Review: Alien Predator

In 1979, Skylab crashed somewhere in Spain, and it brought something down in the fall. Something alien and very, very nasty. Cut to five years later as dorky Americans Dennis Christopher, Martin Hewitt, and their female tag-along Lynn-Holly Johnson are touring Spain in their RV (with a dune buggy in tow, I might add). They arrive in a small Spanish town that has been beset by the alien parasite, infecting locals and turning them into crazed monsters.

 

Actually predating “Predator”, this 1986 (released in the US in 1987) sci-fi/horror-comedy from writer-director Deran Sarafian (“Death Warrant”, “Gunmen”, “Terminal Velocity”) isn’t really what the title might suggest. Oh sure, there’s a predatory alien creature at the centre of it, but if there’s a film it most closely resembles, it’s not “Alien” or “Predator”, though I guess the prologue is a little “Alien”-esque. Instead, it’s seemingly a variant of/homage to “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. It’s not a bad film, just a very, very, very average one, and certainly not as worthy as Philip Kaufman’s 1978 version of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”.

 

The screenplay is pretty poor, so it’s no surprise Sarafian has mostly stuck to directing and producing (This film’s producer, by the way, was so disheartened by the behaviour of the crew here that it caused him to retire from the industry!). On the plus side, the central trio of characters are endearingly goofy, even if Olympic ice-skater Lynn-Holly Johnson is the furthest thing from an actress (She’s cute as a button, though and seems awfully sweet), and the best that can be said for bland Martin Hewitt is that he’s not nearly as bad as he was in “Endless Love”. The one bright spark in the cast is Dennis Christopher, and underrated and likeably goofy presence who has one of the best ‘shit-scared’ faces in the business, and has an amusing Billy Idol haircut here, too. He’s clearly the only actor in the bunch, but he’s hardly enough to make this one terribly substantial.

 

The European locales (it was filmed in Spain) give it a point of difference, without question. The scenery is really lovely, if you’re into that sort of thing, even if being a horror film shot on location dictates a lot of darkness, ruining the spectacle a bit. It also appears to be not taking itself all that seriously, which helps, but once again not enough to really lift the film. In fact, I’m not even 100% certain just how far in cheek the tongue is here. It’s pretty cheap, to be honest (terrible looping of secondary actors), though the gory FX aren’t bad.

 

Nothing worth rushing out and seeing, this European-set “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” variant is completely forgettable. Sure, it has some goofy charm with the central trio of characters, decent work by Dennis Christopher (who deserved a better career), and a bit of quite disgusting gore (if you’re into that kind of thing). It’s just that it’s all been done before and much, much better than this. Having said that, it’s also far from the worst of these mid 80s alien invasion B-grade horror films so if you’re desperate I suppose it might amuse you for a bit.

 

Rating: C