Extraterrestrial (Blu-ray / DVD)
Anthony Arrigo
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Starring Freddie Stroma, Brittany Allen, Jesse Moss, Melanie Papalia
Directed by The Vicious Brothers
Distributed by The Scream Factory
Scream Factory’s bread and butter are the lavish special editions they produce for classic cult titles; releases which often sell themselves due to the popularity of the film and/or the typically excellent bonus features that accompany them. But a company can’t subsist on prestige releases alone, and so Scream Factory has also partnered up with production companies, such as Chiller and IFC Midnight, to present recent horrors that would receive little fanfare otherwise. It’s a noble endeavor, providing a spotlight for low-budget productions that need a solid marketing push to get recognition. The main problem, however, is that none of them have been very good. At best, a few of them have been an easy way to kill 90 minutes; at worst you’re watching something like Larry Fessenden’s Beneath (2013), a dull film chock full of reprehensibly irritating characters. The bar for quality remains low.
I had hoped for more out of Extraterrestrial (2014), an alien thriller brought to you by The Vicious Brothers, a moniker that probably sounded very cool when they were in high school. In one of the bonus features, one of the brothers unintentionally sums up the experience of watching this film so succinctly by stating it’s the sort of film he’d have been stoked to see at sixteen. And there’s the problem. Adolescent audiences aren’t known for discerning taste, something my 16-year-old self would agree with as he sits down to watch Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings (1993) for the third time. There are so many terrible horror films I saw as a teenager that, as an adult, I wouldn’t even consider re-watching again – even ironically just for the laughs. Extraterrestrial can be added to that list.
Once the film gets past the requisite opening kill (or in this case, abduction), we’re introduced to April (Brittany Allen) and her boyfriend Kyle (Freddie Stroma). The couple is headed out to the woods for the weekend to get April’s childhood cabin ready for sale since her parents recently divorced. Could be a romantic weekend, right? Not quite, as Kyle has taken it upon himself to invite three intolerably annoying friends, all of whom you will want to die immediately. Seth (Jesse Moss) in particular, who is one of those annoying YouTube prankster-types everyone wants to punch. Everyone gets to the cabin and parties hard into the night. Later, a bright shining object in the sky zooms down and crashes into the trees, drawing the kids out of the cabin the investigate. It’s a flying saucer, and a set of alien-like footprints seems to indicate something survived. The rest of the night has everyone running around like panicked morons while aliens kill them or control their minds or probe their butts. That last one isn’t a joke.
It’s difficult to even muster up the energy to discuss this film because it’s just so poorly handled. It isn’t even spectacularly bad; it’s just a miserable chore to watch. Alien films aren’t done often, or effectively, and I went into Extraterrestrial with an open mind hoping for something akin to, say, Fire in the Sky (1993). That movie is awesome. Instead, Extraterrestrial is filled with horribly clichéd caricatures of real people. Were they purposely written to be so annoying that we want them to die quickly? This is basically a rote cabin in the woods slasher film, only replace “masked killer” with “alien” and you’ve got the entire premise. When the kids kill off the first alien they see, apparently this breaks a treaty that has existed between aliens and humans, and now the tall skinny green guys are out to kill our hapless twentysomethings. This is all according to Travis, played by Michael Ironside, who gives the film all the gravitas it’s going to get and he actually provides a bit of comic relief as a paranoid pot grower.
The aliens look stereotypical – lanky, big eyes, big head – and they’re done with CGI that looks like it was pulled from a PlayStation video game. Some reviews have stated the computer effects blend well with the in-camera visuals, and that is true for some scenes that are static and don‘t feature moving characters, but the aliens here looked far too hokey and contrived to feel threatening or dangerous. Extraterrestrial might have been the sort of movie I’d have dug at sixteen, but it is definitely not the sort of fare I find entertaining in my thirties.
Typical of digitally shot productions, there’s not much fault to be found in the 2.35:1 1080p picture. There is no grain and no print damage, leaving the image remarkably crisp and clear. Color grading is mostly natural, although some of the daytime scenes have a slight yellow push. Black levels are a little more grey than black at times. A handful of scenes are presented as shot by Seth’s phone and they look chunky and ugly. Details are sharp, even when the picture is bathed in darkness.
An English DTS-HD MA 7.1 (not 5.1, as the back cover states) surround sound track carries the action here. This is an active track, with plenty of activity emanating from the rear speakers. Dialogue sounds clear and balanced within the mix. There are some nicely done moments of tension when the aliens are hiding in the shadows. The film’s score is a major mixed bag, though, with no sense of cohesion. It bounces from low-key synth to techno to terrible source music and bombastic bass explosions. It’s a schizophrenic mix that simply doesn’t suit the film very well. An English DTS-HD MA 2.0 track is also included. Subtitles are available in English, English SDH and Spanish.
The audio commentary features The Vicious Brothers & actors Brittany Allen and Melanie Papalia. I’m not going to pretend I listened to this because, frankly, I started it and just couldn’t bear to listen to the filmmakers trying to discuss what makes their film fun or different or whatever it is they think they made.
A handful deleted scenes (mostly extended character bits), “The Making of Extraterrestrial” and a trailer – all in HD – round out the extra features.
Special Features:
- Audio commentary with The Vicious Brothers & actors Brittany Allen and Melanie Papalia
- Deleted scenes
- The Making of Extraterrestrial
- Trailers
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Film
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Special Features
Categorized:Reviews
