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.

Well what to say about this one? I have to laugh again when I see the ratings or read the reviews on IMDb. A lot of haters, and I seriously don't get why. I start wondering if my taste of movies is that bad because most of the time when people hate it I love it. But then again I'm not the only weirdo because my wife liked it as well. Okay the actors might not be the best ones you will ever see, even though I don't think they gave us a bad performance. On the contrary I enjoyed the acting. But what I enjoyed the most was the story. Very entertaining to watch, everything I search for when I want to watch a movie about aliens. Suspense, evil aliens, conspiracy theories, all ingredients were there to make it a nice movie. And that's what it was to me, a nice movie. I will watch it again in the future. To all the haters I can only say, take a chill pill.

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 scored the film quite highly because I genuinely enjoyed about 80% of, but I went into it knowing it wasn't exactly going to be a groundbreaker.

Without wanting to give too much away, it incorporates a lot of UFO mythology and people who are into that kind of thing will probably enjoy it, as I did. The special effects are very well done, for a film without a huge budget and the UFO's are genuinely ominous and 'other - worldly'.

The plot isn't too bad really, it ends in an interesting way that you probably won't expect and there are some scenes in the last 20 minutes that are actually quite spectacular.

It's bad points though - the actors are a bit annoying and not very endearing. The main couple are quite nice and their story plays out well, but everybody else in it seems to just be there to add filler to the plot. One of the guys in it is actually very annoying, from start to unfortunate end.

It's all a bit loud and flashy and over the top in parts as well. The musical score is definitely not up to a very high standard in my opinion.

I think it deserves a little more respect than some reviewers have given it - but not much. ;-)

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.