As it is it is an average film of no particular distinction. But it gets a great deal of mileage out of its gooey effects. Rick Baker has an enormous amount of fun creating faces with liquefying eyeballs and ears and teeth exposed beneath melted lips. There are occasional moments where director William Sachs creates some feeling for its title creature as Alex Rebar stumbles around the countryside, longingly looking into lit homes. The ending with a janitor sweeping up the melted remains of Rebar, intercut with stock footage of a rocket launch and an overlayed voice announcing the start of the second Saturn mission which has been wished well by the crew of the first one, still in quarantine, is suitably sardonic. It’s not a great film but on the other hand it’s not the total turkey and unintentional laughfest that some critics of recent years have been trying to turn it into either.

Director Sachs next went onto make the silly Galaxina (1980). People can also note Oscar-winning director Jonathan (The Silence of the Lambs) Demme in a brief scene playing one of the victims.