You’d really think that UFOs or flying saucers no longer need much of a introduction by now, but in B-movies they’ll still get one nearly every single time, usually immediately following the first mention. The introduction can be delivered by the narrator of a suitable character, and it doesn’t actually need to convey any information – the purpose is name-dropping, or a list of the usual subjects. The Roswell crash and Area 51 is nearly always mentioned, plus a number of other uFO incidents, or incidents that can be connected to UFOs in some vague way. Nothing’s stopping you from throwing the Bermuda Triangle in as well, or the Tunguska Explosion. If you want to give it a political angle, mention Nazi spacecraft or the Haunebu-Geraete. That’s the great thing about UFO plots, you can link your plot to dozens of popular myths and mysteries at the same time, without having to provide any rationale. Looks great on a poster, too.
Since none of the characters was really suitable for this sort of introduction, we obviously needed a narrator for the task. There’d have been a wide selection of recently popular UFO guys, but I thought I’d stick with a classic: The Amazing Criswell. Naturally, he required some updating. That “restrained intensity” thing he had going worked well in the fifties, but today’s media hasn’t much use for restraint anymore.
More on Monday.