Alien Trespass (2009)
Steve Barton
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Reviewed by Uncle Creepy
Starring Eric McCormack, Jenni Baird, Dan Lauria, Robert Patrick, Jody Thompson, Aaron Brooks, Sarah Smyth
Directed by R.W. Goodwin
I have but one regret as a horror fan — I was born too late. Me? I love the old sci-fi and horror flicks from the Fifties and Sixties. It was just a much simpler and, in some ways, cooler time, man. So many great flicks came out of those decades, and there’s just nothing funnier and finer that sitting through them time and time again. Director R.W. Goodwin obviously shares my affection because watching his latest film, Alien Trespass, is like popping open the car door of a Delorean, firing up the flux-capacitor, and takin’ off into a time warp!
The story is simple enough (as it should be) — the year is 1957 and an astronomer (McCormack) witnesses what he assumes to be a shooting star entering our atmosphere. Of course it’s anything but. In fact it’s an alien spaceship belonging to a tall, metallic alien named Urp, who emerges from the craft unharmed, but bad news abounds — the monstrous creature known as Ghota, who was also on board, has escaped, and this thing has an insatiable appetite for humankind! Can the local police force (headed up by a hilarious Robert Patrick) and a few of the townsfolk stop this menacing beast before everyone is reduced to a smoldering pile of gelatinous goop? We had better hope so!
The plot just wreaks of well aged cheese, does it not? Part The Day the Earth Stood Still, part It Came From Outer Space, part Green Slime, and all fun, Alien Trespass is a true love letter to genre days gone by. Billed as “A Lost Masterpiece Unseen for Fifty Years” everything about the movie feels truly vintage. Everyone has gone out of their way to make sure everything from the wonderfully stilted dialogue to the knee-slappingly funny creature effects are pitch perfect.
Yet, the flick does have a few unintentional flaws, mainly in its pacing. Truth be told, around the second act things begin to drag a little bit, and as a result it take a bit longer than it should to get to the finish line. Thankfully, though, things get back on track toward the end, and what we’re left with is a genuinely enjoyable little movie that came dangerously close to its joke getting old.
Simply put, if you don’t have yourself a good time with this modern day gem, then all of the charm of filmmaking from that era is lost on you. Friggin’ whippersnappers! Alien Trespass delivers on its promise to bring back a slice of the good old days to horror cinema. Find a theatre showing it, grab some popcorn, and enjoy what will likely be one of the single most fun movies of the year!
3 1/2 out of 5
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