Rent Extraterrestrial (2014)

Extraterrestrial review by Michelle Sommerville - Cinema Paradiso

I love science-fiction films, but I am in no way a fan of horror films. Extraterrestrial was so full of cliches, that you couldn’t be scared, because you knew everything that was going to happen. I give it three out of five stars because, despite its lack of imagination, they did well with maintaining the genre, and I think the creators are likely to make some good films after this.

The film - like every single horror film you can list - follows a group of friends that decide to take a trip and stay in a cabin in the woods. There are no serial killers or monsters, but in fact aliens. After they witness the UFO crash, things go from bad to worse, with one of the aliens surviving, and refusing to let them leave.

The film was full of cliches. I would imagine that if you were going to create an alien film (which has obviously been done so many times), that you would do everything you could to make it different and unique. The first half of the film was nothing new, however, it had the ability to suck you in and, by the end, you actually cared what happened. At times you were being pulled in too many directions, with extra storylines and characters that could have been left out. Without giving away any spoilers, the way the film ends will cause discussion. I think it was a good ending, but some will not like it as much.

I only saw one familiar face in the cast, and that was Gil Bellows. The cast didn’t do too bad, but worked well with what they were given. I’m sure they all grew up watching these kinds of films, so they knew the basics.

Extraterrestrial is from The Vicious Brothers who are only starting out in the film industry. They probably won’t make it big, but they at least have shown they understand the genre, and now they just need to find a way to make it unique and different.

The visual effects were pretty good. The action and bigger scenes were the strongest points, and the actual alien would have been better if they had constructed their own species design. Usually, the visual effects are one of the weakest points in lower-budget cliche films, but I was quite impressed. The colouring worked well with it too, and it helped to build the atmosphere.

Critic and audience reviews have not been kind to Extraterrestrial. The cliches were too much for many to overcome, and that ruined any possible positives that the film contained.

The film goes for just over an hour and a half, so it’s a good length to tell the story without dragging on. A lot of people will have trouble getting past the amount of cliche, but if you look at it as an homage, than you should be able to make it through. I recommend it, but I doubt it will be anyone’s absolute favourite film.