A haunted house is a haunted house, even if it’s a spaceship floatin’ out there on the far edges of the cosmos. It’s an old story. REALLY OLD. Bela Lugosi was in a movie like this (I’m thinking The Black Cat from 1934). That’s how old it is. Some travelers who’ve gone far out happen upon signs of life in the middle of nowhere. It’s a big home occupied by an eccentric, yet hospitable, shut-in who eventually turns out to be a madman with little regard for human life. We’ve seen it before, but this time it’s a sci-fi adventure made in a post-Star Wars 1979 with lasers and robots and spaceships and vast backgrounds full of possibilities. It’s one of the last great gasps of analog world-building in film. Gorgeous matte paintings. Careful wire concealment. Painstaking in-camera illusions. All of the dead arts are furiously alive here. Meanwhile, the story walks a thin line between family-friendly action and horror. Director Gary Nelson, one busy beaver with a resume full of pure vanilla television credits and kiddie flicks, steers the ship neatly between two worlds. All of this weirdness adds up to a lovely film that leads to a perfect, dream-like conclusion. The luscious John Barry score is a major bonus.