Reviewed by Geno McGahee
“We ain’t alone.” – Fred “Sarge” Dobbs (Martin Landau)
When I say “aliens” and “woods” you may think of the classic Don Dohler film, GALAXY INVADER, or you may think of an anal probe from an alien’s wood, but in 1980, another alien horror movie was released called “WITHOUT WARNING.”
This film surrounds an evil alien in the woods that is going on a killing spree and only a few of the townies actually believe it. Among the townies is “Sarge” (Martin Landau), a crazy military veteran that hasn’t adjusted to civilian life too well. He hides in women’s bathrooms and insults people for not believing what he believes. He is a great character and Landau plays it very well. He is a fantastic actor and adds a great deal to this very good movie.
Four semi-youngsters are on vacation and are planning to have the time of their lives but are going right into the alien’s lair. Taylor (Jack Palance) tries to warn them not to go near the area, but they don’t listen. If they listened, this wouldn’t be a horror film. This would just be a film with David Caruso in bad shorty-shorts. Yes, Caruso plays “Tom” and he leaves nothing to the imagination in his 1980’s style shorts where his junk pops out left and right. Why did they design the shorts like that? Did you really want to see a guy’s sack jumping out and saying hello whenever a guy would sit down? I didn’t think so. Well, Caruso thinks that you want to see his twig and berries and it’s pretty sick.
The foursome separate into couples but when Sandy (Tarah Nutter) and Greg (Christopher S. Nelson) return, they cannot find their friends. They search and they search and they finally come across a small shed where they discover their friends, dead, along with some other corpses. It’s a pretty neat scene and now the duo is in escape mode, making their way to a local bar. Their story of an alien and dead friends doesn’t impress the patrons of the bar. They have been hearing that story forever from the resident nut, Sarge, and believe that they have been paid off to tell the story to put some credibility into Sarge’s alien tale.
The madness that is Sarge is slowly revealed as he rambles about invasions and mocks the other patrons that don’t believe. He then goes into panic mode, thinking that the alien may be masquerading as a human and suspects everyone. We begin to see TWILIGHT ZONE influence. The bar scene is very reminiscent of The Monsters are Due on Maple Street, as mass hysteria sets in. When the bar door opens, Sarge blows away the figure that appears, but it’s not the alien and he suddenly goes off the deep end, claiming that the aliens made him shoot and that Sandy and Greg are the aliens. So now the young couple has to run from not only the alien but also the insane Sarge.
What this movie does so well, which won’t go over well with a lot of today’s audience, is to build up and make you want to see the alien, not showing their hand until the end of the film. This was done in SNOWBEAST, where you don’t see the creature until the end and allows the audience to think and imagine. It is something that is sorely missed in today’s film but they did it here and it was worth the wait. The alien is very menacing and creepy and the build up to his appearance is very good. This is an interesting and amusing film with great acting and a great villain. I highly recommend this one.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7.5/10. It’s good. You’ve been warned.
