Review of The Flame Barrier

The search for a crashed satellite in the jungles of MesoAmerica finds instead a gelatinous existential threat from beyond "The Flame Barrier". The film opens with a nonsensical prologue that carefully explains how a rocket is going to attempt to penetrate the mysterious (and titular) flame barrier, which surrounds our planet at an altitude of 200 miles. The flame barrier is sci-fi pseudoscience at its worst but fortunately has nothing to do with the story and is never again mentioned. The film is a fusion of sound-set jungle adventure (the first ¾) and space monster in a cave sthick (1/4) and is surprisingly entertaining (consider its leaden pace, remarkably silly-looking monster and nearly incoherent plot). Considering the material they had to work with, the three leads (Arthur Franz, Kathleen Crowley, Robert Brown) are pretty good and there are some good lines "Excuse the cockroaches. Fortunately they don't bite...everything else does". As cheapie sci-fi horrors go, the pointlessly entitled "The Flame Barrier" is watchable and slightly memorable (especially the head sticking out of the blob). Crowley and Brown deserve credit for their casual and competent handling of the chimpanzee.