My family and I moved from Eau Claire, Wisconsin to Fort Collins, Colorado in 1984. I can remember my mom taking me to rent movies at this place that also rented out furniture and electronics (if you know where Cafe Mexicali is, it was in that business strip). I would look at the giant (27 inches!) Zenith television sets with wood paneling and dream of having one in my bedroom. In the meantime, however, I would only seem to rent one or two of the following (and watch them about 5 times before returning them): Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, or Space Raiders.

Now, I was five, six years old at the time and didn’t truly know the difference between great cinema and “b-quality” cinema. All I knew was that the Star Wars movies were their own thing while Space Raiders was it’s own unique thing. I have been waiting over 25 years to own my own copy of Space Raiders, but has yet to be released on anything but VHS (unless you live in Japan). So, I’m still waiting. However, I couldn’t wait anymore to watch it, so I got curious and searched for it on youtube. There it was, the whole movie (in 10-minute increments), in all of its low-quality glory-ness, shouting my name, beckoning me to watch. Not being able to help myself, I put on my Star Wars Under-Roos, made myself some chocolate milk and watched Space Raiders!

Classic VHS clamshell insert. Read the left here for a more in-depth (and better written) synopsis of the best space-opera you never seen!

There’s a kid. He’s chasing a stop-motion bug through a warehouse when suddenly space pirates shoot their way through the scene. The kid, we later learn his name is Peter, gets caught up in the action and ends up on the pirate ship! Oh, no! It’s his first time off his home planet! The pirates actually turn out to be pretty nice to him and even give him a beer at one point (Killian’s in a silver can) after teaching him how to shoot asteroids with a rolly-ball controller that is reminiscent of the arcade version of Centipede. Anyhoo, Peter gets caught up in some dirty pirate stuff and gets kidnapped (and rescued) a few times. I can’t tell you much more, but the whole movie you’ll be wondering if the pirates get Peter home or will Peter become one of them, guzzling Killian’s and shooting asteroids for the rest of his life.

Flightplan! My favorite character from Space Raiders.

The only two names I know from this movie is the producer, Roger Corman (the B-movie king), and a cameo appearance by Dick Miller (Bucket of Blood, Little Shop of Horrors, Gremlins, The ‘burbs). The director, Howard Cohen, is quite versatile. He has directed projects ranging from movies like Vampire Hookers to tv-shows like The Care Bears Family. He’s directed quite a lot of sword and sorcery films from the 80s (that have awesome movie posters) as well as a little horror-comedy gem that I’ve seen, and somewhat enjoyed, called Saturday the 14th.

I would love it if any of you gave this movie a try. I’m afraid, however, if you are watching it for the first time, it could be quite a horrible experience, especially if you aren’t used to B-movie cinema. It has a 4.5/10 on imdb.com and is ranked the 10,309th “best” movie of all time on flickchart.com. Space Raiders has bad editing, writing, and acting. However, what it also has is fun special effects, 80s nostalgia, laughable dialogue, and interesting characters.

For pure nostalgic reasons, I give Space Raiders a 16/17. In the mid-80s it was ranked in my top 5, so it has a very special place in my heart. I hope someday it can sit up on my shelf with my other favorite movies. Until then, if you’re so inclined like I was, you can watch the full movie on youtube.

Has anyone reading this ever even heard of this film? I would also love to hear if any of you have a similar story or a movie you love just because you loved it so much when you were a kid. Please share!