Don Dohler! God rest his soul. The Maryland filmmaker is inspiration to all movie making hopefuls who have no money. Mr. Dohler, a Maryland resident, did not need Hollywood...he just needed the greater Baltimore area. What he gave us were ambitious horror/scifi tales with imaginative creatures, spaceships, townsfolk in panic, and an occasional babe (a rarity in Maryland). Today we look at his 1978 film, "The Alien Factor," starring no one you have ever heard of...that's kind of the point.
Two hormone driven young people make out in a VW...no doubt pre-marital sex is on the menu. But wait, a puritanical evil alien attacks, shreds the guy and chases away Mary Jane (Eleanor Herman) with her chastity intact. She's in shock and the sheriff (Tom Griffith) presses the doctors about what could have done this to the guy. He'll remain pretty clueless through the film. The doctors (Anne Frith and George Stover) see weird things about the corpse. Along comes Ben (Don Leifert), who is supposedly an astronomer from a local observatory. He watched meteors crash into the woods by the town and wants to go investigate. He'll trek into the woods and find a crashed spaceship and a wounded alien. The wounded alien tells him of the zoological specimens aboard his ship which have all escaped into the woods.
Enter babe Edie (Mary Mertens). She obviously gets her hair done at the same place Mary Jane got hers done. The Farrah Fawcett look was big in '78...as was disco...but never mind. Now the escaped aliens go through Oriole fans like crap through a goose. Yankee fans will be amused by this as Reggie Jackson was just about to win them a World Series. Mary Jane gets better and thanks everyone for helping her. The babe will then be chased again by the creatures and boy can she scream! Edie will go into the woods and we'll hear her scream, too. Ben seems to know what Maryland is up against and devises an ambitious plan to combat the alien invasion.
Will Edie and Mary Jane realize there can only be one Farrah-babe in Maryland and engage in a catfight to the death? Will Ben be able to kill the evil aliens? Are the evil aliens just misunderstood and should we refer to them as 'undocumented visitors'? This is a good one. Almost no budget but determination and imagination. We miss filmmakers like Don Dohler...though I just know more will emerge, inspired by this ingenious Marylander. See "The Alien Factor" and enjoy the creatures, babes, and big hair.
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