The Alien Factor

The Alien Factor - well, from the opening sequences, you get the distinct feeling that this movie is going to be a shoestring effort, produced over a free weekend by a bunch of people who have never seen a camera before, let alone checked up on the word "act" in the dictionary. Your worst fears are soon realised, although credit must be given for a very early appearance of one of the "monsters." Otherwise, I'm afraid, credit is in pretty short supply. Looking at the film in 2010, the striking thing about the characters are the bad haircuts - the sheriff with the Barry Gibb-style mane is a hoot! The mayor looks as though he's wearing a frozen headscarf, tucked behind his ears. The other striking aspect is the pitifully poor acting - they are clearly all amateurs who must have embarked on film careers during a few hours away from their regular jobs. However, there are some positives - the basic premise of alien zoological specimens, escaping on earth, is quite novel. Same for one of the aliens - the satyr-like creature - which is well presented and out of the ordinary. And, the amateurish direction and script does hold a certain basic charm. As far as bad sci-fi movies go, this one has to be up there with the best!

Director Don Dohler's first opus, THE ALIEN FACTOR, is a wonder of low-low-oh-so-low-budget filmmaking.

When an extraterrestrial craft crashes to Earth, it unleashes a cargo of deadly creatures to prey upon the unsuspecting denizens of a rural town.

Of course, the acting and dialogue aren't Oscar-worthy, or even Oscar Meyer wiener-worthy, but who cares? It's all about the monsters, not the puny humans anyway! Sets? Well, bed sheets for morgue walls and a laundry room serving as the Sheriff's office work just fine! Hair? Who pays attention enough to notice the huge differences -short-long-short- in any character's hair length from one scene to the next?

Nope, this movie is strictly for monster fans, and these hand-made creations are just plain eye-popping! There's a bug man, a giant satyr / go-rilla man, and a burnt lasagna man! There's even a stop-motion lizard beast! This is cheeeze as art!

EXTRA POINTS FOR: #1- The trio of friends who look as though Charles Manson, Roger Daltrey, and Eric Clapton (from his early CREAM days) decided to hang out together! #2- The bar band and their two semi-awake, female fans! #3- The Sheriff (Tom Griffith), who proves that L.Q. Jones could have played McCloud! #4- Aunt Ruth and intergalactic superstar, George Stover!

Watch this immediately!...

What can I say about this movie? PLENTY! I discovered it right where it belongs, on TV at 3 in the morning, and it snapped me to full consciousness. The aliens are unbelievable, the plot is okay, the acting is priceless and the ending even goes for poignancy. The plot? Oh yes there is one. A bunch of strange monsters show up out of nowhere and terrorize a mountain village. A stranger named Zachary discovers they came from a spaceship the crashed in the hills and nominates himself as a one man committee to round up and/or destroy the alien beasts.

Now you have to see these monsters to believe them. One is a humanoid insect. His costume was made by spray painting cardboard with enamel and it was destroyed when it got rained on! A furry monster looks like the sort of outfit Gene Simmons of KISS might wear to a Halloween party right down to the 24 inch platform boots. The last is the best, a stop motion animated something-or-other that is invisible for most of the movie but who finally materializes for the end. They forgot, or could not afford, to matte out the background so the thing is transparent for all its scenes. Is that all? Not nearly! How about live music from a musician called "Lon Talbot" and 2 go-go girls who dance like they are on Valium? How about an alien who wear blue jeans and looks like his skin is made of wicker? Jinkies this movie is an instant classic! I loved it! Don Dohler made other films but this one is the most fun. Can we take Edward D. Wood off that pedastal now and put Don Dohler in his place? His films deserve to be seen and talked about; especially this one.

I'm the "Dan White" in the credits as "Vance". It was a walk-on, one-line, bit part. Me and "Ted" found one of the bodies and drove it up to "Doc Ruth's" place. The two-tone blue car was mine. Doc Ruth's place was the farmhouse on a horse farm where my sister then boarded her horses. It was a blast to help make the film. I wish it had not turned out as campy as it did. It was not meant to. But it did make it onto Movie Macabre (Elvira's show) and I did get a big smile from her when I met her at an Auto Show in DC and asked if she remembered the film. She said that she did.

This Movie is just Fun. Back in the mid 70's movies like these were being made every day, by people with small budgets and little know actors. But they were the movies you would talk to your buddies about long after the movie has gone the way of the Drive-ins.I was too young to see Alien Factor when it was at the Drive-in. I did see on a late night fright show on NBC. I was about 15 then and found it be the best laugh you could get with out big name stars. I bought the DVD for a few bucks in a bargain store. I just watched it and Man! It brings back the memories. Plan 9 from outer space meets Gumby and Pokey! It's fun. It's low tech.it's got bad acting. But the monster costumes look great for mid 70's. I'm surprised Don Dohler didn't get as far as John Carpenter did. You might say some thing like "John Carpenter did some great work!" Yes thats true. But just look at one of his first movies "Dark Star" You can't find gems like these being made today. My friends and I call movies like these "Pure Cheese" This is the best of pure cheese around. You can find cheesy movies. But it takes the best and I mean the best to make it into My list of Top 10 Pure Cheese. I'll watch this movie for years to come. I would say on the Pure Cheese list I would put it at 3 between Laser Blast & Dark Star. Every now and then you have to sit back and watch a low tech/low budget movie. Just a good old fun Si-Fi that doesn't weigh you down with plot or sub plot. I hold Pure Cheese movies in the highest regard.The Alien Factor is one movie to be held high. So Thanks to Don Dohler for good fun!