Director: Brandon Slagle
Year: 2020
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
After capturing a vicious drug lord, a team of SWAT officers are assigned to move him to a secure location to await trial only to find themselves stuck in the middle of an alien invasion that compromises their mission, forcing them to band together with several other inmates at a secure safe-house to stave off the threat.
Review:
There was a lot to like with this one. One of its strongest aspects is the enjoyable setup that manages to throw the group into the fray when they least expect it. The setup of the team taking out the drug-runners and then celebrating while the slowly-encroaching storyline about the invasion taking place at the same time comes off rather well as the invasion comes off with a great touch. Seeing the kids’ drawings that act as a precursor for what’s to come, and with the reveal here featuring the attack on the cops investigating the ship crashing, the first few encounters along the city-streets and out in the suburbs showing the aliens arriving and destroying much of the area causing mass confusion and panic starts the film rather nicely.
This series of early introductions gives way to a nice series of encounters throughout here with the team taking on the aliens breaking into their compound safe house. Featuring several strong gun-battles with the slowly-dwindling crew taking on the ravenous creatures and their vampiric tendencies, these scenes are incredibly fun with their frenetic style and use of practical effects for the monstrous beings which allows the suspense to get much bigger during the escape attempt. As there’s some great fun here with the continued escalation of events as the invading aliens continually provide more obstacles to overcome and increasing the action in that sense as well as the suspense, the film feels like a true beginning of an apocalyptic endgame which is quite appreciative, making for a lot to like here.
This one does have some minor issues which basically amount to simple nitpicks at times. The decision to include a melodramatic subplot involving one of the characters’ condition doesn’t need to be included when it doesn’t get brought up until midway through and feels way too cloying with its treatment as a cure for the invasion. A timewasting flashback to explain a first encounter with the creatures doesn’t need to be there other than showcase a wasted guest-star that could’ve been told via narration and accomplished the same thing. Despite how well the practical gore effects and monster suits for the aliens look, the times where it resorts to CGI for the alien attacks look incredibly cheap and distracting which stands out in the film. Beyond that, there isn’t a lot wrong with the film.
Overview: ****/5
With some minor setbacks that basically tend to emerge as minor nitpicks rather than overarching flaws with the film as a whole, there’s quite a lot to like here and makes this a fun genre effort. This is certainly worthwhile for fans of sci-fi/horror, those that are intrigued by the storyline or fans of the creative crew, while those that aren’t followers of this style of film should heed caution.
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