Movies
‘Alien Trespass’ Throwback Gets DVD/Blu-ray date
Alien Trespass, a delightful homage to the great science-fiction movies of the 1950s, invades our planet’s digital world August 11 on Blu-ray and DVD. Image Entertainment is releasing the Rangeland Production which stars Eric McCormack (Will and Grace, Trust Me), Jenni Baird, Dan Lauria (The Wonder Years) and Robert J. Patrick (The Unit, The Sopranos); Jody Thompson co-stars. The scary-but- fun-for-the-whole-family film will be available for $27.98 SRP (DVD) and $35.98 SRP (Blu-ray).
Directed and produced by three-time Golden Globe® winner and five-time Emmy Award®-nominee R.W. Goodwin (“The X-Files”), Alien Trespass finds its inspiration in the films of the post-World War II boom period when America was filled with hope and prosperity despite the threat of nuclear annihilation. It recreates the genuine scares, the sometimes unintentional humor and the disarming innocence that have made these films such compelling and timeless entertainment.
In the bonus materials, ‘tongue-firmly-in-cheek’ news reports confirm the current Alien Trespass is a rare print of a long-lost classic unearthed earlier this year by workers at a Hollywood construction site. It was more than a half-century ago that Louis Q. Goldstone, head of the studio that produced the film, cancelled its release after a dispute with star M. Eric McCormack, grandfather of actor Eric McCormack. Also included are interviews with the “original” actors who appeared on Edwin R. Burroughs “Meet the Person” along with “original” theatrical trailers. A complete list of special features is below. The news reports, along with other material, can be viewed at the www.alientrespass.com
Set in 1957, Alien Trespass chronicles the tale of a fiery object from outer space that suddenly comes crashing into a mountain top in the California Mojave Desert, bringing the threat of disaster to Earth. Out of the flying saucer escapes a murderous extra-terrestrial creature – the Ghota, which is bent on destroying all life forms on the planet. Urp, a benevolent alien from the spaceship, is the only one who knows how to stop the monster, but to do so he must inhabit the human body of Dr. Ted Lewis (McCormack) – a noted local astronomer – and with the help of Tammy (Baird), a waitress from the local diner, begins a race against time to neutralize the Ghota before it consumes all the local inhabitants and uses the human fuel to multiply and conquer the world!
Alien Trespass was directed and produced by Goodwin from a screenplay by Steven Fisher and a story by James Swift and Steven Fisher. The producers are James Swift and R.W.Goodwin. The line producer is Warren H. Carr. The associate producer is Crawford Hawkins. The director of photography is David Moxness, CSC. The production designer is Ian Thomas. The editors are Michael Jablow, A.C.E. and Vaune Kirby. The music is by Louis Febre. The costumes are designed by Jenni Gullett. The visual effects supervisor is Eric Chauvin. The U.S. casting is by Susan Edelman, CSA. The Canadian casting is by Lynne Carrow, CSA and Susan Brouse, CSA.
Complete List of Special Features
— “Watch the Skies” Alien Trespass Featurette
— “Meet the Person” with Edwin R. Burroughs
— Breaking News “Report”
— Live News “Update”
— R.W. Goodwin Interview
— Eric McCormack Interview
— Theatrical Trailers
— Deleted Scenes
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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