Alien Predator

Three American students Damon, Michael and Samantha are on vacation in their RV in Spain. But it's far from relaxing, when everyone they encounter in the sleepy village seems to be acting weird and they come across a NASA scientist who claims the town has been infected by aliens, and soon they would follow the same fate. The only cure is found in a secret underground storage depot, and time is running out for them.

The idea was there, however the money wasn't and the execution could use a finer tune up. Writer / Director Deran Sarafian's film "The Falling" AKA "Alien Predator" seems to cop a real shellacking, however I didn't mind it. I don't think it was the pits, but there's no way this trash is good either. Due to its limited scope, everything looks kind of bare, but I thought it was well conceived to keep it taut, claustrophobic and very foreboding. The Spanish countryside perfectly presented an eerie and isolated air. Everything seems to be building on mood and atmosphere, maybe not on purpose but the stark photography, dim lighting and the infectiously dreary score lend to it largely. However there's no denying how inane and silly this outing eventually turns out to be, especially after some effective build-ups (like the opening to the film). The fragmented story is a complete mess and truly baffling. It has many sub-plots to feed off, but very little sees daylight. Yeah, certain things had me going "What on earth?" quite a bit. Sometimes it would seem to stall too much that you end up wishing a little more did happen, and the haggard script can get rather overbearing. This goes for the token romance mush. What's really unconvincing has got to be the rubber beasties (at first you think it might be a virus/parasite) that finally make it in towards the end, but before that lousy letdown the potent gore FX leading up to it comes off really well with its grisly splatter. Sarafin's direction is very downbeat, with some minor flourishes of imagination and dumb jolts. The conclusion was a neat touch. Dennis Christopher, Martin Hewitt and the perky Lynn-Holly Johnson were surprisingly enjoyable, if quite overstated with the flimsy characters. Luis Prendes is unintentionally laughable due to how seriously deadpan he goes about his NASA scientist. A real no brain, low budget helping… oh yeah. The final product could've been far worse though. Or am I getting soft?

BREAKING AWAY and DON'T CRY IT'S ONLY THUNDER showed what a great actor Christopher is. So why has he only been given junk like this in the past few years? It's a worthless film in every regard, and wastes Christopher's talents. The only good think about it is that this movie finally broke FVI Films - makers of similarly crappy films.

Two guys and a girl are on vacation in Spain. On their way to Madrid, they run across the small town of Duarte, where a Skylab fell four years prior. Unfortunately, microbes from the station didn't burn up upon re-entry as originally assumed. The townspeople are being infected by the alien microbes, turning into deranged, beer throwing hosts for alien predators.

Fun film is a bit slower going than you'd expect, spending time on the characters' love triangle. Highlights? We briefly meet a family including a guy who sounds like a Three Stooges reject. There's a groovy scene with a masked wacko and a big truck that tends to teleport. There's also a smartass bearded guy who's awesome and isn't in the film nearly as long as he should be. You don't see much of the creatures themselves, but when they appear, the effects are good. Think the chestburster from Alien with spider legs.

The plot is a bit far-fetched, especially finding the three main characters were never infected despite having been in close contact with some many others that were, and badly dated. The characters are interesting but the actors were unseasoned and the performances were not worthy of Oscar contention. Some of the effects, both on-screen and on the soundtrack, were sometimes interesting and some of the scenes were very original, especially the opening scene involving the dogs. There was a lot of lag time in my opinion. In places, the movie could have moved on a little faster, but in others it was worthy of attention. I watched this movie as my attention was focused on a bit of paperwork, but at times, I was compelled to fix my eyes on the screen. It is not one I would suggest buying on DVD or even renting from Netflix, but it was showing on the MGMHD channel. If you run across it on your TV schedule and find there is nothing else to watch, you might find a bit of enjoyment in watching this film, but if CashCab is playing on the Discovery Channel, you should watch it instead. I'd put this one on the level with most of the movies you find premiering on the SciFi Channel.

I was able to sit through the entire film, something I couldn't do for other B films. There were so many bad aspects of this film, like the overacting and the plot. The pros were some location shots of Spain, mid 1980's fashion and a great gas explosion so good they used it twice. As this was my first and last viewing of "Alien Predator" or "The Falling", I can say, I was hoping for a twisted ending. Like, the alien only hunts and kills bad actors paving the way for a new generation of super actors in B films- No Spoilers. Dennis Christopher as Damon was hyper irritating. Lynn-Holly Johnson's Samantha is beautiful, but reminded me of an anime come to life and Martin Hewitt's character, Michael, could have read his part from a script throughout this film, without affecting the viewing at all. Seriously, Hewitt could have had a script in each scene, reading his lines and if anything, it would have improved the movie. This film should be shown at all acting, directing and editing schools so that maybe, we'll get better B movies in the future.