Although Italy was known for sword and sandal films (such as the Hercules and Machiste pictures) and the so-called spaghetti westerns in the 1960s, the country made many other types of movies...including some sci-fi. "La Morte Viene dal Pianeta Aytin" ("Snow Devils") is one of quite a few sci-fi movies that were dubbed into English and marketed in the States. While the film would look like absolute garbage when "2001: A Space Odyssey" debuted just a year later, for 1967 the effects are actually generally pretty good...at least when they weren't using cheap and fuzzy stock footage here and there during the story.When the picture begins, the temperatures around the planet are on the rise and snow is melting everywhere. An expedition in the Himalayas stumbles into the cause...some aliens who have been there for 100 years waiting to unleash their plan. What is the plan of these big, furry blue aliens? To flood the Earth and then quickly freeze it to turn the planet into a giant glacier, as that's the sort of temperatures these aliens like. And, since they also plan on taking over the planet, who cares what happens to the humans?! Can our intrepid heroes defeat the aliens at this base? And, if they do, will it stop the climactic problems...or is there another battle looming in the near future?The film is modestly entertaining albeit a bit silly here and there. But for a 1960s sci-fi movie, it's actually reasonably good. Too bad the magnificent special effects with "2001" would soon make these Italian exports look mega-crappy in comparison.

The Snow Devils is set in the same universe as War of the planets and Wild Wild Planet, but unlike those films, the action takes place largely on Earth. It seems that someone or something is affecting Earth's weather and not in a good way. The intrepid members of the gamma space station set out to find out what's going on. Even for the mid 60s, the special effects in this film are, well, let's say watery. The story is knuckleheaded, but rather fun and there's that killer music score, which probably deserved a better home in another movie. Still, for kids in the 60s, this kind of film was catnip. If you can get in touch with your ten year old self, or are a fan of b movies, you will enjoy 80 or so minutes of silly fun.

Despite a slow first half, "Snow Devils" is fun escapist fare. An intrepid team of spacemen/scientists led by wavy-haired Rod Jackson (Giacomo Rossi ('Jack') Stuart) travel to the Himalaya to investigate climate change (very prescient). As modern "climate-change deniers" claim, it is not due to human activity but is rather due (this they do not claim) to aliens who are modifying our climate to match their needs as they plan on colonising Earth. The aliens are somewhat greenish hairy men with very fake-looking huge hairy Hobbit feet, who are the basis of 'yeti' sightings (or "snow devils" to the locals). There is a lot of tedious trudging through snow and cave-sets before this is established, at which point the movie gets interesting as the team blasts off to the moons of Jupitar to attack the alien base. Typical of director Antonio Margheriti's so-called "Gamma One" series (named after the space station that appears in all of the films), "Snow Devils" is full of great, if not particularly realistic, looking miniatures (including lots of spaceships) and imaginative scenes of people floating in zero-gravity. In a surprising nod to scientific accuracy (in a film where the rockets all gout flames as they fly through space), the issue of time delay in radio communications is written into the plot. The acting is generally hammy (Stuart delivers some lines in a Shatneresque staccato) and the women are primarily decorative (but look nice in their tight-fitting space-pants). If you have seen other "Gamma One" films, expect some feelings of déjà vu, as the props are recycled (note the reappearance of the futuristic cars similar to George Jetson's (although not capable of flight)). Not exactly cerebral sci-fi but better than most Hollywood offerings of the same vintage and budget. Worth watching by anyone looking for an imaginative, colourful and mindless time-killer, but a must-see for fans of science fiction movies.

The budgets of WILD WILD PLANET(1965) and WAR OF THE PLANETS(1966) ran out in this follow up to those films, using props and situations created in them. This one is earthbound and lacks the terrificly gaudy miniature future-scapes of the last two outings. And lacks the stars(Tony Russel, who actually has screen *presence* in the previous two).Has a terrific opening score that playable several times, but the whole thing seems terribly set-bound, and small sets at that. But overall recalls to us a time of film-making long gone.Fun stuff.