Dir. Jake West, 2005, UK, 89mins
Cast: Emily Booth, Christopher Adamson, Norman Lovett, Jodie Shaw, Jennifer Evans
Review by Lorna Allen
Back in 1987 an unknown New Zealander by the name of Peter Jackson made a film about flesh eating aliens called Bad Taste before going on to woo the world with goblins and giant apes in Lord of the Rings and King Kong. 2005 and British writer, editor and director Jake West, who gained notoriety for his debut Razor Blade Smile, looks set to emulate the king of schlock with his own contribution to the low budget tongue in cheek blood fest subgenre with a film which Content Films claims will ‘do for ET’s what Shaun of The Dead did for zombies’. Perhaps they are on to something with Alien Autopsy starring home-grown boys next door Ant & Dec just around the corner.
Just to get this straight, Shaun of The Dead this is not - the humour isn’t quite sharp enough, the characters not quite likeable enough (in fact they are downright grotesque and sleazy) but nonetheless Evil Aliens is a valiant contribution to a genre which has been overly subdued and conventional for far too many years now. West displays a reflexive back to basics approach to this eulogy to the gory cult classics such as Aliens, The Evil Dead and Jackson’s Braindead with the commitment only a true (horror) movie geek could muster, embracing the absurd and the downright twisted with such utter relish and enthusiasm it’s hard not to applaud in sheer joy at some of his incredible and inventive set pieces.
The first British full length horror film to use the latest Sony HD (High Definition) cameras Evil Aliens contains over 140 digital effects shots and a huge amount of gory conventional special effects but despite all the hi tech shenanigans it’s charm comes from the fact that this all looks like a merry lark produced by a bunch of stoned students. Shaky hand held cameras, a staple of any self respecting low budget horror (especially after The Blair Witch Project), and blood which looks just a little too red work together to create a highly unconvincing but entertaining yarn.
The gist of the film is this. Michelle Fox (real life TV presenter and model Booth) is the feisty and ambitious presenter of the shady cable TV programme ‘Weird Worlde’ which is having trouble with its ratings losing out miserably to the Mormon shopping channel - apparently ghosts, aliens and UFO’s aren’t as common on British soil as Derek Accorah and the guys at Living TV would have us believe. With her high flying presenting job in peril (poor girl she can’t even afford enough material to cover her ample cleavage in the chilly British climate) she puts together a ramshackle team of assorted losers and degenerates to venture forth to Scalleum, a remote farming island of the north coast of Wales, to investigate the reported alien abduction of local farm girl Cat Williams (Evans) who claims to be in ‘the family way’ to her uninvited guests. Initially sceptical ‘Foxy’ and the gang fake their footage and stage a reconstruction but are prevented from leaving when their clapped out old van finally gives up the fight and they soon are engaged in some extremely close encounters with a third kind (and I’m not just talking about the welsh speaking half-witted Deliverance like locals who use manure as their primary source of power).
Queue scenes involving anal penetration using a customised power drill type appliance, three breasted Alien fantasies, frolics in crop circles, crucified crows, decapitations, flying eyeballs, bodily fluid gags of the most disturbing sorts and more mutilated cows than your local butchers.. Kudos must be given to a film which includes a scene where a head is torn off one chick’s body complete with dangling spine and then used as a weapon to bitch slap a bothersome alien into submission and the finale complete with that kicking horror anthem ‘I’ve Got a Brand New Combine Harvester’ (John Carpenter take note!) as a cameraman mows down a horde of rampaging aliens is a triumph of modern cinema. If you take your gore with a pinch of salt and plenty of tongue in cheek humour Evil Aliens is certainly one to watch (and that goes for Mr. West too).
Discuss this film here
|
