Not many horror films truly scare me these days. But alien horror? Even the ones substandard to most send me into a fear frenzy. That’s why I’m taking a deep dive into the sub-genre.
Welcome to Aliens Scare Me. A look into alien horror films on a case by case basis.
This month we check out 2014’s Vicious Brothers (Grave Encounters) film, Extraterrestrial.
What It’s About
A group of friends head out into the country for the weekend to stay at a cabin in the woods (because that always goes so well) in an area recently dealing with mysterious circumstances such as missing persons and cattle mutilation. While drunk and arguing, they witness a UFO crash nearby. Upon investigating, they notice footprints leading right back to their cabin. The group, a Sheriff (Gil Bellows) looking for his missing wife, and a pot growing, tin foil hat wearing Vietnam vet (Michael Ironside) all attempt to survive as the aliens try to get rid of any witness by sucking them up in their spaceships and doing God knows what to their orifices. Or just straight up murdering them here on earth.
Extraterrestrial is a run and gun style film that feels like found footage even when it isn’t utilizing that effect for scares. Once the shit hits the fan, the movie is unafraid to throw the entire alien abduction kitchen sink at us with aliens popping out of every corner like Pop Tarts from a toaster. Extraterrestrial is a movie that you can tell was made with the budget of a solid VOD release but it has the spirit of a movie with a Spielberg budget. We’ll talk about how that works out for them a little later.
Why It’s Scary
Scary is where Extraterrestrial shines. There’s a scene in M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs that we’ve talked about before where we see the aliens creeping around in a found footage video that is possibly the definitive alien scare of all time. While nothing in Extraterrestrial quite reaches that level of tension (it’s hard to do), the film is clearly inspired by it. The way these aliens stalk around corners with their tall, stick like bodies proves to be quite terrifying.
The Vicious Brothers clearly did their due genre diligence before embarking on this adventure. There are hints of the home invasion surrealism of The McPherson Tape, abduction moments that take cues from Fire in the Sky, and jump scares like the aforementioned “Vaminos children!” moment in Signs. Keep your expectations tempered, however, as the film never really has the budget or the patience to truly leave its own mark in replicating these moments. I am in no way comparing them. Still, if you suffer from a touch of alien phobia, they are fun and more than enough to tap into that “Please God, no” feeling deep down in you.
Extraterrestrial is fearless in that it is unafraid to show you anything and everything despite its budget limitations. Sometimes it’s a little like hitting 100 miles per hour in a 1997 Ford Taurus with over 200,000 miles and a cracked windshield. We’re having fun and we’re scared but we know we aren’t in a sanctioned Nascar race and that’s okay. You’ll see all the fixins’ of fear that aliens can provide here. From abductions to mind control and home invasions to giant claws. There are multiple versions of abductions from the standard beam lasso to watching one unfold through a found footage camcorder found on a dirty trailer floor. We see the aliens, we see inside the ship, we get the whole “holy shit” package here.
Extraterrestrial knows why this scares us and they play the hits. Even if it does kind of feel like snippets of cover songs at times. Bottom line, these aliens were scary and time and time again, Extraterrestrial had me recoiled in frozen fear repose like that girl they found in the closet at the beginning of The Ring.
Where It Lands
This alien flick is as up and down as they get. It’s a film literally built for folks with fears like me and attacks them nonstop. Like Wayne taunting Garth in Wayne’s World with the flashlight and repeating “I’m the Leprechaun!” over and over again. On the whole, however, it definitely left something to be desired for the general audience, garnering an average of 27% Rotten amongst both Critics and Audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes.
Many of the issues with the film come from quite a bit of predictability and a struggle to maintain a tone. There certainly aren’t a lot of surprises until the end where things really open up for a few minutes to mixed results. We start out with a Cabin Fever party horror comedy vibe and end with some really melodramatic romance storylines that never move the meter. It’s as if someone started writing something for shits and giggles but fell in love with it half way through and decided to take it ultra serious. Totally understandable but it doesn’t serve this particular project.
On the fun side of things, there’s an absolutely perfect set up and atmosphere for a movie like this. The location lends itself as the perfect backdrop to the nightmarish visuals. The town Sheriff is to Extraterrestrial what Brad Douriff’s Sheriff was to Rob Zombie’s Halloween II. Despite what’s going on around him we sympathize with him and take his plight seriously. We also have the absolutely perfect casting of Michael Ironside in a fun moment where he gets to live out his Rambo dreams protecting his home from the aliens.
On the other side of things there’s a lot of tired horror movie tropes. The clear-cut asshole caricature who’s obnoxious throughout the whole film and ends up predictably turning on everyone, taking the focus off the aliens for far too long. The “aw shucks” boyfriend cardboard cutout whose only personality is how much he loves his girlfriend. The girlfriend who doesn’t really do anything to deserve this sort of praise or this final girl status the film is so obviously pushing on her.
But… aliens! Extraterrestrial is really fun when it sticks to the aliens. It scares me and I’d call that a win. I definitely recommend it for those who also frequently say: ALIENS SCARE ME.