In this edition of The Silver Lining, we’ll be covering Colin Minihan’s alien abduction thriller, Extraterrestrial! 

At one point, it can be argued that the Vicious Brothers were one of Canada’s most influential filmmaking duos, only challenged by the Soska Sisters in genre cinema. While these punk-rock partners (who aren’t really brothers) skyrocketed to stardom after the popularity of 2007’s Grave Encounters, they weren’t too keen on repeating themselves after that initial success, even passing along their directorial duties to John Poliquin on Grave Encounters 2. 

For their next endeavor, the duo decided to look back on an unproduced passion project. Inspired by their perceived lack of “cool” alien movies in the horror genre, the filmmakers had come up with a story informed by UFO abduction accounts and government conspiracy theories long before their first feature film. Updating the script, they soon began production on what would eventually become 2014’s Extraterrestrial.  

This time, however, Colin Minihan would sit in the director’s chair by himself, with Stuart Ortiz hanging back to co-write and produce the picture. Ditching the Found Footage format, the finished movie follows an ensemble of friends (featuring then up-and-comers like Brittany Allen and Freddie Stroma) who find themselves besieged by hostile grey aliens after shooting one of them during an abduction attempt. A grueling battle for survival ensues as our protagonists stumble upon a disturbing conspiracy between humankind and extraterrestrial invaders. 

Once the first trailer dropped, hinting at cosmic frights in the vein of Fire in the Sky and more production value than Grave Encounters, genre fans were naturally ecstatic for a legitimately scary alien abduction thriller. 

SO WHAT WENT WRONG?

Making less than a single million at the box office on a $3 million budget and scoring a disappointing 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, I think it’s safe to say that Extraterrestrial wasn’t exactly the galactic hit that the Vicious Brothers had been expecting. While the meager box office return is mostly due to a limited theatrical release, that doesn’t quite justify the cold critical response. 

Most media outlets accused the picture of being a predictable collection of sci-fi clichés held together by misguided attempts at humor and standard genre scares. Even the more positive reviews claimed that the picture was trashy fun at best, with critics citing numerous logical inconsistencies with the movie’s script, as well as a general lack of innovation – not to mention unlikable characters. 

From the titular extraterrestrials acting more like mindless movie monsters than a highly-evolved race of hyper-intelligent beings to our main characters behaving like dimwitted teenagers, it’s easy to see where this criticism was coming from. These problems were made even worse by the film’s overreliance on computer imagery, with its lofty ambitions occasionally exceeding the effects budget. 

Of course, one of the biggest complaints was directed at the film’s pacing, as it simply takes too long to get to the interesting part. Most of the runtime plays out like a run-of-the-mill “cabin in the woods” horror flick, with the movie only truly diving into its Ufology origins towards the end of the experience. 

Suffice to say this wasn’t this generation’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 

THE SILVER LINING

While I think there are a handful of UFO-related horror gems out there, I mostly agree with the Vicious Brothers about there not being enough “cool” alien abduction movies. While Extraterrestrial likely won’t go down in history as the sci-fi horror classic that changed this reputation, I think it’s easy to overlook its flaws when you realize the absurd amount of effort that went into making this strange little passion project work. 

From the remarkable use of visual effects despite a decidedly less-than-blockbuster budget to a handful of compelling performances (especially by a paranoid Michael Ironside), there’s a lot to love about the film even if its shoddy script brings the experience down a notch. 

For starters, there are plenty of sly nods to UFO culture, from the general depiction of the aliens to their methods of abduction. There’s even a legitimately terrifying anal probe sequence, which I think is up there with the Fire in the Sky abduction as one of the scariest bits of UFO media out there. Even Ginger Snaps’ Emily Perkins has a minor role as Nancy McPherson (with her character being inspired by the infamous McPherson Tape, a controversial alien-centric Found Footage flick from 1989). 

Of course, the real Silver Lining here is that bonkers final act, which elevates the rest of the experience through some clever special effects wizardry as it brings the interior of an alien mothership to life. Sure, it takes a while to get to there and the build-up isn’t quite as interesting as it should have been, but I personally think that the outer space climax makes the whole movie worth watching. The story even concludes with a brief shout-out to The X-Files’s Cigarette-Smoking Man, which is always a bonus in conspiracy-related media. 

In all honesty, my only real gripe with the film is that I think it would have worked much better as a Found Footage picture. The first-person format would have provided an added level of immersion and excused some of the script’s faults, as well as made the special effects a bit scarier. 

As it stands, Extraterrestrial is far from a genre masterpiece, lacking the sustained frights of similarly themed films like The Fourth Kind (not to mention the brainy screenwriting behind classics like Contact and Signs), but it’s still a genuinely fun horror movie with plenty of love directed at UFO nuts like myself. If you can stomach some uneven build-up and a handful of cringe-worthy moments, I think this creepy take on classic sci-fi tropes is worth revisiting. 

Watching a bad movie doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad experience. Even the worst films can boast a good idea or two, and that’s why we’re trying to look on the bright side with The Silver Lining, where we shine a light on the best parts of traditionally maligned horror flicks.