There's Nothing Out There

Without knowing the year of production, apparently 1991 or 92, a horror film fan would think this unique and fun fright film would have been from a decade earlier.

Stylistically, it's very much like the Evil Dead series, or at least the first two of that series, and also has much of the same black humor and quick pacing.

Of course, the whole low-budget atmosphere contributes to that effect, as well as the talents of the unknown cast.

Basic story has an alien creature, rather smallish but carnivorous, running amok in the forest near a cabin of 7 teens. One of the teens is a horror film buff and constantly reminds the others of standard horror film situations they are placed in. Doesn't that sound familiar? However this film came before Scream!

Well worth a viewing.

In low-budget horror spoof There's Nothing Out There, seven teenagers - couples Jim and Doreen (Mark Collver and Wendy Bednarz), Janet and David (Claudia Flores and Jeff Dachis), and Stacy and Nick (Bonnie Bowers and John Carhart III), plus 'gooseberry' Mike (Craig Peck) - spend spring break at a rural house in the woods, unaware that a vicious killer alien is lurking nearby.

If anyone should know how to survive a horror film scenario, it's a horror film fan - someone who recognises the warning signs, is familiar with the genre's tropes, and who understands what needs to be done in any given horror situation. That's the premise of There's Nothing Out There, scary movie aficionado Mike being the only one to realise the danger he and his friends are in and act accordingly. While his pals are wandering through the woods at night, skinny dipping in a pond, or having sex, he's preparing himself for a battle against the unknown. Hell, at one point he even suspects that he might be in a horror movie!

This meta approach makes the film more fun than if it were played straight - it's knowingly dumb and deliberately exploits all of the genre clichés, with characters doing the most asinine things guaranteed to place them in peril. In one crazy scene, writer/director Rolfe Kanefsky even has a character grab hold of the boom mic to swing to safety - it's that kind of film! The monster itself is a delightfully shonky, tentacled rubber creature that fires green laser beams from its eyes, there's a modicum of gore (with a wonderfully orchestrated decapitation scene), and all of the girls (and a couple of the guys) shed their clothes: Doreen takes a shower and strips for fireside sex, Janet has her clothes ripped off by the creature, and Stacy gets jiggy with Nick and spends the remainder of the movie running around in a bikini (and looks great doing so!).

It all amounts to a big dose of schlocky B-movie silliness, coated with goopy layer of green alien slime, which should appeal to anyone who can identify with Mike, for whom horror is not just a hobby, but a way of life.

Underrated. Much better than i expected. I've watched a lot of "cult" comedy/horror movies of this era and most of them are not scary neither funny. This one made me laugh at times. Characters are likeable, especially the one who constantly was warning them and everyone ignored. Definitely this movie influenced SCREAM franchise, because there are some "meta" scenes too. It's clever and there are some hot girls here too. What's not to like?

In conclusion, every fan of this genre should watch it. It is a shame this went unnoticed. Of course keep in mind this is a b movie, no big production and so on.

One of 'Screams' fore-fathers in that it provides a character who has seen tons of horror movies and knows what to expect next! The plot is familiar - students who head out to the woods for a weekend of sex and alcohol are then terrorized by an alien. Yet, the writers definitely did this one up tongue in cheek style. Watch for the classic boom-mic scene. Skeeter gives it 9 for 10!

This is an impressive amateur effort from the directing to the writing to the acting to the production. It feels like a good college theater troupe pooled their money to prove their chops because its so much sharper than the usual indie horror comedy. Its even historic in its premise as this is the first self-referential/meta slasher film. It will surprise you how much it predicts (or inspires) both "Scream" and "Cabin in the Woods".

TNOT is dated in some of its jokes and fashion but its a charming and high spirited film that has aged very well and deserves a lot of credit for being so ahead of its time and making the most of its small budget.