Valdemar
(Lucien Pan) is an old artist married to hottie Linda (Ingrid Pitt), his
favorite model. He takes her out into
the middle of the jungle to paint her against exotic backgrounds. Naturally, she’s having an affair with their
handsome (and much younger) jungle guide (Keith Larson) and the two of them
plot to do away with Valdemar and steal his money. Once her hubby finds out about their intentions,
he lures them to a “cursed” river teeming with radioactivity to set them
straight once and for all.
The Omegans was directed by Lee J. Wilder (brother of Billy), who also made the supremely silly Killers from Space. It doesn’t have the same cheesy vibe as that flick, but it does have a certain charm about it. It remains entertaining, even if the pacing is a bit leaden. Although it takes a while to get going, the scenes of the glowing monster are pretty effective, and the part where Pan discovers Pitt’s infidelity is quite amusing.
It’s
fun to see Pitt in an early horror role, although she looks a bit lost at
times. She hadn’t quite found herself as
an actress yet (it sometimes sounds like she’s pronouncing her lines
phonetically), but as we all know, she got much better as she went along. Soon after this film, she was turning out memorable performances in Hammer
movies. Even if her acting is less than
stellar in The Omegans, one thing is for sure, she looks great in a bathing
suit.
Overall,
The Omegans feels like a half-hour Tales from the Crypt episode stretched out
to feature length. It takes its time
getting going and when it finally gets there, the ending is predictable. Still, I kind of liked it, if only for Pitt
and the cool “self-cremation” effects.
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