TONIGHT I WATCHED DEF-CON 4 AND...

... It's not that bad, actually. I've heard a few times over the years that the Canadian science fiction film Def-Con 4 is bad. Now that I've seen it I must disagree with that seemingly common opinion: The acting is okay, the characters are an effective mix with some being outright creepy and reprehensible, and the art direction and cinematography rise above the film's low budget. And... the whole affair is entertaining enough; I was never bored. And, let me tell you, films similar to this one have been known to send me to the loony bin through multi-level dreariness -- including the actual filmmaking, which is the final insult to this paying moviegoer.

The picture was directed by Paul Donovan (Lexx) and distributed by Roger Corman's New World Pictures company in March of 1985. The first time I became aware of Def-Con 4 was when I saw the soundtrack LP in Sam the Record Man here in Toronto.

This post-apocalyptic picture is no worse than most of the type -- of which there have been too many, since they are relatively cheap to produce. On that detail, Def-Con 4 was more elaborate than what I imagined it being. The business in the space station at the film's beginning is well-handled.

But, the film's one-sheet poster (showbill) is very misleading and for the longest time that's all I knew of the flick since it was the image splayed on the aforementioned film score album. (I read once that the poster was hardly accurate in what you were going to see after parting with your money at the theatre's box office.)

I'm wondering if New World was fined for this depiction, since it is in no way even remotely rendered in Def-Con 4...