The Alpha Incident

A virus from space is released accidentally while in transit on a train. It results in a group of people in a remote train depot being subject to quarantine and left isolated, while the scientists try to work on a cure.

The Alpha Incident is a paranoid sci-fi film in the same vein as The Andromeda Strain, with elements of George A Romero's Night of the Living Dead and The Crazies thrown in for good measure. It isn't a patch on either of those films although it's fairly decent, all things considered. It's admittedly quite badly paced, however, with a little too much talk to pad things out. Still, the set-up is good enough and the overall cynical 70's sci-fi vibe works for me. There's only one occasion when we see the effects of the virus on a human and it's actually surprisingly decent – they could really have done with using this a little more. The effect is basically the brain expanding and breaking out of the cranium of the unfortunate victim. This is the horrible death that the infected people are trying to avoid. For some reason this nasty scenario only kicks in when the victims fall asleep, so for most of the film the story seems to be about people trying to stay awake – a symptom that I'm sure some viewers of this movie will experience too funnily enough.

But, for me, this isn't a bad effort overall. It's definitely one of director Bill Rebane's best. He operated in the Z-Grade side of the cinematic spectrum for sure but his films have an honest earnestness that is easy to get behind. And this is a relatively thoughtful narrative for Bill's standards. However, its cheap limitations are never truly averted, and it doesn't develop the space virus thread of the story as well as you hope and the film ends up being essentially about people in a room popping amphetamines. But, you know what, I kind of like this one anyway.

This very slight "thriller" has flashes of inspiration visually, but is weighed down by less than stellar acting and a wretched script. The story concerns an organism recovered from a space probe that-get this- is being transported by train guarded by one man. The crate containing the organism is tampered with and before you know it, complications ensue. There's very little action and long stretches of corny dialog delivered in a leaden manner. I 'm not sure if the director intended this film to be a character study or a thriller, but either way, The Alpha Incident fails miserably. Saved from a no star rating by interesting photography and occasionally effective editing.

The Alpha Incident involves a microorganism from Mars escaping due to the stupidity and carelessness of a railroad baggage handler. Not to mention the imbecility of NASA scientists sending the thing by regular express mail so as to not cause any attention.

So now with the quick thinking that characterizes science fiction movies like these the organism is quarantined at a remote rail station and five people are kept in isolation while scientists work to find a cure, for what they're not sure, but we soon see.

The only cast name I'm sure you might remember is Ralph Meeker, the rest are total unknowns, at least to me they are. The film is an interesting idea, but one more suited to a television episode of The Outer Limits.

If ever there was a movie worthy of criticism, the Alpha Incident is it. Borrowing heavily from Night of the Living Dead, this film is a complete bust. The story keeps the viewer somewhat interested, and the characters aren't that terrible, but nothing could save this film from its blatant, rip-off ending.

Here's the scoop. A couple of average white collar types come into contact with an unknown substance (I gather that's the sci-fi part IMDB makes mention to, because other wise this movie is pure drama) and must remain cooped up in a train station, without sleep in order to survive. Each character is unique and different, but unfortunately, not very interesting. You have your smart mouth, your damsel in distress, your play-it-cool man, the nervous/shy guy, and of course, the complete moron. That may be the only saving grace to this film, the complete moron named `Hank.' Hank is a really funny character and is the only one who kept my attention, only because he's so innocent and dumb. Notables? The film has one, count it, one scene of true gore, but at least it's a goodie.

I recommend leaving this one on the shelf if you're looking for a sci-fi film, because this really isn't a science fiction piece. Sure the cover art on the box might make you think it is, but looks can be deceiving. However, I still give this one a 4 out of 10 for it's classic portrayal of characters. The way the actors talk and move within their parts is perfect. The smart mouth always laughing, the damsel always worried; it's something out of a comic book gone wrong. Anyway, unless you want to see what an impact Night of the Living Dead truly had, don't bother with this.

Granted, when I sat down in 2021 to watch the 1978 sci-fi horror movie "The Alpha Incident" for the very first time, I wasn't really harboring much of any expectations, especially since the movie had managed to land a rather low rating here on IMDb.

Still, I had the chance to sit down to watch it, and with it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I found the time to do so. Though I might as well have just skipped on this one. Yeah, "The Alpha Incident" was by no means a grand cinematic experience, much less of an entertaining movie.

The storyline told in "The Alpha Incident", as written by Ingrid Neumayer and directed by Bill Rebane, wasn't really interesting. Nothing much of any worth took place throughout the mundane course of this movie, which made for a dull and uneventful viewing. And that ultimately reflected poorly on the overall viewing experience as the movie was lacking greatly in entertainment value.

There was a whole lot of sitting around and blaming each other amongst the characters in the storyline. And does that make for good entertainment? Perhaps to some, I suppose. But not to me.

The acting in the movie was fair enough, though I can't really claim to have witnessed anything extraordinary or outstanding as the movie trotted along.

My rating of "The Alpha Incident" lands on a generous three out of ten stars. This movie was a swing and a miss, not much of any real sci-fi over the storyline, and even less so in the horror department. Sure, I am not much of a sci-fi fan, but "The Alpha Incident" was a fairly weak addition to the sci-fi genre.