Extraterrestrial

As I look through the IMDb scores for Extraterrestrial, I have a theory that the lower ones are coming from children of the 90's and aughts - those who have grown up to expect a particular bleak atmosphere from alien abduction movies such as that set by efforts like 'Dark Skies' or 'The Fourth Kind'.

I suspect the reviews giving it the higher scores are from kids who grew up in (or are just fans of) the older school 'adventure' horrors that became popular in the late 80's. Movies like The Lost Boys, Waxwork, Evil Dead 2, Night of the Creeps, Return of the Living Dead 2, Creepozoids, The Blob remake etc. - you know the ilk, movies whose subject matters varied wildly yet they always had the same sort of vibe - a fast-paced, popcorn-entertainment 'adventure' feeling.

That, I feel, is what the Vicious Brothers were purposefully going for in Extraterrestrial. Although they mixed in a generous dollop of the 90's cabin in the woods type characters and the 2000's abduction movie clichés, it's the late 80's vibe that rings clear throughout. If Extraterrestrial had been made 25-30 years ago, it would likely have starred the Two Corey's, or perhaps Zach Galligan and Brinke Stephens. The cop would have been Tom Atkins or Lance Henriksen; and the crazy Michael Ironside character would have been Dick Miller... or perhaps Michael Ironside, come to think of it.

Bottom line is, Extraterrestrial clearly has a primary intent of being fun rather than scary. There's a few creepy moments - most memorably the skeletal body of a dead alien vanishing into the murky waters of a swimming pool - and a few more serious turns towards the end, but overall, it's more of an adventure/survival flick than a psychological/terror flick. If we still had drive-ins, it would be playing in them right now to crowds of frisky teens instead of on Netflix.

Check your expectations before you turn it on. You're not going to get scared, or grossed out, or made to think too hard, or put on the edge of your seat with tension... but if willing, you are going to have a lot of fun. 7/10.

Sheriff Murphy (Gil Bellows) of Echo Lake investigates the mysterious disappearance of Nancy McPherson from a seeming alien abduction as well as other strange occurrences. April (Brittany Allen) photographs the family cabin for her mother which is being sold. Her boyfriend Kyle (Freddie Stroma) joins her along with annoying friend Seth (Jesse Moss), Melanie (Melanie Papalia), and Lex (Anja Savcic). Melanie and April stumble upon their neighbor Travis (Michael Ironside)'s marijuana grow operation. Travis is a vet conspiracy nut. An alien spacecraft crashes in the woods.

This movie seems stuck in B-movie territory. It's definitely set up as such and never gets beyond that. The young actors are not that charismatic. Bellows and Ironside are the two named actors but they are mostly support. Ironside goes a little wacky but nothing is actually funny. The script is lacking. There are some functional special effects which border on respectable. However, there is something missing from the directions and camera work. This is not scary nor particularly thrilling. None of it is that good but it's not the worst thing in the world.

I went into this open minded and willing it to be a good movie. I heard it was a horror / science fiction film, and that the first 30 minutes are worth enduring. I expected it might not get off to a good start and would then find its groove.

It stayed awful.

The main characters are so clichéd and stereotypical, its actually nauseating. A group of guy / girl, good looking party kids head to a cabin in the woods (I know right?) to meet their all to obvious ending. You don't feel anything for these characters, they lack any depth. After ten minutes I looked forward to the aliens killing them off. Unfortunately the abductors took far to long to put the viewer and the said cast out of their misery. Its a cheap Hollywood process to typecast like this. It would have been so much more interesting if it had been a family, or a group of bird watchers, anything different. Why do they always have to go for the Hollywood molded pretty kids?

It does not get any better after that. I don't want to give out any spoilers, but the only glimmer of redemption is the last 30 minutes.

Unless you really have nothing else to do and your watching on DVR, I recommend you skip until the end and just watch the last 30 minutes. You might be led to believe it may have been a decent film up until that point, but trust me, its far from what you might expect.

I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. Most alien films just show us crap, and deliver nothing. Nonetheless "Extraterrestrial" delivers and shows in a pleasing way.

First off the story of this flick. The story was straight forward. It cut right down to the point from start, to finish. In this case, the story was solid, tying together with the film, piecing together one, by one. The story, also, it quite clichéd; a pro, and con situation. A group of friends venture off into a cabin in the woods, and hell breaks loose, we've all seen it before, over, and over. But in the sense of this film, the clichéd mash actually follows out to the point of which we audience don't care anymore, or in this case, it follows through as entertaining. Which of course is nice. In conclusion, the story is a mash of clichés, at the same time it's solid, delivering a solid premise.

Next, the acting of the film, and how the characters execute. Once again, the film succeeds in the aspect of being entertaining as the characters, as well as the story plot are flawed, and clichéd. Here, you have your typical selection of horror movie characters that you've seen millions of times before. With that being said, there's not that much to explain. The acting of said characters was fine in my opinion. I felt some scenes were over acted at parts of the film. I also have to say, some of the characters lines were cheesy, and at points simply unnecessary. But other then that, the acting was solid, and simple for they're heavily clichéd character choices.

Finally the studio work of the movie; camera work, lighting, etc. I want to start out with the lighting. I really liked it. The movie decided to spice it up with various amounts of bright colors. Red's, greens, name it, the movie showed it. It was unique, and it was a pleasing surprise in terms of colors, and lights. Next, the cinematography. It was what it was. The movie did have some enjoyable shots, with some beautiful choices of select shots, and such. At the same time, there were some flawed shots, of which the camera had a crappy location, showing us little of what's going on. But over all solid. Finally, the sound / sound effects. I loved them, there were some awesomely legit choices of sound that were displayed. Instead of clichéd noises / sound effects heard over and over before; now we get actual noises unheard before. In conclusion, as well as the others, this element of the film works.

The film was a nice take on the Alien sub-genre of horror, giving us something to look forward to, from elements that build up the film, to visual effects that please surprisingly. For a highly clichéd story, it was carried out smoothly, and over all ended up as a pretty freaking awesome film. I recommend this to horror fans looking for a good time!

The problem with this film, like so many other straight to digital release movies, is the budget. Reading the synopsis, one couldn't possibly expect to see a groundbreaking film. I mean, it's the hundred millionth alien film released in the past couple decades. Yet the writers, for some reason, thought they were up to the challenge. It is apparent that the filmmakers were relying on their ability to take a genre that has been done to death and make it their own, utilizing vivid, amped up action sequences to showcase their aliens. The problem is that there was obviously no money for that. In the age of the billion dollar Hollywood blockbuster, any sci-fi film that relies solely on visuals and action sequences must have the necessary dollars to make it look good. There were so many moments that were desperately trying to send a chill down the spine of the viewer, but fell short solely because of it's inability to look like more than a SyFy network movie.

But something tells me these guys, like most Hollywood filmmakers, simply did not care. The goal is always the same. Get the money, get it done, get it out. Forget the rest. If you're looking to continue the cycle of junk film, made with speedy preparation, while lacking any and all quality, then perhaps this movie is for you. Bon Appetit.