Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!

Laugh it up, fuzzball, at IS THIS A JOKE? Month at Mondo Mondays, featuring a full house of sci-fi/horror spoofs that will have you in stitches AND hysterics, and that’s gotta hurt!

Yes, it’s a real movie!  In this infamous, ketchup-stained 1978 “musical comedy horror show,” tomatoes finally have their day as the terrifying movie monsters they were always meant to be.  UFOs!  Bigfoot!  Communists!   The U.S. government has swiftly dealt with many a crisis, but can it survive the diabolical Attack of the Killer Tomatoes?  Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the supermarket, the world comes face to face with terror so bold, so frightening, and so juicy, it has never been seen on-screen before or since (not until the 1988 sequel, anyway).   After a series of bizarre and increasingly horrific attacks from plump red tomatoes that have mysteriously grown to massive proportions, an ex-spy finds himself leading a not-so-crack team of so-called specialists to save the planet from turning into a giant pot of marinara sauce.   As a young rookie reporter investigates the pulpy terror in the face of government denial and cover-ups, innocent bystanders wait with baited breath and wonder:  is this the way the world ends … with a giant splat?  A shoestring-budget oddity considered to be one of the first monster movie parodies ever, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is a supremely silly, laughably absurd B-movie comedy classic that somehow spawned a franchise AND introduced the world to the not-so-classic pop song, “Puberty Love.” (Dir. by John De Bello, 1978, USA, 85 mins., Rated PG)