A group of friends take a trip to an isolated cabin where
they are hunted down by aliens from another world. HORROR/SCI-FI
|
Extraterrestrial (2014)Directed by Colin Minihan
Written by Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz Starring Brittany Allen, Freddie Stroma, Melanie Papalia, Jesse Moss, Anja Savcic, Michael Ironside, Gil Bellows, Emily Perkins |
Of all the alien abduction movies I've seen from the backlog of Netflix's horror section, Extraterrestrial is not the worst one. It's not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but it doesn't take itself too seriously, which is a good quality for a film like this. The characters are somewhat likable and it's always fun to see Michael Ironside, even if his role is criminally underused. The aliens are creepy and unsettling and the film does have some genuine scares. What causes it to fail is a script loaded with horror and sci-fi cliches and a lack of actual story.
The plot is standard for an alien abduction story. Drunk teens in the woods piss off alien visitors and are hunted down by them. That's the long and short of it. I'm just happy this film wasn't found footage, because then it would have been even worse. Most of the film revolves around watching these frightened teens scream variations of "What the f**k is that?" as these aliens pick them off one by one. Michael Ironside plays a backwoods conspiracy nut with a tent full of weed and a UFO radar in his living room. How his role was minimized to a total of fifteen minutes, I have no idea. He was the most interesting part of the movie, apart from the finale that took place in outer space. Extraterrestrial was by the same guys who did Grave Encounters, one of the best found footage movies in recent years. If this film had just half of the scares that Grave Encounters had, it would've been a terrifying alien film on par with Dark Skies. But that's not the case. It suffers from a lack of originality and an oversimplification of characters. From the cabin in the woods to the shadowy government guy smoking a cigarette, nearly every aspect of this film was ripped off from something way better. Despite this film's inherent flaws, it's not as bad as some of the others I've seen. I'm curious what the Vicious Brothers' next film will be. Maybe they'll be scarier this time. |