Director: Tobe Hooper
Year: 1985
Country: United Kingdom/USA
Alternate Titles: Space Intruders; Space Vampires
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
When a returning space shuttle's contents get loose in London, the authorities track down the lone survivor of the expedition to help them understand a newly-discovered series of space vampire creatures' motives as it rampages throughout the city looking for more victims.
Review:
This here turned out to be quite an entertaining if slightly flawed effort. One of it's greatest aspects to be found in the film is the absolutely stellar sci-fi qualities in the storyline. The opening discovery of the space ship hidden within the comet and the resulting approach, taking the crew out of their transport and out into the newly-discovered machine which is a stellar sequence. From their space-walk to get to it and following that up with the stellar trip through the artery-like tunnel into the futuristic chamber that contains the desiccated skeletons which contain the vessels they end up transporting back to the command center is a truly enjoyable starting point to the film. With the crystalline appearance of their slumbering chambers and the general feel of their equipment, this section really manages to hold the strong science fiction qualities together rather nicely.
There's still a lot to like here with the film also offering up plenty of exciting, grandiose action scenes. This is one of the main aspects of the film that really work well, including the vampires' initial escape from the facility by having the escaped girl overwhelm the guards and followed by the confrontation with the revived male vampires when they attempt to escape. With the autopsy going wrong and the eventual discovery of the recovered bodies bringing the authorities closer to understanding what’s going on with the creatures’ rampage, there’s enough here to keep this one moving along while helping to unleash her main plan. There’s a lot to like there., a dash across the English countryside to corral the creature and some high-scale scenes of city destruction in the finale that offers more of a science-fiction spectacle that horror-based thrills and when matched with some nice gore bits and continuous nudity from those well-able to provide it makes for a pretty entertaining effort.
There are some big flaws with this one. One of the main issues is the fact that this one is quite a bit longer than necessary, it's running time dragged out by the inclusion of scenes that really serve no purpose being there to begin with or simply taking far too long to get it's point across when some streamlining could've been incredibly beneficial. Take off anywhere between five to ten minutes off this one and it's golden, especially if it would've bothered to answer several rather important questions within that would've helped make this one more enjoyable, one of which is even voiced by a character in the film which is never a good sign. Still, while the creature's continuous threat and historical significance played into their back-story are nice touches overall, the concept of the ploy by the alien to overtake the city with the virus they’re unaware of preventing makes no sense whatsoever. All told, these issues manage to hold the film down overall.
Overview: ***.5/5
It's a little cheesy and has some issues with the pacing due to the running time, but overall the film manages more than enough positives to stay interesting in the long run. Give this a chance if you're intrigued by the premise, a fan of these cheesy genre features or a fan of the creative crew, while those that aren't into any of those should heed caution.
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