Without Warning

Saw this one at the drive-in back in '80 and knew as I was watching it that I was watching a drive-in classic. I seem to recall (in my mind anyway)as 1980 being the last great drive-in horror movie year. I had already seen Humanoids From The Deep that summer and Phantasm there the previous year. I recall that the film had a nice updated 1950's sci-fi feel to it (like Humanoids, a little atmosphere, some laughs (frisbees etc.), hammy performances (Landau Palance) and Larry Storch. The ancient grainy Kingston Trio 'Things Go Better With CocaCola' ad at intermission seemed to fit in with it well. I can't recall what was on the bill with It Came Without Warning; but I recall leaving pretty satisfied. I've looked through many video stores to rent or buy it but can't locate it. Nice to see some other folks fondly remember this one and would like to see it on DVD,too.

An alien has landed and it's killing innocent humans! Why, you ask? If you're looking for a feasible explanation like harvesting humans for food or cleaning off this planet for future alien use, forget it. Here the bad guy is just looking for a fun time hunting humans to add to his burgeoning trophy collection. Aiding in his sport are hairy, fanged little parasitic suction-cup Frisbees he flings at victims that drink their blood. The fun and gooey make-up FX are by Greg Cannon.

If the campy, silly plot isn't enough to get you tuned in, keep in mind it costars Jack Palance as a grizzled gas station owner, Cameron Mitchell as a sadistic hunter and an out-of-control Martin Landau as a ranting, raving, insane Vietnam vet! David (NYPD BLUE) Caruso also puts in an early appearance and the alien is played by giant Kevin Peter Hall, who went on the play the monster in the PREDATOR films.

Fun flick!

Score: 6 out of 10

This movie RULEZ. Don't listen to the negativists: they seem to be patently refusing to get into the spirit of things, probably turned off by the low budget, utterly ordinary & banal settings, ludicrous plot twists and unhinged performances. But trust me, this is what I do for a living: Anyone with a taste for outrageous, low budget Amercian made regional horror will find a masterpiece here waiting to be unleashed.

The plot is already summed up well by other admirers: Alien being decides to go hunting in the woods of what looks like rural Oklahoma using an elaboration on those flying pancake monsters from the old "Star Trek" series that would smack onto someone's back and drive them insane. These have revolting little teeth, pincers and claws, glom onto people and suck the ooze out of their brains. The Alien himself is right out of Whitley Strieber -- a 7 foot tall gray who's motives are never explained and who's demise is one of the most satisfying conclusions to a "horror movie" I have seen in months. The Alien's flying pancake killings are gory, inventively staged, unpredictable in occurrence and made to create squeals of disgust from viewers, who if they allow themselves to get caught up in the proceedings will feel like they are 10 years old again & watching Creature Feature matinée when they should be outside doing chores. Even without any exploitational nudity, this movie is a guilty pleasure dream come true.

BUT, the thing that entranced me the most about the film was -- amazingly -- the performances, or rather the job of the actors in personifying the community of individuals depicted, all of whom come across as real people in the same way that "The Simpson's" characters also feel real. And what an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime cast!! It's almost worth it just to see all these people involved in the same movie project: Cameron Mitchell at his grizzled, method acting best. Martin Landau immersed in another role that absorbs him whole like a sponge; Landau's Oscar for ED WOOD was no mistake. Ralph Meeker as a bar patron who's bemused indifference to the proceedings is only matched by film legend Neville Brand, who's response to being informed that he is in the middle of an actual alien invasion is to order up another beer. Darby Hinton, Lynn Theel, a pre-fame David Caruso, former child actor hearthrob Christopher S. Nelson, a wacky Larry Storch and frequent monster movie monster Kevin Peter Hall all contribute wonderfully. And the under-seen Tarah Nutter makes a very believable young heroine shoved into the role of saving her planet whether she wants to or not.

But the movie is stolen lock, stock and smoking barrels, by Jack Palance, God bless the man. Usually cast as a scheming, duplicitous villain, here he plays a completely unhinged local hunter who happens upon the invasion and decides to go Mano-a-Mano with the Alien, weathering no less than three close encounters with the flying pancakes & surviving them all by slicing the things off his body with a knife. Anyone else (except maybe Cameron Mitchell) would look ridiculous while cutting off a goo spewing alien pancake monster from their thigh but somehow Palance manages to find a performance in the routine. And again, here is evidence that his Oscar for CITY SLICKERS was no accident either: He is a national treasure who's distinctively scarred face should be added to Mount Rushmore & his story enshrined in a monument.

How else can you put it? WITHOUT WARNING may be the ultimate Jack Palance movie (aside from maybe SHANE and CAN BE DONE AMIGO) and is so utterly perfect in it's execution that I was howling with glee at finally encountering a movie that pushed nearly every geek nerve button in my skull. I love the low budget effects, offbeat performances, totally unremarkable settings, the unpredictable story arc and the climactic ending which got a round of applause from the house. The movie looks like it was filmed in & around the woods down by the drainage ditch about three blocks away, and is proof that you don't need a huge budget, a moron A-list face like Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt or flashy computer generated effects to make a very satisfying little creature feature. All you need is enough imagination, guile & ingenuity to make such happen yourself, though having a Jack Palance and a Martin Landau handy will certainly help.

And that leads me to my one problem with the film: Landau's crazed Vietnam veteran character. It's not that his actions were implausible, it's just that it would have been more fun if he and Palance's equally grizzled hunter character had "teamed up" and pitted their combined mental instabilities, paranoia and capability for violence against this thing. Someone goofed on the screenplay level and missed an opportunity there and as such my rating for this is diminished from the 9 star affair it really should have been. But make no mistake & listen not to the Negative Nellies from Sector Nine: You won't regret investing your 90 minutes into this movie if low budget horror alien invasion and wacko backwoods regional quirk films are your cup of tea. If they aren't go rent the comparatively vacant WAR OF THE WORLDS with Mr. Cruise, who compared to Mr. Palance does not even come across as being convincing at playing a guy who holds a day job & owns a cat. Give me junk like this any day of the week and use your $105 million dollars to feed the continent of Africa next time, Mr. Spielberg: You have been OWNED.

8/10

I ,too saw this at a So-Cal drive-in, twenty odd years back.We got there after the film started and one of my buddies remarked "Hey ,isn't that Larry Storch hanging on that hook in the shed?"....It truly was "Magic Time"...AIP provided some kooky, grisly ,over acted gems back then. Where fine , but seemingly "washed -up" actors Palance, Landau, Brand ,Mitchell could still be on the "Big Screen" and show their chops.I remember mostly dark foggy woods and scared kids , and Hey ,don't go in the house! This "AIP Movie Era" was sadly coming to a close and "Without Warning" is a great example of this late lamented(?)style of cinema.I can still hear Jack Palance screaming "ALIEN!!!!!"................sigh..

A hunter and his son travel in a RV to hunt in the woods of a park. Out of the blue, they are attacked by flying amoebae-like and die. When a scoutmaster stops at the location, he releases the boy scouts to play at the creek but is murdered by a flying amoeba-like and the boys flee from the spot. Meanwhile, the teenager Tom (David Caruso) invites the teenage girls Beth (Lynn Theel) and Sandy (Tarah Nutter) to go to the lake in the park with his friend Greg (Christopher S. Nelson). He stops his van at the gas station to fuel up and the owner, Joe Taylor (Jack Palance), advises them to not go to the park since is dangerous. However, they go, and Tom and Beth vanish. Greg and Sandy look for them and find their bodies in a shack with the bodies of the hunter, his son and the scoutmaster. They run to the van and drive to a bar, where the clients do not believe in Greg. Only the lunatic veteran of the Vietnam war, Fred 'Sarge' Dobbs (Martin Landau), gives credit to his words. Taylor arrives at the bar, and the mad Sarge believes that Greg and Sandy are alien. Taylor asks them to show where the shack is, since he believes the alien is a hunter and the corpses are his trophies. Now the alien hunter will become Taylor's pray.

"Without Warning" (1980) is a low-budget movie about an alien hunter seven years before "Predator" (1987). Unfortunately, the storyline is weak and not good, and the names of Jack Palance and Marttin Landau do not save the film. However, the premise was original in 1980 and worthwhile watching to satisfy the curiosity of the cinephiles. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Sem Aviso" ("Without Warning")