By Geno McGahee
The creators of GRAVE ENCOUNTERS, the Vicious Brothers, have put their focus into bringing some of the greys to the screen in the alien horror film EXTRATERRESTRIAL. Featuring some familiar faces and a great atmosphere, the film proved to be a mixed bag but if you are into aliens and a few scares, it will answer that call.
We begin at a gas station where a woman frantically is trying to convince the clerk to let her inside to use the phone. The clerk is not the nicest guy in the world and tells her to take a hike. She runs to the phone booth, which is zapped up and destroyed. It is apparent, in case you can’t tell by the title of the film, that we have an evil alien problem.
April (Brittany Allen) is going to a cabin in the woods. Her boyfriend, Kyle (Freddie Stroma) and some of her pals are along for the trip. They arrive in the area and stumble across a conspiracy theorist that grows his own marijuana and stays “off the grid.” Travis (Michael Ironside) is, by far, the best character. Ironside always delivers and some of the dialogue he’s given is the best in the film. He touches on some concerns that many have regarding the government and becomes one of those “crazy conspiracy theorists that are actually right”.
April shoots down her man’s engagement request and breaks it to him that she is dumping him to add insult to injury. Adding insult to the viewer is the obnoxious character, Seth (Jesse Moss). I know most horror films put somebody into the film that sucks and you want to see die. Seth is that guy, but every time that he was on the screen, it took away from the film.
The group finds a crashed flying saucer, which is one of the coolest visuals in the film, leading to one of the coolest scenes. When the group runs over to speak to Travis, it gets really good. The dialogue and delivery by Ironside is spot on as he talks about the relationship between humans and aliens. Because April shot an alien with a shotgun, she broke a treaty and now the aliens were very upset. In her defense, they started it.
It’s a battle for survival against the greys. I wasn’t a huge fan of the CGI. It wasn’t terrible, but the aliens looked a little too fake. No, I have not seen a real alien, but if I did, they’d probably look better than this. The acting from the group is rather good and they did come off as terrified as this force was trying kill them.
In the end, EXTRATERRESTRIAL was worth a watch. It had all the elements to be a very good alien/horror film, but it just didn’t come together in the end. I enjoyed the government conspiracy angle and the performances, mostly, but had there been a little more focus, it would have been a great movie. I still recommend it, especially if you like aliens or if you are the president of the Michael Ironside fan club.
Rating: 6/10
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