Cosmos mortal

My review was written in February 1987 after watching the film at Cine 42 on Manhattan's 42nd St.

"Alien Predator" (that what it says on screen, despite confusing ads which spell it "Alien Predators") is a truly stupid horror film shot in Spain in 1984 as "The Falling". Initially aimed at release along with two other Helen Sarlui productions by Film Ventures International, pic went on the shelf when that company experienced financial problems and surfaces instead via home video firm turned theatrical distributor TWE. A lawsuit or at least stern warning should be in the offing from 20th Century Fox, since new title not only intones the likes of Fox' "Alien" and "aliens" hits, but also Fox' upcoming Arnold Schwarzenegger-starrer "Predator". TWE also cut corners by virtually duplicating the poster art here from its 1984 flop "Creature".

It would be difficult to come up with a more obnoxious triumvirate than leading players Dennis Christopher, Martin Hewitt and Lynn-Holly Johnson, smirking, flirting and pouting as three squeaky-clean kids on a vacation in Spain in their massive recreational vehicle and dune buggy. Too bad for them that Skylab crashed nearby in 1979 and five years later, Spaniards are being exposed to the result of an experiment conducted on Skylab involving living microbes found on the moon from the Apollo 14 mission. These microbes result in an alien critter (shown only briefly as an imitation of the small, early forms of the monster in "Alien") that inhabits a human host, drives the human crazy and in 48 hours pops out in time-honored chest-burster fashion to begin the process again.

Tedious presentation actually apes Michael Crichton's "The Andromeda Strain" (filmed by Robert Wise in 1970) with a NASA scientist Professor Tracer (Luis Prendes sporting an incongruous Spanish accent) comin gu unbelievably with an instant antidote using himself as guinea pig. As in "Strain", there is a multi-leveled, underground complex.

Deran Sarafian's direction is sluggish, relying on pointless car chases to try and drum up excitement. His script is worse, filled with mushy speeches by the three young leads and a series of idotic references to Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone". Special effects are weak and audiences will be very angry at the nonappearance of the expected, full-grown title monster.

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.

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.

As bad of a movie this is, it can still be viewed as a good (rainy)Saturday afternoon time-waster. There are far worse(halloween:resurrection)movies out there. I would recommend this to anyone who likes campy, b-grade, low-budget type films. A lot better than another piece of crap that I won't mention here(halloween:resurrection).

Very nearly the, if not THE worst film I've ever seen. I got it by mistake; it was supposed to be AvP, but some idiot screwed up. Most bad movies at least partly redeem themselves, if only by achieving "so bad it's good" status. Not this one. The acting is stilted and the plot frequently makes no sense at all. Samantha is a totally insufferable bimbo and Damon and Michael are only marginally better. I don't recall it ever being revealed just what the three of them were doing driving around Spain in the middle of the night anyway, or what is the significance of the (apparently) Indian family whose fate was so terrible we weren't even allowed a peek at their bodies. I can't tell you what the monster really looks like, because I was only allowed tiny glimpses of it, not even enough to try to guess its species, never mind being afraid of it.

Bottom line is, they just shouldn't have bothered.

Bernie