The Night the World Exploded!

Poster tagline: NATURE GONE MAD!!! THE MOST EXPLOSIVE SCI-FI FILM EVER PRODUCED!!! Well, Stephen Hawking was wrong :o) The thing that can destroy planet Earth is not the Higgs boson, but according to the creators, it’s "particle E-112" (something like a "liquid rock" that increases its volume and explodes when exposed to air), now I'm a bit smarter. Well, if I were a professional geologist, I'd bang my head against the wall in despair. It's not badly filmed, the exteriors and interiors are believable, there are no blatant rear projections and the stalactite cave set really does look like a stalactite cave. But this film simply lacks any element of believability, from the pseudo-scientific theories to the contrived plot elements (to better explore the effect of the Earth's core, you just need to climb a few dozen meters down into a cave on a rope ladder). And the scene when the sheriff explains to the protagonist over the phone that an earthquake has caused a volcano to grow outside his window (which, when seen from the window, looms in all its cone-shaped majesty behind his silhouette) is sure to cause fits of laughter. What surprises me, though, is that the man behind this is Sam Katzman, the famous B-movie assembly-line producer who regaled our hearts with gems like The Giant Claw. This one isn't that amusingly stupid, more just kind of goofy. (13.09.2014)