FOES (1977) WEIRD MOVIE REVIEW

FOES (1977) – Though I’m reviewing this movie under my Bad and Weird Movies category, let me be clear that Foes is not bad and it is weird in the best way possible. I’ve watched the 91-minute version with Jerry Hardin (Deep Throat from The X-Files) and Macdonald Carey (“Like sands through the hourglass …”) top billed AND the 72-minute version with just the virtual unknowns appearing.

I much preferred the longer version because it helped add important context to the film and actually made it feel like a cross between the old TV series Project Bluebook and the aforementioned X-Files. John Coats, the writer and director of Foes, went on to a long career in visual effects and this movie nicely highlighted what he was capable of, even on a small budget. 

A married couple (Alan Blanchard and Jane Wiley) are posted at the lighthouse and marine science station on Pershing Island off the coast of California. Their daily routine turns nightmarish when a vessel from another planet shows up and subjects them to frightening and harmful scrutiny. 

Meanwhile, a pair of scuba divers (played by director John Coats and Gregory Clemens) get subjected to similar treatment because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time when the aliens showed up.

The extraterrestrial vessel cuts off the island’s communications and projects an invisible force field that prevents air or sea rescue from reaching the four people at the mercy of the aliens. A U.S. military jet observing the mysterious craft was disintegrated. 

While the lighthouse couple and the scuba divers are tormented like characters in a horror film, the military – led by General Mason (Jerry Hardin) – calls in Dr. McCary (Macdonald Carey), the leading expert on extraterrestrial phenomena.

Mason and McCary have their team try their hardest to rescue the foursome on Pershing Island before their lives might get ended by the treatment they are suffering. They simultaneously try to decipher transmissions from the UFO and ponder the technology used by the aliens.

All that being said, let me emphasize that this is a slow burn film. If you’re someone who appreciates the masterful approach of horror films like Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist I think you will enjoy this bizarre, atmospheric item.

By no means is Foes a 10 out of 10 or anything like that, but it is far better than its reputation from reviewers who call it “boring” and claim nothing happens. Those viewers would likely describe Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist as boring, too. 

SPOILERS AHEAD:

One character is burned to death by the aliens’ tech, another is badly burned but survives, another tries shooting the eerily, wonderfully depicted ETs and gets traumatized for life. The fourth appears to have been taken along by the aliens when they departed, to suffer God knows what kind of fate.

John Coats’ (at right) special effects still hold up very well for a 1970s film, especially the way he took the time and effort to make the underside of the alien vessel have a polished surface which he masterfully depicts reflecting the landscape below as it flies along.

Foes deserves a much larger audience. As of this writing there are only eight user reviews at IMDb.