''Kamillions'' is a 1990 film

directed Direct may refer to: Mathematics * Directed set, in order theory * Direct limit of (pre), sheaves * Direct sum of modules, a construction in abstract algebra which combines several vector spaces Computing * Direct access (disambiguation), a ...

by Mikel B. Anderson from a story by Robert Hsi and a screenplay Anderson wrote in collaboration with Harry S. Robins. The film was re-edited by producer Teresa Woo, who later admitted she did not really understand an

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

, and was expecting more of an

action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

. The film was shot primarily in the Dunsmuir House and Gardens in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

. In the film, a

mad scientist The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as "mad, bad and dangerous to know" or "insanity, insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabas ...

creates a portal to another dimension and accidentally transports two other-dimensional

shapeshifters In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shapeshifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through unnatural means. The idea of shapeshifting is found in the oldest forms of totemism and shamanism, as well as the oldest exist ...

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

. Both aliens assume human form, but they demonstrate different personality traits. The female is friendly and amorous, and proceeds to find herself a

boyfriend A boyfriend is a man who is a friend or acquaintance to the speaker, often specifying a regular male companion with whom a person is platonically, romantically or sexually involved. A boyfriend can also be called an admirer, beau, suito ...

. The male is a

trickster In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherw ...

with sadistic tendencies, hurting people for his own amusement.

Plot

Robins

plays Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

bumbling

Nathaniel Pickman Wingate, of the

Miskatonic University Arkham () is a fictional city situated in Massachusetts, United States. An integral part of the Lovecraft Country setting created by H. P. Lovecraft, Arkham is featured in many of his stories and those of other Cthulhu Mythos writers. Arkham ...

. He works on opening a portal to another dimension while his wife, Nancy (Laura O'Malley) and

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

prepare his fiftieth birthday party. When he succeeds with

contact Contact may refer to: Interaction Physical interaction * Contact (geology), a common geological feature * Contact lens or contact, a lens placed on the eye * Contact sport, a sport in which players make contact with other players or objects * C ...

with the new dimension, two

triops ''Triops'', from Ancient Greek τρία (''tría''), meaning "three", and ὄψ (''óps''), meaning "face" or "eye", is a genus of small crustaceans in the order Notostraca (tadpole shrimp). The long-lasting resting eggs of several species of '' ...

-like creatures escape. These creatures possess

shape-shifting In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shapeshifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through unnatural means. The idea of shapeshifting is found in the oldest forms of totemism and shamanism, as well as the oldest existen ...

abilities that allows them to assume the form and identity of

anything Anything may refer to: Albums * ''Anything'' (The Cranberry Saw Us demo), by the band later named the Cranberries, 1990 * ''Anything'' (The Damned album) or the title song (see below), 1986 * ''Anything'' (Kinnie Starr album) or the title son ...

, and thusly do so with Nancy's cousin, Count Desmon (Christopher Gasti) of

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

and Jasmine, a model from son Sam's (Dan Evans) poster (Dru-Anne Cakmis). Jasmine and Desmon are shown to be polar behavioral opposites. Jasmine is friendly and intelligent. Via her

telepathic Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...

abilities she quickly becomes Sam's

girlfriend A girlfriend is a woman who is a friend, acquaintance or partner to the speaker, usually a female companion with whom one is platonically, romantically, or sexually involved. In a romantic context, this normally signifies a committed r ...

. Desmon on the other hand is ill-behaved, surly, and mischievously malevolent. His mischievous personality drives him to pull terrible tricks on Sam's family via his powers—for example, Lindy (Allison Rachel Golde) overuses the phone, so Desmon stuffs the receiver in her mouth, causing her to go to the ER to have it extracted. Handyman Floyd (Chuck Bartelle) is hurt by some cut wires a vindictive Desmon moves with

psychokinesis Telekinesis () (alternatively called psychokinesis) is a purported psychic ability allowing an individual to influence a physical system without physical interaction. Experiments to prove the existence of telekinesis have historically been cri ...

giving him a severe

electric shock An electrical injury (electric injury) or electrical shock (electric shock) is damage sustained to the skin or internal organs on direct contact with an electric current. The injury depends on the Current density, density of the current, tissu ...

. Suffering difficulties in retaining his new body, Desmon frightens off the

maid A maid, housemaid, or maidservant is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era, domestic service was the second-largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids a ...

Emma (Lynn Applebaum) when he tries to seduce her. Reverend Lawrence Newman (David Allan Shaw), Nathan's college

roommate A roommate is a person with whom one shares a living facility such as a room or dormitory ''except'' when being family or romantically involved. Similar terms include dorm-mate, suite-mate, housemate, or flatmate ("flat": the usual term in Brit ...

, tries some bedroom antics with Nathan's sister, Angelica (

Kate Alexander Tilly Armstrong (8 April 1927 – 6 July 2010) was a British writer of romance novels from 1978 to 1998. She also wrote as Tania Langley and Kate Alexander. Armstrong was born in Sutton, Surrey. Before she began her writing career, she worked ...

); Desmon, clinging to the ceiling above them, uses his powers to transform Lawrence's

penis A penis (; : penises or penes) is a sex organ through which male and hermaphrodite animals expel semen during copulation (zoology), copulation, and through which male placental mammals and marsupials also Urination, urinate. The term ''pen ...

into a dragon-like creature that attacks him. Sam, Jasmine and Sam's best friend, Alex (Andrew Ross Litzky) run to get

coolant A coolant is a substance, typically liquid, that is used to reduce or regulate the temperature of a system. An ideal coolant has high thermal capacity, low viscosity, is low-cost, non-toxic, chemically inert and neither causes nor promotes corr ...

supplies from the university, which are necessary to prevent an explosion that will destroy half the planet. Jasmine is concerned with doing anything she can to stop Desmon and get back to their own dimension. She spends time, though, with Sam in a '50s-style malt shop, sharing a milkshake with two straws.

Edit

The film came in at 121 minutes in a rough cut that Robins believed to be the director's cut until Anderson corrected him. Robins continues to pay to have the original elements stored in refrigeration in hopes of a director's cut, which the 90 minute cut released on video and television is not. According to Anderson, such a cut would be longer than 90 minutes, but shorter than 121 minutes. Robins's late brother, Jeff, barely appears in the 90 minute cut (in the malt shop scene, and in the party scene that ends the film), but has a larger supporting role (Albert) that has been essentially excluded from release. The film was sold in German-speaking markets as ''The Wingates''. The film was shopped around outside the hands of any of the creators, and the VHS released that cropped up from a company called SBM of

Chatsworth, California Chatsworth is a suburban neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, in the San Fernando Valley. The area around the town was home to Native Americans, who left caves containing rock art. Chatsworth was explored and colonized by the Spanish beginn ...

in 1991 was not authorized, and Robins, who subsequently acquired the rights to the film, dislikes the artwork. The packaging compares the film to

David Cronenberg David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and ...

's The Fly and

Joe Dante Joseph James Dante Jr. (; born November 28, 1946) is an American film director. His films—notably ''Gremlins'' (1984) alongside its sequel, ''Gremlins 2: The New Batch'' (1990)—often mix the 1950s-style B movie genre with Counterculture of th ...

's ''

Gremlins ''Gremlins'' is a 1984 American black comedy horror film directed by Joe Dante, written by Chris Columbus and starring Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Polly Holliday and Frances Lee McCain, with Howie Mandel providing the voic ...

''. Unlike Dante, the film is more concerned with social comedy than referential comedy. Teresa Woo was more used to action films like the Iron Angels series she was involved with, was confused by the brevity of fighting action in the film and whittled it down accordingly, though later regretted it.

References

External links

Official site remnants at

archive.org The Internet Archive is an American non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including websites, software applic ...

* {{IMDb title, 0102185 1990 comedy horror films 1990s science fiction comedy films 1990 science fiction horror films 1990s fantasy comedy films American comedy horror films American science fiction comedy films American mad scientist films Films about shapeshifting 1990 films American fantasy comedy films American science fiction horror films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films Films shot in Oakland, California Films about birthdays Films about parallel universes Films about telepathy Films about telekinesis Films about alien visitations 1990 science fiction films English-language comedy horror films English-language science fiction horror films English-language science fiction comedy films English-language fantasy comedy films