The Alien Within

THE ALIEN WITHIN is another of Exec. Producer Roger Corman's quick, low-budget projects. It's an underwater adventure that's basically THE THING meets LEVIATHAN with ALIEN overtones.

This kitchen sink production even has a cyborg that's a lot like STAR TREK's Data, as well as the Doctor from BABYLON 5 as... a doctor! There's also the obligatory "tough chick" and the annoying "hippie dude" who constantly has a smoldering joint in his hand! Roddy McDowall, Don Stroud, and Melanie Shatner must all have wondered why they agreed to this.

It's absolutely preposterous, but also fun and -blessedly- short.

BEST SCENE: Roddy McDowall's character spinning wildly, screaming through a rubber monster in his mouth!...

Lots of fun in this underwater thriller as a team of scientists and miners battle a mind-controlling alien parasite that takes over their bodies. The thrills and the laughs never quit in this nifty micro-budget flick, that harkens back to the best of Roger Corman's drive-in classics from the 1960's. Clever writing and direction that overcome the low budget make this one a sure-fire bet for a fun evening in front of the TV.

In the year 20XX, the surface of the earth is exhausted. Now we must exploit the undersea resources. In the process of mining, an alien vessel has been found. And what do vessels hold? Yep, you have just guessed the whole movie.

Other movies and books of mind controlling aliens abound. Close your eyes. You are getting sleepy. You will bypass this sub-par movie.

Aka "The Alien Within" (1995) TV movie was cheap in production and acting. Even if you know the story, sometimes the execution can be fun; this one is not. If you must watch this keep your finger on the fast forward button as you will not miss anything.

If you have never heard of John Carpenter then you might enjoy this. This is a near shameless, word for word ripoff of his 1982 remake of The Thing. Those of you who have seen the 1950 version of this movie might consider yourselves purists, but Carpenter remains most true to the original story by John w Cambell Jr, "Who Goes There"(1938).

While John Carpenter has admittedly put out a lot of crap, "The Thing" remains one of my top 10 horror movies and still stands the test of time. Enjoy this remake for it's schlock, but appreciate the truest version of this story. Sleep should come hard to those that watch "The Thing" alone.

The Alien Within (1995)

* (out of 4)

Executive producer Roger Corman was behind this "film" taking place in the year 2020 after Earth's resources have been used up. We're told corporations went below the sea to try and find new resources and this is when we meet our mining crew and before long they pick up some sort of parasite from a nearby Russian crew. THE ALIEN WITHIN, also known as UNKNOWN ORIGIN, is a pretty poor rip-off of THE THING and in fact it's so close to the John Carpenter film that I'm really shocked Universal didn't go after them. I mean, we've always had rip-offs of popular films but not many of them rip this closely to the original source. Perhaps the studio just didn't care because they figured no one would remember the film after it originally played because it was simply so poor. There's really not too much going on here and at just 75-minutes it's really amazing to see how boring it is in that time. If you've seen THE THING then you're not going to be shocked by anything that happens here and it's a pretty direct copy of that film, although there's no character development, suspense or anything like that. Each scene just seems rushed, the special effects are laughable but they do add some camp and you can tell that the actors are just sleepwalking for their paychecks. Roddy McDowell plays the main scientist and we even have William Shatner's daughter Melanie playing a supporting role. THE ALIEN WITHIN is sci-fi at its very worst and unlike most of these Corman films, this one here features no exploitation, no nudity and it really doesn't have anything in it to make it worth viewing.