Alien Outbreak

For starters, this is a low budget C-grade (never heard of anyone involved in this film and even most actors don't even have an IMDb profile or photo) UK indie film, so any expectations of seeing a Hollywood quality production are absurd, and so are the undeserving 1's. Reviewers need to cut some slack for new film-makers, and take into consideration their experience and production value.

The directing from camera-work point of view was not bad for amateur (only 2nd full length film and 1 previous short) writer and director Neil Rowe, but he failed in directing his cast, especially Katherine Drake who was either adequate, or falling asleep. The writing was decent for an amateur, and the 84 min runtime would normally be acceptable for this type of film, but I felt with the slow pacing and the many long dragged out scenes, this film should've had either more content, or reduced to a short or 1 hour TV movie. There were also a few plot and technical issues. The dialogue could've also been much better as some of it was just cheesy. The sound was also off with muffled gunfire in some action scenes. On a positive note, what really stood out for me was the score, which was very eerie and fitting - a rare quality in most b-grade films, the visual effects, cinematography and those creepy af robots and aliens - of which were the main reason I kept watching. Even the gore was on point.

This film is not a 10 like the fake reviews, but certainly not worth the 1's. It's an honest and fair 6/10 from me. Click on my username to see any of my 1000+ ratings and 800+ reviews.

I am in no way connected to this movie, just a fan of scifi that loves finding hidden gems online.

The special effects are good to excellent for this type of movie. The acting of the supporting characters is doable but Sgt Zoe keeps waking you up from the illusion.

I think the actress has a wider range than what she shows but I've seen more emotion from the animated rug in Aladin than her. Maybe it was intentional, being coached to act "in shock" but the writing certainly didn't help. At no point do you believe she is a trained police officer,let alone the highest ranking one in the area. The writer has her throw out police procedure from almost the very beginning and every other decisions she makes is a facepalm moment. Certain story arcs go nowhere or add nothing to the story. The bit with the armed units arriving was extremely bad and I think the last person they meet was only in there to get to a 84 min runtime.

I know a lot of people did their best for this movie so I gave it 4 stars but Neil (writer&director) you have to do better. Give it a go if you really want to watch it but you have been warned, this is for hardcore fans of the genre.

As I sat down in 2021 to watch the 2020 UK sci-fi movie "Alien Outbreak", I must admit that I wasn't really expecting anything overly grand, given the movie's fairly low rating. And truth be told, I am not one that is usually overly keen on the sci-fi genre to begin with.

But I hadn't already seen "Alien Outbreak", so of course I sat down to watch it as I had the opportunity to do so.

And I must say that writer and director Neil Rowe actually managed to come up with a movie that wasn't all that shabby. Yeah, I found "Alien Outbreak" to actually be surprisingly watchable and a fair enough movie.

Sure, this wasn't a stellar sci-fi movie. It does bear witness of being a movie that has that low budget feel to it. But at the same time, then the CGI and special effects team actually managed to do well enough to bring the aliens to life on the screen.

"Alien Outbreak" does, however, suffer from being a rather mundane and slow paced movie. The storyline is just not packing enough punch, and it made for a rather mundane experience in terms of entertainment and pacing. While the movie was watchable, it was hardly an outstanding sci-fi movie, nor was it a movie that warrants more than just a single viewing, as the storyline just doesn't have the contents for that.

The acting in the movie was adequate. It wasn't performances that will leave you bedazzled or knock you back in your seat. People were doing fair enough jobs with their roles and characters, but they were struggling against a flaccid and uneventful storyline.

As for the ending of the movie, well... While writer and director Neil Rowe does leave the ending up for audience interpretation, I can't claim that it was an ending that I was overly much a fan of. It just simply left me with an unanswered question, which made me feel like I had essentially just wasted my entire time sitting through the movie, only to be served an ending such as that.

All in all, then "Alien Outbreak" was watchable, but it just slumped in on itself given its slow pacing and rather uneventful storyline. As such, I am rating Neil Rowe's 2020 movie a mediocre five out of ten stars.

Cops arrest a man..."Lets shake the camera a whole bunch", like there's an earthquake. And when the camera isn't "shaking" it's wobbling around like that camera man is drunk. Made me feel seasick. The story and acting isn't that bad, not the best, but not the worst. It just really needed to be directed differently or by someone else.

My thoughts pretty much go along with TheTopDawgCritic's review, but perhaps a bit more favourable. His Title states that he 'Wanted to stop watching, but couldn't' Well, in my lowly and wretched opinion, I honestly felt that the movie was fairly well put together and quite engrossing. There isn't a lot of huge action and effects, so expect definitely a tense, but somewhat lower key film.

Usually, at least for me with these kinds of movies, is that most of the time there are numerous BAD things about the way they are done that definitely detract from the story and make it less enjoyable. But, that is what I liked about this one... There is nothing hugely amazing or monumental about it, but being an avid Science Fiction fan, especially of the more 'serious' type, I truly felt that it was a solid little film that was made well and put together in a competent fashion. YES, the 'shaky camera' got to be a little much for my taste at times and therefore I probably would have personally preferred a slightly more Classic approach that way, but I can see where the film makers were going for more of an intense, 'this is really happening' kind of vibe. Which, for the most part seemed to work fairly well.

The acting was nothing to get too excited about, but I felt that it was serviceable to the story and got the job done. Some complained about the lead woman, but I honestly felt that the way she came across was just the right balance, which I feel in this kind of role is hard to get right. She was strong and competent, but at the same time she didn't come across as artificially overbearing and obnoxious, which is how some woman in roles like this are superficially portrayed to beat the audience over the head with the fact that she is 'tough' This actress didn't have to do that, but just quietly but I felt believably took the lead as the 'sergeant' in a realistic, but low key way. Everyone else was just okay...

BUT... the thing I really liked about this movie that others have mentioned too was that I really dug the effects, robots, ships, and eerie creatures and the way they were portrayed. Whomever was behind this part of the production I felt did a great job! And yes, not to give anything away, but the ending may be a little unexpected, and it DOES kind of leave you a bit up in the air. But, I thought it achieved the effect the creators were going for.

Unlike some other reviewers here, I thought the Suspense was VERY palpable and intense at times and quite effective. And, something that I really appreciated which I referred to earlier on was that there weren't a bunch of STUPID things that were done that could have easily taken away from and diminished the effectiveness of the story. To me when I write these reviews from time to time, the PRIMARY thing I always try to stress is, 'Is the movie made well...?' A person may not like the type of film or may prefer a different kind of Science Fiction, but whatever the case, again, is it done well...? And, I feel that yes it was. MUCH better than many, many others out there that rely on a bunch of artificial, shlocky, Drama and screaming and nonsense. Just a good, solid story told in a decent way.

I would say that if you like fairly serious Alien-oriented Sci Fi and you can appreciate a fairly simple straight forward story, but one that has a strong sense of Suspense and Mystery and some pretty nifty low key effects, then there is a good chance that you might enjoy it...