By Todd Garbarini
Film writer, producer and director
Alessandro Michael de Gaetano, best known for the creepy 1977 horror film Haunted,
passed away on Sunday evening, June 11, 2023, in Arizona at the age of 85 while
surrounded by his family.
Bursting on to the scene with UFO
Target Earth in 1974, with a style clearly inspired
by Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), it’s a documentary
format-film wherein interviewees discuss their “experiences” with UFO’s. An early
entry in the history of computer-generated imagery (CGI) following Michael
Crichton’s Westworld the year before, UFO Target Earth showcases
the first time that CGI, albeit 8-bit, was used to create an alien for a motion
picture, an accomplishment that Mr. de Gaetano was very proud of. The film also
makes expert use of Krzysztof Penderecki’s “De Natura Sonoris No. 2” years before
Stanley Kubrick employed it in The Shining (1980). UFO Target Earth
is a nifty bit of Seventies nostalgia complete with rotary phones, telecommunications
mechanical relay-switching equipment, AMPEX reel-to-reel recorders, and mainframe
computers, all of which are arguably unidentifiable objects to members of
Generation Z.
His second film was Haunted,
which starred Virginia Mayo and Aldo Ray. It concerned the descendants of a
woman’s accusers of her being a witch meeting a violent end after rumors abounded
of her returning as an evil spirit. The comedy Scoring, featuring
Laurene Landon about a female basketball team against a men’s team, was released
in 1979. 1989’s Bloodbath in Psycho Town, 1995’s Project: Metalbeast,
and 1996’s Butch Camp with Judy Tenuta followed.
At the time of his death, Mr. de
Gaetano was developing a script for actress Vanessa Redgrave to star in called Red
Gold.
CinemaRetro.com would like to extend to
Mr. de Gaetano’s family our condolences upon his passing.