How weird to see this film now released under the title "The Commies are Coming, the Commies are Coming," as if you could show it at a drunken frat party along with "Reefer Madness." I was twelve years old in my first year of Junior High School when this film was shown to me--twice (in other words, by two different teachers, on two different occasions). Yes, they showed it to us in school as if it were an educational film. What's worse, the teachers were entirely serious about it and none of my fellow students, at least it seemed, even chuckled while it was shown. Did someone mention the Twilight Zone? Not on the screen, but in the school I attended. For the life of me, I still can't imagine (the year was 1970 with the Vietnam War raging) that anyone in their right mind could pass this drivel off as something educational about the Soviet Union. Even worse, it cheapens all of the genuine human rights violations and atrocities of the Stalin years and makes our public schools the sources of idiotically inept lies. I want to go back and sue my school for showing me this type of stuff and pretending that only normal students would find it engaging and believable.
Review of Red Nightmare
