Without warning.
A young David Caruso hooks his buddy up with his girlfriends best friend and they all head out to the middle of nowhere as teens are want to do in these types of films. Naturally their warned off by the creepy old sod at the gas station, here played by the legend Jack Palance, and naturally the warning does sod all good as Caruso is horny and looking for some outdoors fun with his lady.
Rather than the traditional drooling backwoods sociopath to contend with, theres something a little different out in this wilderness. An unseen alien force throwing what can only be described as 'spunky shuricans' at whoever happens to be wandering about. The shurican thingys are some sort of biological weapon that attach to whoever they hit and tentacles burrow through the skin in the kind of gloopy special effects mess that was popular at the time. Naturally the kids must try and avoid becoming victims, unlike the numerous other random folk wandering about including Cameron mitchell and a scenery chewing Martin Landau as a nutty veteran who seems to be inventing his own set of rules about the alien as the film progresses. We also get appearances from Neville brand and Ralph meeker.
The film is directed by Greydon Clark who also directed the nutty yet entertaining the return previously to this (and also recently issued on blu) and would also direct a personal favorite of mine WACKO, one of my favorite horror spoofs. The producer Daniel Grodnick (who is also one of the writers) also produced TERROR TRAIN the same year. While that was a big hit this film seems to have petered out with some bad reviews.
A shame as this is a ridiculous and schlocky piece of fun that is well worth a watch. It looks fantastic thanks to cinematography from Dean Cundy and the alien when it appears looks mental in a charming way. The dialogue is at times terrible with the now immortal line "aliens aint human you know" and the whole endevour is 90 minutes of fun that looks to have been completely stolen in places for PREDATOR!
Until now the film has been incredibly difficult to obtain. I'd seen the film previously on a dodgy VHS bootleg some many years ago and since then has been like rocking horse s***. Sadly its scream factory so region locked but if you can play it then you should buy it.
Finsihed up the night with A BOY AND HIS DOG, which looks phenomenal on blu-ray. The films itself is still a classic of the post apocalypse genre with a superb central performance from Don Johnson. Especially good to revist the commentary as L Q Jones is fantastic. Not only a legend in the field of acting but a first rate director as well. Lets not forget the talking dog as well or the underground colony of god fearing dystopian mimes.
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