'Screeching scream.'
Welcome back to my Dark Corner of this Sick World.
'How long we got?'
'Long enough.'
We’re looking at British sci-fi schlock film, Xtro.
‘Did you have a bad dream?’
Father and Son, Sam and Tony are in the garden re-enacting the opening of 2001 A Space Odyssey.
When something takes Sam.
Nobody believes Tony so Sam’s wife assumes he has left and moves on with new man, Joe.
‘Hey Tony’
Then hires a future Bond girl to help around the house,
'Goodnight, sleep well.'
That relationship is never really explored.
But young Tony still suffers nightmares, and then.
'Oh my God!'
But he’s not hurt, so where did the blood come from? That same night.
Close Encounters of the crab walking kind,
The alien kills.
It also attacks a young woman,,,
and I think we know where this is going,
yeah, yeah, yeah, chestburster, seen it before.
And this where would cut the disturbing clip, but Youtube wouldn't allow it so join us on Patreon.
'That's not true.'
'It is true.'
Anyway it was dad Sam in there.
‘Sam?’
But being away has changed him,
he eats snake eggs,
and accidentally melts phones.
‘I’m not the same as before’
Now there is potentially something of interest here;
Sam’s been away three years but, for whatever reason his wife is willing to give credence to his story.
‘I don’t know where I’ve been’
Which is bound to create tension and drama since she has a new man.
'Sam!'
‘You crazy maniac’
Who, quite understandably, isn’t taking this well.
‘Can’t you feel any sympathy?’
That right there is an issue; sympathy, cos Sam is a killer alien,
wife Rachel is way too accepting,
‘Rachel, he walked out on you’
‘I don’t know that he did’
Joe is just a bit of a jerk. And I have question about Tony,
like does he not age for the last three years,
‘Maybe’
and why is he the only member of the cast who, based on his accent, is auditioning for Oliver.
‘But he was taken away’
Plus, him and Sam have been bonding.
This changes Tony,
‘If you think hard about something you can make it happen’
and the film starts to resemble that Mystery Science Theatre 3000 favourite, Pod People.
Trumpy no.
The toys becoming real I’m sure is meant to be sinister, but…
just funny.
Kind of an uneven tone this movie, one minute someone’s evading a toy tank with towel,
the next Maryam D’Abo’s home help is being turned into an alien cocoon,
that evolves into egg dispenser that looks like H. R. Giger designed a hamster’s water bottle.
We’ve encountered films like this before, ones which, about halfway through,
you realise are not going to add up and this is the only explanation you’re gonna get is...
'I went to another world.'
The weird stuff is just happening to happen.
There is no Tony, only Zool,
we had a panther, seemed a shame not to use it.
So there’s some gore,
some ick,
some weird sex,
#disturbing climax scream#
and whatever other random ideas they had to pad it out for long enough to reach the Alien/close encounters conclusion.
Amazingly this has two sequels and, even out of curiosity, I’m not minded to watch either.
'Think of your foot like your face and smile.'
Thanks for watching. For more alien movie reviews, click here.
I think this is the only alien abduction film we’ve looked at; what the best and worst of the sub-genre?
Let us know in the comments below.
'18, 19, 20 ready or not here I come.'