted by human ruthlessness. Unquestionably, it leaves audiences with a spooky recollection of the effects of disrupting the dead.

Top Cast

  • Roger Manning
    Ronnie McGuire
  • Rita Wilson (small)
    Rita Wilson
    Debbie
  • Wink Roberts
    Eddy Newton
  • Delight De Bruine
    Sally Baxter
  • Robert Ginnaven
    Lt. Mike Kelley
  • Lyle Armstrong
    Sgt. Larry Pinkerton
  • George Gobel (small)
    George Gobel
    The Professor
  • Ed Lover (small)
    Ed Lover
    The Creature (Lou Jacoby)
  • Joe Barone
    A Gangster
  • Conrad Rothmann
    A Gangster
  • Lou Hoffman
    Desk Sgt. Frank