Cult Film Friday: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978)

Before The Stuff. Before Big Ass Spider. Before Sharknado, there was Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Despite the small budget and initial negative reviews, this 1978 film had such a cult following it led to three sequels and is still considered a cult classic today. It's been a while since I've done a Cult Film Friday, but I saw Attack of the Killer Tomatoes for the first time in probably over decade and I had to write on it.

Spoofing disaster and monster B movies from the fifties and sixties, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes tells the story of evil tomatoes that grow gigantic and kill innocent people all over America. The government constructs a team led by Mason Dixon to save the country. Dixon must deal with spying newspaper reporters, government conspiracies, and bad pop music before he eventually destroys the fiendish fruit.

When I first watched Attack of the Killer Tomatoes as a kid, I thought it was funny just because it was such a bad movie. But it's actually a very cleverly written spoof of those awful films. This movie parodies everything from Jaws to Donny Osmond and is very funny. The tomato design was amazing as well. They talked but not in words, more like strange squeaky sounds. And they just rolled around. There was nothing really scary about them except they were big and rolled around. It was just great. It perfectly spoofs B movies, even though the film itself was made on a budget of less than $100,000. The lack of resources worked in this movie's favor.  There are some strange, non-PC moments in it (which is just reflective of the time), but overall it's a great comedy.

One of the aspects of Killer Tomatoes that makes it so funny is the music. It opens with the incredible theme song about tomatoes killing various people with a sound that reminds me of the old Zorro TV show theme. Again, watching it as an adult, I have no memory of all the musical numbers in it. The songs pop up as such random times and they're all so strange and funny. The song that the two main characters sing at the end is stupendous. It's a love song with clearly dubbed operatic voices. It's so over the top, it's amazing. The best song in the movie, the one I remember most, is "Puberty Love:" the loathed pop song that ends up being the weapon that destroys the killer tomatoes. In the film, "Puberty Love" is performed by the fictional Ronny Desmond (a wonderfully obvious spoof of Donny Osmond). The song is actually sung by Matt Cameron, who later grew up to be the drummer for both Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. Go figure.

Beyond the writing and music, I quite enjoyed the set design in this movie, oddly enough. I love movies that perfectly capture a certain era and this movie was so '70's. Every room was decorated and painted a certain way and I felt like I was in A Clockwork Orange or something. The rooms were painted bright orange or green and the furniture was very retro. I mean, just look at this office. Look at it.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is a very surprising and fun movie, and very deserving of its cult status. Its humor resembles that of other comedies made around the same time, like Monty Python and the Holy Grail or Airplane, but the film totally stands on its own as a weird, musical comedy. If you're in the mood for something bizarre and silly, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is perfect. But beware. You may be scared to eat ketchup for a while.