Without Warning

Without Warning gets to the point quickly with a hunter and his son being attacked by bizarre flying saucer bloodsucking aliens. 4 young friends head to a lake to have a little fun and find themselves attacked by the same creatures. By the 30 minute mark, Without Warning shoots its load and runs out of steam as only two of the 4 are left and they run around town trying to get people to believe them.

Without Warning might have worked better as a short film, because the middle part of the film drags with nothing of interest happening as the cast hides out a seedy bar with only Jack Palance and Martin Landau's mugging to keep ones interest.

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

Surprisingly entertaining movie both in a laugh-out-loud bad way and also as a creepy horror/sci-fi movie that kept me entertained even without the cheesyness. Jack Palance is, well, Jack Palance, as hammy and gruff as ever, and Martin Landau does a good job as a Grade-A kook! As people have mentioned previously, I think they got the alien costume from an Outer Limits yard sale and those hairy frisbees it throws are just too amusing - one of the silliest "weapons" in movie history. It works on so many levels!

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")

Without Warning (1980) was an interesting movie. The plot was lifted and remade into a lame movie called Predator. This low budget horror film starred a trio of hard living actors (Jack Palance, Neville Brand and Martin Landau). Times must have been hard on these great character actors, sadly Neville Brand never received the recognition that he deserved as an actor. But LAndau and Palance went on to greater fame years later (the two even co-star in the highly underrated horror film ALONE IN THE DARK).

The movie is about a giant alien who likes to stalk humans. One of his weapons is a bevy of flying blood sucking star fish. After stalking a bunch of daft co-eds (led by David Caruso). A haggard and sun baked hunter (Jack Palance) decides to have some fun and hunt the ultimate prey! What will happen when the Alien tangles with a middle aged dude who doesn't care about anyone or anything? You have to watch WITHOUT WARNING.

Not a great film or a classic by any means. It's a fun party movie that gets better when you watch it with more people. Too bad it's hard to find.