Starring Kim Milford, Cheryl Smith and Gianni Russo, featuring Keenan Wynn and Roddy McDowall, and marking the screen debut of Eddie Deezen, the plot follows an unhappy teenage loner who discovers an alien laser cannon and goes on a murderous rampage, seeking revenge against those who he feels have wronged him.

Laserblast has received overwhelmingly negative reviews and consistently ranks among the Bottom 100 list of films on the Internet Movie Database.

Billy is soon harassed by a bully named Chuck Boran and his nerdy friend Froggy as well as by two police deputies who give him a speeding ticket.

While he is sleeping, Kathy discovers his alien pendant and puts it on Billy's chest, which turns his skin green and deforms his face.

Elements of the story were inspired by science fiction films, such as Star Wars (1977),[4][5] and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), while the characteristics of protagonist Billy Duncan – a disenchanted middle-class teen from a suburban setting – mirror those of James Dean's character in Rebel Without a Cause (1955).

"[5] Billy is ignored and abandoned by his mother early in the film, demonstrating the dangers that can result from uncaring parents, one of the major themes of the script.

John Kenneth Muir raised several of these issues in his book, Horror Films of the 1970s: "How does Kathy's dad know Craig, the government agent?

[2] Janet Maslin, film critic with The New York Times, pointed out that originally, when Billy wakes up immediately after the aliens kill the man with the laser cannon, it appears that the incident was a dream.

[17] Keenan Wynn, a long-time character actor and a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract player during the 1940s, portrayed Colonel Farley, who provides comic relief as Kathy's crazed, paranoid, delusional grandfather and a former military man.

[20] Neill introduced Band to David W. Allen, the film animator who created the stop motion alien creatures in Laserblast.

Although eager to work on The Primevals, Allen said he was not yet "sufficiently mature professionally" to undertake a project of that size, and he felt Laserblast was "something that was more manageable".

[18] Greg Jein, the special effects model-maker who also worked on The Crater Lake Monster, designed and built the spacecraft featured in Laserblast.

If Steven Spielberg advanced the likelihood of intelligent extra-terrestrial life in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, then Charles Band sets it back 20 years with his production of Laserblast.

Laserblast has received largely negative reviews, and consistently ranks among the Bottom 100 list of films on the Internet Movie Database.

In the review, Laserblast was described as "an incomprehensible blending" of popular recent films like Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with a script that was "so disordered we could not be certain that the reels were being run in proper sequence".

[10] The Los Angeles Times critic Linda Gross said that the script lacked "credibility, psychological motivation and narrative cohesiveness", although she praised Terry Bowen's cinematography, saying it "effectively captures the ambience of desert small-town life.

[44] Literary critic John Kenneth Muir thought that the script had many plot holes which left many unanswered questions, and that there was "little effort to forge a coherent story out of the mix".

[45] In The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Movies, Phil Hardy describes it as "a wholly unimaginative film", adding, "Even the non-stop series of exploding cars becomes monotonous in the hands of director Rae.

"[8] The Time Out Film Guide described Laserblast as a rip-off of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and said that Billy's reign of destruction seemed random and senseless, rather than driven by plot or characterization.

'"[46] The Globe and Mail writer Robert Martin called the script inept, said that Steve Neill's make-up effects were "frightful rather than frightening", and said that Cheryl Smith could "barely talk, let alone act".

[6] Richard Meyers, a novelist who also wrote about science-fiction films, described Laserblast as "basically repetitive and predictable", but included some redemptive qualities in the animation of Dave Allen and the makeup effects of Steve Neill.

[26] In their book DVD & Video Guide, Mick Martin and Marsha Porter called it a "dreadful low-budget film with some excellent special effects by David Allen".

Doug Pratt, a DVD reviewer and Rolling Stone contributor, said the visual presentation was better than most films from its time, with fresh colors and only a few speckles, as well as a decent sound transfer.

[34] Joe Sikoryak of Film Score Monthly gave the soundtrack one-and-a-half stars out of five, claiming that about one-third of the album sounded like "generic rock 'n' roll cues for a production unable to afford licensing existing songs".

[59] Band originally planned to produce a sequel called Laserblast II, with production work to begin in August 1986 and a theatrical release expected to follow shortly thereafter.

"[62] When plans for the sequel were announced, Atlanta-based film critic Scott Journal wrote "I am one of the few people in the world who saw the original and, believe me, it did not merit a followup.

[21] A pathetic androgynous blond kid from the California desert finds a ray-gun left by fat-assed aliens in the sagebrush, is harassed by strangely southern, dope-smoking cops, develops a large hole in his chest, kills Roddy McDowall, and eventually dies himself.

It marked the final original episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 on that network,[17][65] before the series moved to the Sci-Fi Channel for its eighth season.

[45] Mary Jo Pehl, an actress and writer with the show, felt that Laserblast was a particularly bad film: "The lead guy, Kim Somebody, is another sterling example of how filmmaking is not a meritocracy.

whenever Deputy Ungar appeared on screen due to actor Dennis Burkley's resemblance to country singer Hank Williams Jr.[69] Dan Cziraky of Cinefantastique wrote, "If you've never seen Laserblast, this is perfect MST3K viewing!