bnwfilmbuff Made-for-TV apocalyptic film following a family that while vacationing in the California mountains their friend that is with them suddenly gets ill, dies, and turns to powder. The remainder of the film follows their struggle to get back home to Malibu where Jay W. MacIntosh, in the role of the mother/wife, has returned. Along the way father Peter Graves queries son Michael James-Wixted, a physics student, to try to determine what has exterminated most of the population and why they haven't been affected. Nothing too out-of the-ordinary happens in this. Kathleen Quinlan in the role of the daughter does some occasional narration which doesn't add much. One interesting aspect is that dogs have become particularly menacing. There is an obvious Biblical theme to this movie that never gets explored and might have made this a bit more interesting. Despite being cliché it's pretty well done for a made-for-TV.

Uriah43 Four people have gone camping and while three members of a family are inside a cave looking around, a bright light appears outside followed by an earthquake. The other person, "Jim Clancy" (Noble Willingham) just happened to be outside when it happened and not long afterward he gets sick and dies. Totally on their own, the father, "Steven Anders" (Peter Graves) decides to take his teenage son, "David" (George O'Hanlan Jr.) and his daughter, "Deborah" (Kathleen Quinlan) back to Malibu in search of their mother who left the campsite earlier in the day headed for home. On the way back they find that what happened to them wasn't an isolated incident as entire towns are totally deserted and empty. Everybody is gone. Anyway, rather than answer the question of "what happened to everybody" I will leave it to the viewer to see for themselves. I will say however, that even after watching the film in its entirety I still thought there were one or two unanswered questions. Additionally, one particular drawback was the fact that it was narrated in the past tense by one of the family members, which took some of the mystery out of it in my opinion. But even so the film managed to maintain suspense for the most part. I especially liked Peter Graves' calm and collected demeanor throughout the movie as it added a solid character to the film. In short, for a low-budget made-for-television movie this one wasn't too bad and I give it an average rating.

noone9999999999 I am amazed at the number of people who were disturbed by this movie at a young age. I am one of them, but I've always contributed the feeling of dread and despair this movie left me with to my tendency to worry about everything. I'm glad I'm not alone! I saw the movie at age 11 the first time and it stayed with me in a bad way for a very long time. I ran across the title channel surfing today and thought 'OMG, it's THAT movie!' So, of course I had to watch it. I was curious to see if it would have the same affect on me at 46. It truly does get to you, but I did not experience the fear of doom that I felt at 11! I would recommend it to older viewers, but not to the impressionable. I gave it a 10 for sheer impact. The director obviously did something right.

d-b-casey My parents had gone out and I was home alone when I watched this on TV many years ago, lol! Yes, it terrified me as I was only 8 or 9 then. I'm 41 now and would love to see it again, this time without the pillow, blankets, and dog in front of my face! It starts out with a camping trip, one like I have taken so many times with my own family, so true to life. When it's over you have to wonder if something like this could really happen, has it already happened? You have to go look out the window to make sure the world it still the same as when you last saw it. I have only seen the movie once, but it has stayed with me all these years. I think you can get it on DVD now, but if not, find an old VCR & watch it!