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Title: Alien Infiltration
Director: Colin Theys
Starring: Jeremy London, Roddy Piper, Cuyle Carvin, Adrienne LaValley
Certificate:15
Released: Out now
RRP: £13.29
The owner of a small town junkyard gets an unwelcome visitor in the shape of a crashed alien. She put a $100,000 price on its head and people from miles around arrive to try and claim the bounty. They soon realise that the alien has booby trapped the area and killing it isn't going to be easy as they thought.
I went into this film feeling well disposed towards it. The idea seemed silly enough to have a modern B movie feel and who doesn't love to see “Rowdy” Roddy Piper in action? Sadly by the time I reached the end my opinion had changed.
John Doolan's script has too many ideas being thrown at the wall and only a few of them stick. The end result is something of a mess. Doolan and director Colin Theys are clearly influenced by the work of film makers like James Gunn who have brought a post modern twist to the schlock B movie genre. Indeed one alien booby trap strongly homages/rips off Slither. Unfortunately the script is at best very unfocused and at worst a complete mess. Characters turn up out of nowhere and are then killed off with no dramatic or comedy effect. Two characters who look like their stories might go somewhere interesting are killed very quickly. Possibly the intention of this was to wrong foot the viewer as to who will survive but it comes across as sloppy.
Jeremy London does his best with the character of Brooklyn, but he is given absolutely nothing to do except turn up about every 15 minutes and be a bit sleazy. The problem is, like pretty much every character here, we know next to nothing about him. As a result you don't care what happens to him. Again this is the fault of a script that cares less about characters and more about getting to the next set piece.
There are two actors who manage to rise above the material. Roddy Piper is given slightly more to do as gun-toting Priest Father Melluzzo and has the charisma to paper over the cracks of his underdeveloped character. More crucially you like him and want him to survive and that is down to Piper's performance. The other stand out is Adrienne LaValley as ass-kicking pole dancer Liennea Gold. Her character gets the most development even if her background (girl who doesn't pole dance for money but because she's bored and is actually a tough chick) sounds like a teenager's hormone addled fantasy. Like Piper, LaValley has great screen presence and their scenes together are by far the most enjoyable.
The film's effects are also impressive. The alien spacesuit looks good but does little more than stomp around. It looks its best when they give it a little character but that doesn't happen nearly enough. The booby traps are also well executed and it's a pity that they feel wasted in an otherwise below par film.
There are some nice ideas in here. The basic premise is solid but the overall execution is confusing and fails to deliver enough horror or laughs to be as successful as the films it is looking to emulate. It might be worth taking a look if you stumble upon it on a late night showing on an obscure digital channel. Sadly it isn't a film I would recommend anyone part with money to see.
