Name that Movie

Ravenwind

First Post
Well, I tried this question out on the DragonCon SciFi Classics Track Facebook page, and got no results. I tried my best Google-fu on it, too. I might as well try it on the collective knowledge, wit, and wisdom of EN World's off-topic folks. (That's you. Yes, you, at the back, looking around.)

I had a flash of an old movie come to mind; I know I watched it in the 80s, as a kid, with my mom. (I checked to see if she remembered it; she says it sounds familiar, but can't place it or put a title to it. It's only been thirty years, give or take.)

In it, an entire town has been more or less wiped out. Everyone is still sitting exactly where they were when "it" happened--in cars, at television sets, in houses, on porch swings. None of them are moving, and it's quite obvious that it's because of a sound--being played over loudspeakers, on radios, on TVs--and they're probably dead.

A single investigative agent arrives to find out why this town has gone quiet, and starts to walk around, looking at all of them. And, if my memory is correct, he doubles over, grabbing at his ears at one point.

Mind you, this was done in the era of The Andromeda Strain and The Day After and all the dozens of other films that suggested that the government/aliens/Russians were out to get us.

Sound familiar to anyone? I'm at a loss.

[Memory was triggered by reading an article on "The Hum" on LiveScience a week or so ago. I'd really like to know if my mind is making this movie up, or if it's a real thing. So I can tell myself for the rest of this week--dang, it's already Friday--that I'm not insane.]

:)
 

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Fasckira

First Post
I can't post links yet but if you google search "imdb post apocalyptic movies", the top link is a huge list complete with cover and description, might help you!
 

Ravenwind

First Post
Well, it wasn't post-apocalyptic. It was only *one* town that had been subjected to The Sound. But that's an option, if I can figure out the keyword that will unlock IMDB's troves. . . .
 

Cor Azer

First Post
While not recognizing the plot directly, are you sure it was a movie?

It sounds easily like something that could have been a Twilight Zone or similar anthology series episode.
 


Ravenwind

First Post
While not recognizing the plot directly, are you sure it was a movie?

It sounds easily like something that could have been a Twilight Zone or similar anthology series episode.

I honestly don't remember. I was about 7 or 8, and I believe it was on during daylightish hours, else my dad would have been watching with us. Also, since I was 7 or 8, and quite easily scared, I wouldn't have been allowed to watch Twilight Zone. (I'm not sure I've ever actually watched an episode of that, to be honest. . . but my TVQ is very low.)

Damn, that sounds so familiar. I'm thinking '70s though, not '80s.

Could very well have been a 70s movie, on repeat. This was the era of three channels, after all. 4, if you count PBS. 5, if we managed to catch a Sacramento station over the mountains, hehe.
 


Ravenwind

First Post
It sounds like the first episode of season 1 of the Six Million Dollar Man (1974) called Population Zero

*watching* This is TOTALLY IT! Thank you so much! I was going nuts. :D

(Either you have recently watched a boxed set/Netflix binge, or you really know your pop culture!)

Anyone else have nagging recollections you'd like to have id'd forensically?
 


Ravenwind

First Post
Just one of those weird coincidences - I just started re-watching the series from the beginning on Thursday.

ROTFL. That would totally do it. I must have caught that particular episode in re-runs, because I was only born in '74. . . a year after the series started.

Also, oh god, the 70s-style sound cues!
 

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