Director: Bruce Wemple
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Following a series of alien sightings, a woman heads out to her remote farmhouse home to look into her father’s research with her estranged brother about what he was studying, and when they realize that some friends of theirs are potentially corrupted by an alien race have to stop him from killing.
Review:
This here was a decidedly decent enough if slightly flawed effort. Amongst the better features here is the film’s straightforward attempt at being a creature feature which is pretty much relegated to the second half of the film. Employing a heavy body-horror aspect that showcases a character slowly being turned from a regular person into a deformed alien creature slowly over the course of the film serves this one quite well as there’s a lot of fun to be had with the slow-burn nature of his change into this type of creature. The practical effects-work used here is also quite effective, helped along by the use of the creatures’ appearances in the second half as the concurrent discoveries about the existence of the alien race and their plan to stop the impending war about to happen that gives it all a rather fun series of connections that are rather nice to see play.
That said, there are a few flaws within this one that bring it down. The main detriment of the film is a wholly overcomplicated and confusing storyline that has the central setup of a workable genre effort but crams way too much into it for its own good. The idea of the strange device harboring a means of stopping an impending alien invasion that’s being recorded around the world and their quest to solve it is a fine enough idea but it’s wasted on a series of draining sequences filled with overly-complicated measures trying to get it to work that there’s a lot of issues brought up with how all over the place it is. Other setups here, including the alien’s presence on Earth and the origins of the invasion around the planet, are just as awkward which leaves everything quite complicated and difficult to follow.
The other factor with this one is a rather sluggish and dragged-out pacing that tends to drag the film to a halt during the middle with its lack of action. A large part of the film’s middle section is the rather pedestrian investigation angle that looks into the strange encounters but that occurs so slowly as these scenes are done in conjunction with the sibling relationship being strained and mended the entire time. While there are scenes with one character doing the changeover during this time, it’s not enough to offset the lack of action this whole thing brings about a dragged-down tempo where not a lot happens to keep the viewer invested in what’s going on. The other issue here is that there’s not a whole lot of genuine genre feel throughout here, with the sci-fi heavy nature of a lot of the scenes here that carries more of a sci-fi bent which might not be that enjoyable for some but overall isn’t as big a deal as the other factors.
Overview: **.5/5
A watchable if somewhat underwhelming sci-fi-laced creature feature, there’s enough to like here that it’s watchable for what it is but still has too many flaws to make it more than that. Those who are fine with these factors, appreciate this kind of indie creature feature, or are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like while those who aren’t into these features should heed caution here.
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