While some people say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, a poster provides necessary insight into the tone, subject matter, and quality of a movie. As a true entryway into what to expect from a flick, movie posters are an important artifact for cinephiles. Science fiction films, it turns out, have produced some of the most hilarious and visually entertaining posters as a result of brazen marketing efforts.
Since filmgoers in the 1970s weren’t able to log onto YouTube to catch trailers for upcoming movies, poster design was a vital art form in the decade. The more eye-catching and ridiculous, the better, especially when sci-fi themes are involved. With that in mind, enjoy these 10 comically terrible movie posters from the same years that saw the release of classics like Star Wars and Jaws.
The Cat From Outer Space (1978)
“Meow!” Here’s hoping those of you with furry friends aren’t secretly harboring aliens like the title character in this Disney movie. Zunar J5/90 Doric 4-7, or Jake for short, crash lands on Earth and must track down a heaping pile of gold in order to fix his ship and return home.
Soon, the government is onto Jake. When the extraterrestrial feline crosses paths with a veterinarian, the animal doctor accidentally sedates Jake, which seriously thwarts the visitor’s plans to get back into space as quickly as possible.
Frogs (1972)
Croaking pond dwellers pose a serious threat in this nature revenge tale. Campy and excessive, Frogs follows a bunch of amphibians in the Florida Everglades that decide to stage a massive rebellion against Jason Crockett, the local old-man-about-town whose work in the chemicals industry is directly tied to the toxins seeping into the nearby ecosystems.
After some telepathic bullfrogs use their powers to persuade a bunch of snakes, bugs and snapping turtles to join them, the creatures descend upon Crockett and his cronies, hungry for vengeance.
Warlords Of Atlantis (1978)
A British fantasy film made for young adults, Warlords of Atlantis is a high seas adventure that takes place in the Victorian era. Crew members of a ship looking for the lost city of Atlantis mutiny, hoping to keep the endless treasure to be found to themselves. The plot thickens, and after sea monsters like giant octopi cause the ship to sink, the crew finds Atlantis thriving on the seafloor. Sounds plausible enough.
Anything goes in the ocean, which means Atlantis is controlled by fascist aliens who enslave shipwrecked sailors. Talk about an incredible tale of suspense and terror.
The Thing With Two Heads (1972)
In this epically strange B-movie that attempts to tackle racism, a prejudiced white transplant surgeon with a mad scientist streak decides to take his skin grafting experiments to the next level: he wants to have his own head transplanted onto another body.
The surgeon is dying of cancer, and based on his previous work, he believes if he has his head successfully attached to another person’s body, it will adjust to its new environment. The surgeon intends to have the body’s original head removed, which will allow him to go on living with a new body. The surgery happens, but the surgeon wakes up to find his head has been attached to the body of a black man.
Night Of The Lepus (1972)
Sci-fi fans were really obsessed with deadly animals in the 1970s, and this film makes a monster out of Peter Rabbit. In defense of the rabbits in the movie, they only become monstrous, mutant killing machines after a scientist uses hormone injections to minimize growth among Arizona’s rabbit populations.
The scientist’s meddling backfires, and hungry, giant rabbits emerge from the desert in search of new protein sources. It looks like people are on the menu.
Laserblast (1978)
When a discouraged teenage boy named Billy stumbles upon a laser gun left behind by aliens, it’s lights out for his enemies. From the kids who make fun of his van to the police officers who always pull him over, Billy feels justified using his new toy to enact revenge.
Soon, the power gets to his head, and Billy loses his sense of humanity. Things really take a turn when he turns into a green-faced monster with an unstoppable weapon. While Laserblast wants to make a profound statement about the trials and tribulations of youth, it’s really just a movie about a self-righteous young man whose rage finds an unfortunate outlet.
Invasion Of The Bee Girls (1973)
This layered, low budget parody stings time and time again. An FBI agent investigates a bee coven, a group of women who have somehow developed bee-like abilities. These humming femme fatales also like to kill men after they sleep with them.
Throughout the film, viewers get to see the world from a bee girl’s perspective, including overhead flying scenes. Eventually, the FBI agent figures out the bee girls are the work of a female scientist who is sick and tired of stereotypical gender roles. She uses her army of seductive hybrids to slaughter men left and right, ready to free ladies from their subservient status.
The Giant Spider Invasion (1973)
A drunk farmer in rural Wisconsin finds a bunch of crystal geodes on his property, too sloshed to realize that hairy arachnids are protruding from them until its too late. There’s little the town can do to defend itself against the tarantula army.
The title is a bit of a misnomer because the spiders aren’t really THAT big. There is one big spider in the film, which looks like the work of a drunk special effects artist. The creature, upon reveal, is definitely a Volkwagen Beetle covered in fake black fur and lined with eight limbs. While a B-movie spectacle, The Army of Giant Spiders would have benefited from “the less is more” theory when it comes to horror.
Empire Of The Ants (1977)
Yet another take on the “nature-run-amok” theme in sci-fi, this adaptation of H.G. Wells’s story is the work of creature feature legend Bert I. Gordon. Joan Collins (yes, that Joan Collins) stars as a slimy real estate developer in Florida who convinces unsuspecting people to purchase parts of a housing development that sits on a nuclear waste dumpsite.
As if Florida’s unforgiving humidity and strange bugs aren’t enough, these folks soon discover they have some very unwelcoming neighbors: aggressive, oversized mutant ants that want to eat them.
Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World (1973)
This list started with an alien cat, and it ends with the biggest dog in the world. Digby was a normal sheepdog, but then one day he sunk his teeth into a bowl full of a special concoction designed to make plants larger.
Digby soon grows into a massive, towering dog. Despite having the same sweet disposition, his size gets him in trouble, and he causes problems everywhere he goes. While his owner tries to find a cure for his condition, Digby becomes the number one target of the U.S. Army.
