Be There When

'The Earth Dies Screaming' is a real favourite of mine, another little semi-precious stone from Freddie Francis. Taking a cue (and some footage) from 'Village of The Damned', it starts off with everyone falling unconscious with the ensuing chaos of crashing planes and vehicles. Unlike Midwich, however, the people aren't asleep, they're dead, victims of a gas attack from an unknown enemy.

It's a great opening, and although the rest of the film struggles to match it, the film moves swiftly and sensibly through the actions a handful of survivors take in order to try and work out what the hell is going on and what happens next, a situation complicated by the appearance of pitiless robot killing machines, radio controlled corpses and, ultimately, the small matter of the survival of the human race, or at least the handful left in a small village in the home counties.