tchristophermiller

Almost 2 hours of wandering in the dark and not one character thinks to turn on the lights in the room? I'm pretty certain that Chicago code required illumination for various reasons such as OSHA, ADA, Illinois code of regulations for municipal lighting, etc...

Makes me want to read the book, as I can turn on my flashlight, or candle, or bonfire, or go outside into the sunshine, and then read in daylight, which in the few scenes that survived the editing room floor that were filmed outdoors hit the viewer like a breath of fresh air. There was a story here of a horrific nature, a dark story, but the director took that too literally in making some artistic statement. This movie will successfully frighten those with fear of the dark, but few others.

Almost 10 minutes near the beginning developing characters I can't recall the names of? Asylum! Thinking you're the Bard? It timed out at 00:08:18 of non-monster/alien spaceship footage; enough to make me almost give up and ask, "Is this truly an Asylum movie?"

I'm glad I hung on. It delivered. Pure "cr*ppy monster movies" (their script, verbatim) of the expected studio signature, where the plot holes require 20m planks to traverse, the self-deprecation of the studio's reputation for pure schlock, the deep investment in their known tropes of family reunification, numerous camara angles within each scene to capture each emotional wince delivered from their stellar cast, and the total absurdity of the story arc. And hats off to the steady camerapersons for mimicking the currently popular stylistic choice of handheld over boom or trolley-based filming, while still holding focus on characters tight enough to reduce nausea to the viewer; not that the wizards at the studio didn't reveal their competency with some very professional camera work slipped in throughout the roller coaster montage of mashups from previous Asylum classics.

But seriously, how the heck did The president survive the helicopter crash, his LtC daughter survive a face off with a 100m long piranha, and his doctor daughter survive an alien spaceship crash? Such mysteries, if ever filmed, did not make the final cut, and are left to the viewer's imagination.

Torn between rating this a 2 or a 10, I go for the 2 in hopes of qualifying it for future selection by MST3K. Such film must be remembered.

Leslie Stevens' 1964 episode 'Second Chance' comes through in spirit in this 1997 episode. A little low on the science fiction narrative, the main story of benevolent progenitors of humans replaces the original story of benevolent aliens rescuing humans. While watching 'Double Helix', I kept remembering the much earlier ' Second Chance' episode; different stories and details, but the same main arc of rescuing humans from their dangerous evolutionary warlike nature. The non sequiturs of the welted tectonic map for anything other than as a treasure guide are but an example of the screenplay factory that airing deadline pressure imposes, but overall, a very enjoyable episode. Makes me appreciate Leslie Stevens even more.