Project Shadowchaser III

Basically not enough Frank Zagarino. He was the best part about Project Shadow Chaser 2. He was hardly in this one. I watched this hoping he would camp his way through it like he did in the second one. I though maybe Christopher Neame would be able to save this movie after seeing him in Hellbound, but I was wrong. Christopher Atkins just made the same face the whole movie so don't see it because of him. Sam Bottoms equals lame. Musetta Vander is in millions of cheap sci-fi movies, but she doesn't do anything besides act sad or afraid. So if you were planning on seeing this because of Frank don't as he isn't in it enough.

Somewhere beyond Mars, one space ship hits another which disappeared 25 years ago. Rea (Musetta Vander) knows it was the ship of her father, and wants to find out what killed its crew.

Obviously, it's another rip-off with the usual "Terminator" and "Alien" ingredients, also "The Thing", "Outland" and "Total Recall" come to mind. The story incorporates the usual clichés, but still it's not too bad when you are looking for some simple fun. In opposite to a few other low-budget SF flicks, I wasn't bored between one explosion and the next, some actors are worth mentioning: Christopher Neame, Musetta Vander and Christopher Atkins did a good job.

Besides, the German dubbing is surprisingly good. Whereas in other low-budget SF movies, one often has the impression they are reading their lines off the sheet, in "Shadowchaser III", where there's a lot of screaming going on, the voice actors are really into it and create the necessary passion.

Each year the company called Nu produces couple of "action packed", "full of suspense" movies. This little nugget, called Shadowcaster III(Until I visited this site I wasn't avare this is a whole trilogy), is a great example of the good job the company is doing. Frank Zagarino is as mean as always and does a great job as almost undestructable(?), schizophrenic(??) android. I won't waste any more words since I don't want to reveal the terrific plot and ruin you a couple of great laughs.

Rating 2/10 (Revard for those hard working tehnicians. Man, putting together this kind of rubbish must be nervewracking.)

Robina Alston was the best of the cast as the tough Lee, Musseta Vander has little to do but to look scared and pretty. The film is well acted, full of action, lots of explotions, well acted, some suspenseful scene, one of two greatly staged chase scenes about the spaceship, okay effects and one cool death scene.

This film represents one of my favourite genres - 1990s sci-fi action (usually Alien rip-off) taking space on a spaceship or a space station. If you know what kind of genre I am talking about, you will know what to expect from this film.

The cast is multinational, where pretty much everyone is a stereotype to some extend. Or described using the basic characteristic features from a particular nationality. The plot usually involves a small crew (even on a huge spaceship) coming across some alien creature and having to fight for survival. In this case, the enemy is a Russian android infected by some unknown virus (that's never really explained). It's a pity that Frank Zagarino (a.k.a. the Shadowchaser) only gets a limited screen time and barely uses his martial arts skills. The rest of the cast is OK, especially Musetta Vander is easy on the eye (even though her fake Russian accents is terrible).

The part I have always liked about these films is that the producers use any factory they can to stand in for the spaceship/space station. It's simply hilarious. So get yourself some popcorn and some beer and enjoy. I know I will :)