Purely Joyful Movie!

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This film features Christopher Lee AND Peter Cushing--two greats of British horror. So, it IS worth seeing. However, I must warn you that the finale is a bit limp.Britain is in the midst of a cold winter. Yet, oddly, despite this there is a small island which sees temperatures in the 90s Fahrenheit...and there doesn't seem to be a logical reason why. Much of the film is a bit soap opera-like, with a writer having serious women problems, but the finale gets to what's really going on...and, sadly, weak special effects undermine what could have been a really interesting finale. Overall, decent acting and a halfway decent story...but sloppy effects even for 1968.By the way, if you are a Bearded Collie owner (I've had quite a few), this film might be the earliest you can find with an example of the breed running about in the film.

Terence Fisher, one of my favourite directors, handles the film with his usual level of style and flair and it has some very impressive visuals. In spite of its low budget, it looks great. His deft sense of casting is on display particularly as regards Christopher Lee (who, as always, makes a great leading man), Peter Cushing, Jane Merrow, Patrick Allen, his real life wife Sarah Lawson, Thomas Heathcote and William Lucas, almost all of whom also appeared in one of Fisher's many great Hammer films.What lets the film down is the pedestrian script - it's hard to take a film seriously when it has lines like "She's a slut and I wanted her body!" - and the dull love triangle between the Callums and Angela, which is admittedly well acted by Allen, Lawson and Merrow. I hope that his affair wasn't a reflection on Allen and Lawson's actual marriage! Cushing, who is credited as a "guest star," is as great as ever, particularly in his one major scene with his frequent on screen nemesis Lee, but it's really nothing more than an extended cameo. It more or less falls apart in its second half. There was a great sense of atmosphere and tension that disappears as soon as the alien threat was brought up. It has some nice ideas but it's one of those sci-fi stories that it is much more interesting before you know what is going on. It feels like an overlong episode of "The Outer Limits" at times.Overall, it's a decent, watchable film but not a great one. Bar some of the visuals, it's not terribly memorable. Still, it was nice to watch one of Fisher's non-Hammer films for the first time. This was his final non-Hammer film, incidentally.

For those of you who enjoy shouting at your TV, then this is definitely one for you. I was expecting more from this film due to the cast involved, however, don't be put off from watching this just yet upon my initial hearsay, as it distinctly falls under that well known cliché of, "so bad, it's good". Actually, it's bloody awful, but it's still kinda good in it's own way, and worth at least one watch for the sake of belief. Very reminiscent of 'X:The Unknown' (1956), and also the far superior of all the intense-heat movies, 'The Day The Earth Caught Fire' (1961), so much so that it's practically a hard-neck, no shame, amalgamation of both, except the drama is pretty much borderline of mid-afternoon soap operas.If you enjoy seeing lust-filled, dormant rapists bite a clenched fist before they attack, people who have immense trouble in trying to outrun poached Brontosaurus eggs, or pointing fingers at why walkie-talkie batteries aren't as delectable as car batteries, (let alone why the plastic casing doesn't melt), to name but a few perks and irregularities, then fear not, because this is the shout-fest you've been looking for.To be honest, I'd give it a 1/10 right across the board for it's acting, script, special effects, etc, but due to it's surreal and laughable entertainment value, it's getting a more than charitable 5/10 from me. You could do worse on a lonely weekday night out in the sticks.

I taped Night Of The Big Heat when BBC1 screened it during the early hours a few years ago.The Northern island of Fara is experiencing very warm temperatures even though it is the middle of Winter while the rest of the UK is seeing the usual Winter weather. At the same time, people are being killed in mysterious circumstances, all being burned to death. It turns out these killings and heat are caused by aliens...This movie is shot well in colour and is atmospheric and creepy throughout.The excellent cast include horror regulars Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and are joined by Patrick Allen (When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth), Kenneth Cope (Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)), Jane Merrow, Sarah Lawson and Percy Herbert.Hight Of The Big Heat is certainly worth checking out. Excellent.Rating: 4 stars out of 5.