Night of the Big Heat (1967)
Christopher Lee, Patrick Allen and Peter Cushing star in this science fiction / horror romp about a remote Scottish island coping with a heat wave...in the middle of winter.
Directed by Hammer stalwart Terence Fisher, Night of the Big Heat, truth be told really isn't that riveting. The odd heat wave is only matter of factly mentioned until Lee and Allen really start investigating it's circumstances around the half way point. The bulk of the film is practically a kitchen sink drama dripping with sexual tension mainly due to Jane Merrow, as a former lover of Allen's, turning up at his hotel and turning up the heat on their relationship to his wife played by Sarah Lawson from Hammer's The Devil Rides Out. Claustrophobic and sweaty, yet despite the heatwave, Merrow is definitely the hottest thing in this.
The final half hour introduces the aliens responsible for events. Wisely Fisher keeps them out of sight until the last ten minutes, probably because, and i hate to say it, they look a bit crap, and certainly fare better off screen in the viewers imagination than they do in full sight.
Not a bad effort, but all involved have definitely done better.
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