Something Is Out There

Detectives Jack Breslin (Joe Cortese) and Frank Dileo (George Dzundza) are investigating a serial-killer, who slaughters his victims and removes their internal organs. While in the crime scene, Jack notices the constant presence of a beautiful young woman, Ta'Ra (Maryam d'Abo). He finds her and is convinced that she is a doctor from a prison in the outer space. She explains that the murderer is a powerful alien, who is able to change his appearance, that escaped from prison, and she is chasing him. They join forces trying to eliminate the menace to planet Earth. "Something Is Out There" is a good sci-fi B-movie, using a similar storyline of "The Hidden" (1987). The story mixes crime, horror, sci-fi and action, and has in the beauty of the British Maryam d'Abo one of its greatest attraction. There are some good lines, and the movie is a good entertainment. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Criatura Infernal" ("Infernal Creature")

This 3-hour-long made-for-TV movie is actually a thoroughly entertaining sci-fi/horror hybrid. Two cops are on the trail of a ghastly urban serial killer which turns out to be a villainous alien xenomorph creature. A beautiful human female alien, also stuck on earth, is out to hunt it down. Joseph Cortese is the capable lead and Maryam d'Abo pulls her (sexy) weight alongside him. The pacing of the story is a bit off-balanced at times, but the ride remains consequently entertaining. Along the lines of Jack Sholder's "The Hidden" (1987), though a bit more largely scaled, with some great special effects and vintage creature designs by Rick Baker.

Just re-watched this last night; it's still kind of fun! you can see the time in everything from the sFX to the wardrobe and make-up choices, but it still stand the test of time. Nice to wonder what they could have done with "modern" FX and a decent budget...

Its a shame this piece of 80's goodness went virtually unnoticed. You had a very sexy alien, a hard jawed and jaded cop, and a shapeshifting alien all brought together to do battle in Los Angeles. Sure, other movies have had similar plotlines but what set Something is Out There apart from the overall premise, was that the characters had weight to match their looks and agenda. Its not enough that the jaded cop is uninterested of all the grisly murders going on in LA, it turns out that they are caused by one alien trying to assimilate into a lifeform suitable for earth, but he doesn't believe in aliens. Until, he meets Ta'ra who is the sole survivor of her crew, duty bound to stop the alien unwitingly released on Earth. And before that happend she was a simple med tech on board her prison ship, interested in doing her job well, the occasional romantic interlude with a male crew member and catching up on the captured broadcast of "Crime Story". Suddenly their lives intertwine into a life or death battle with the unstoppable. It did well enough to become a series and most of the episodes were really decent, but the demographics just weren't there and most viewers probably were turned off that the hunt to stop the orignal alien never was completed. SciFi channel sometimes airs this series but it deserves better, at least a run on home video if not DVD.

I remember seeing this mini-series and some of the series episodes that followed. What I remember most about this series overall is that it was the the way most Americans got to see the latest Bond girl (Living Daylights) in a non-Bond role. The downside to that fact was that Maryam was still playing the smart attractive sidekick to a dark-haired rough-edged leading man. Not exactly much of a stretch. I think this is why NBC followed the Nielsen/Arbitron crowd and abandoned its support for the series (not the last time the network would take that course, of course). Considering that both the Sci-Fi Channel and the Movieplex channels have aired this movie/series more than once tells me that there is something that sets this apart from a similar themed show on NBC in the past (...Matthew Starr). Now that even short lived TV shows/TV movies of the recent past are showing up on DVD, maybe this one will show up soon as well.