Save Yourselves!

Title: Save Yourselves! 
Director: Elenor Wilson, Alex Huston Fischer
Released: 2020
Starring: Sunita Mani, John Reynolds, Ben Sinclair, John Early, Jo Firestone, Gary Richardson, Johanna Day, Stephen Koepfer, Zenobia Shroff, Amy Sedaris

Plot: When hipster couple Jack and Su head to the country to unplug and reconnect with each other only to not realise that the film is under attack from alien invasion. 

Review: As someone who constantly finds myself wondering how some people survive day to day life with their shopping list of requirements for every aspect of their lives Save Yourselves! Seemingly also shares this curiosity and then raises it one more level by throwing them into the midst of an alien invasion by small fuzzy aliens which are essentially Tribbles from Star Trek.

Jack (Reynolds) and Su (Mani) are the hipster couple at the centre of this story who spend their lives living on their phones and laptops were the biggest issue in their lives seems to be that Jack closed Su’s tabs with Jack’s sole focus being to amass skills that are of no actual use let alone in an alien invasion by arguably the least threatening alien invasion ever with thier situation being perfectly layed out in the opening which itself would have made a great little short film on its own and really proved to be the high point for the film which at this point is only about 15 mins into its runtime and a bar the film struggles to really recapture.

Depending on your personal feelings towards hipster culture will play into your enjoyment of the film as this bumbling duo are pretty much the only people we get to see with the isolation of their cabin meaning that interactions with their fellow survivors are rare and when they do stumble into their vicinity they are usually too caught up in their own things to even notice them. Still while John Reynold’s Jack is easily the most hopeless of the two even at one point lamenting the lack of actual skills he has compared to his father and brother, its Su who really stops the irritation from overwhelming the film especially when it becomes clear that it’s more than being disconnected from technology that’s hindering the survival chances of this duo as Jack is more concerned over the gun safety statistics when they find a rifle than celebrating the fact they’ve improved their survival chances…..against small fluffy aliens. 

The likeability of our leads really does mean that the film faces an uphill struggle as certainly it has its humorous moments throughout, the film is also having to battle the personality of these characters as how are we supposed to concern ourselves over their chances of survival when we can’t care about them as characters? The film does take an adventurous turn into survival territory as the duo hit the road and thrown unwillingingly into adopted parenthood when they they find themselves lumbered with a baby to take care of. Perhaps this would be thing that give them the kick they need to refocus themselves but instead the film kind of just ends with the hipsters being returned to the comfort of a bubble. 

Whether the ending was a result of budget or just not knowing how to end the film is unclear much like how you will take it as will its an ending it just kind of left me asking but what of it. Still for those of you who’ve been waiting for an alien invasion episode of Portlandia might find much to enjoy here especially as it works in jokes about mason jars and making sourdough but then it never feels like the sort of film which is trying to carve out new ground but instead pose a what if.

Invaders From Mars

Title: Invaders From Mars
Director: Tobe Hooper
Released: 1986
Starring: Karen Black, Hunter Carson, Timothy Bottoms, Laraine Newman, James Karen, Bud Cort, Louise Fletcher

Plot: When 12 year old David sees an alien spacecraft landing over the hill behind his house nobody believes him, but when the aliens begin taking over the residents of the town he might be the only one to stop their plot

Review: Another film from Tobe Hooper’s silver era (85 -95) which saw him still making still making interesting horror films even if they lacked the shocks of his earlier films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist but still retained a strong visual style which can certainly be said for this remake of the original 50’s B-Movie which despite starting out like a straightforward remake soon gets taken by Hooper into some really interesting directions while working from a script by Dan O’Bannon which might explain the beachball aliens 

Opening with a bout of saturnine sweet stargazing with his dad who handily works for the small town branch of NASA, a town which also is home to a military base that’s bigger than the town it’s based in. Still the fact that this scene is played so hard like being clubbed by a sack of puppies means that when dad goes over the hill to check on his son’s claims about a spaceship landing on the other side the personality shift is instantly recognisable just encase him gulping down steaming hot coffee loaded with sweeteners wasn’t a big enough clue. These weird tastes are only further added to when Mom gets body snatched as well and start serving up cremated bacon and eating raw hamburger.

As the aliens start slowly taking over the town residents who venture over the hill the film really brings an Invasion of the Body Snatchers which is played a lot more stronger here than in the original which kept its focus around the family home while here Hooper extends the vision to include the whole town as the aliens create tunnels under the town and gives us a fantastic scene of a group of kids being taken on a field trip to the hill unaware they are soon going to be taken over by the aliens. 

George here played by Hunter Carlson is not a fantastic actor which could also be said for his mother Karen Black who here plays the school nurse who finds herself on the run with George as they try to convince the other residents of the secret alien invasion. Louise Fletcher meanwhile is on phenomenal form as the odious school teacher Mrs. McKeltch who is also a key player in the invasion plot while also one of the few people who feels like less of an emotionless drone even if her emotions seem to be locked on permanent disdain for all children and George especially. 

When it comes to the aliens the film certainly delivers with some great effects being provided by Stan Winston’s team in one of their more overlooked projects alongside Pumpkinhead and the mutant hillbillies of Wrong Turn. Here we get the drones who are big toothy beach balls on legs while the head alien has a weird similarity to Kang which is just an added bonus for Turtles fans. Hooper even includes a cameo by the original head alien from the 50’s original which shows up in the school basement. 

Despite the frequently awful performances of the leads this is actually a fun remake which takes what worked with the original and kicks it up a notch similar to what we saw with The Blob remake even if this film doesn’t hit those heights it still works enough to be a fun time throughout.



Contamination

Title: Contamination
Director: Luigi Cozzi
Released: 1980
Starring: Ian McCulloch, Louise Marleau, Marino Mase, Siegfried Raunch, Gisela Hahn

Plot: When a container ship drifts into New York with the crew seemingly missing and carrying a cargo of mysterious green eggs which explode when exposed to heat killing anyone unfortunate enough to be near them. 

Review: In an alternative world I could very much see this film as a Bond plot and sure there might be those purists who might scoff at such an idea but let’s not forget that this is a franchise which has already seen Bond go into space, battle voodoo priests and let’s not forget that invisible car! So a plot featuring exploding eggs which unleash a killer virus which causes its victims to explode in gruesome ways is not too out of reach of being a Spectre plot surely. 

Directed by Luigi Cozzi a regular collaborator of Dario Argento who prior to this film had directed the Star Wars cash in Starcrash with this film originally envisioned by the producers as resembling Alien something that Cozzi lamented in an interview with Cinefantastique 

“What can I do? In Italy, when you bring a script to a producer, the first question he asks is not ‘What is your film like?’ but ‘What film is your film like?’ That’s the way it is in Italy. We can only make Zombie II, never Zombi I.”

But with Alien 2 on Earth already having been released the producers instead took the title from an untitled Lucio Fulci film Contamination: Atomic Project which had been based on The China Syndrome. Further funding would also come from Columbian drug dealers who were apparently very pleased with the film when it made them money on their investment. 

The film while for the most part doesn’t represent Alien outside of a flashback from Ian McCulloch’s shell shocked astronaut Commander Ian Hubbard who discovered the mysterious eggs during a mission to Mars which apparently also has ice caves with monster-faced opening. This flashback sequence is actually an impressive piece of miniature work that only loses its magic when a bright light makes the miniature work more obvious than it looked in the shadows.

With the government leaping into action to find the source of these killer eggs being smuggled into the country it’s kind of a ragtag team they put together with Hubbard being joined by the Military scientist Colonel Stella Holmes (Marleau) who is all about direct action calling in the flamethrowers soon as they find a cache of killer eggs. Rounding out the group is Marino Mase as a sarcastic NY cop who first discovers the egg and for some reason is brought along for the ride though most of the time he’s there to provide humorous quips and hit on Col. Holmes rather than bringing any real skillset to the group. 

While the film certainly starts off strong it does hit a slight lull in the middle before turning into a Bond lite finale for the finale when the trio investigate a plantation which soon proves to be a cover for the hatchery and a giant cyclops alien. Cozzi had planned to film the alien using animation or stop motion only for the producers to force him to use animatronics which failed to work but like so many of the shortcomings of the film created by budget limitations or things not working the way they should Cozzi does a great job of patching over these issues and certainly with this cyclops which while perhaps not intimidating as the producers might have hoped is still a largely effective creation. 

When it comes to the virus effects the film delivers right from the start as we get bodies (and one rat) exploding internally while shot almost voyeuristically in slow motion with the camera lingering on their bloody remains. This would be enough to land the film on the video nasties list before like the majority of the list being released uncut and while the effects might seem obvious now with bulky costumes hiding the mechanisms which spray the gore their gusto that these effects are done with brought me the same gorehound joy as the now legendary exploding head in scanners.

Sure the film has its flaws be it from budget issues or producer demands but Cozzi for the most part makes it work with only a sagging middle to detract from the fun gory effects which provide the thrills to a standard alien invasion plot.

The Blob (1988)

Title: The Blob
Director: Chuck Russell
Released: 1988
Starring: Kevin Dillon, Shawnee Smith, Donovan Leitch, Jeffrey DeMunn, Candy Clark, Del Close, Sharon Spelman, Beau Billngslea, Art LaFleur, Paul McCrange, Joe Seneca

Plot: Crash landing on the outskirts of a small mountain town, it’s not long before the ravenous alien has set its sights on consuming the entire town.

Review: Joe Bob Briggs once questioned why Hollywood doesn’t remake bad movies with a good idea than just remaking good movies. It certainly seems to be advice taken on by Chuck Russell who after Nightmare on Elm St Part 3 gave us possibly one of the best horror remakes ever. Here he teams up again with Frank Darabont on script duties and effects by a then unknown Tony Gardner who would go on to do Darkman and The Adams Family.

Now while the original was not without it’s b-movie charms it’s plodding pacing always stopped me from liking it as much as I wanted even though the titular creature is just fantastic. In the hands of Russell though it’s a completely different beast of a movie as this version of the blob flies about the screen, dissolving cast members and small children alike all while providing some truly memorable moments of horror.

These changes however aren’t just limited to the titular monster as Russell pulls a fun switch-a-roo as he introduces the good looking football player Paul (Leitch) only to suddenly kill his character off and go with the motorcycle riding troubled youth Brian (Dillon). Putting this spin on the story gives it fresher feel than just being a by the numbers remake while essentially making anyone in the film a potential victim. The other major change here being the introduction of the evil government scientists which put them in perfect confict with the anti-authority Brian while on a visual side seeing a group of scientists running around in white Bio-Hazard suits is such a great visual to the film, clearly marking them out from the townsfolk.

Because the monster is much more of an imposing threat not to mention the advances in practical effects we get some great kills throughout the film as Russell uses the creatures gelatinous state to enable it to appear anywhere and give us such memorable moments as one victim being dragged down a plughole, while another finds herself being smothered inside a phonebox. The visuals of these attack scenes all having such great build up combined with the unrelenting nature of the creature which essentially only lives to hunt and consume everything. Throw into the mix a creepy / fanatical preacher, Bio-hazard clad scientists, flamethrowers, Paul McCrane threatening to shoot Brian “out of his shoes” aswell as a fun third act twist on the premise and it’s just a blast throughout even if the finale which teases a sequel never to happen still bugs me like like the sequel baiting ending of “Deep Rising”.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Title: Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Director: Don Siegel
Released: 1956
Starring: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan, Carolyn Jones

Plot: Returning from his trip Dr. Miles Bennell (McCarthy) encounters a number of patients who believe that their relatives have been replaced with imposters who are identical in appearance. However he soon discovers that this suspected mass hysteria is in fact a secret alien plot to take over the world.

Review: Much like The Stepford Wives there is the feeling that going into this film that you have seen it before you’ve watched it due to being one of those films that is so ingrained in pop culture with the film going on to spawn three remakes with Philip Kaufman’s 1978 remake often viewed as being as good as this original film.

Blending together the usual fun of 50’s scifi horror with a noir undertone which in many ways makes me want to pair it on a double feature with the equally influencial Kiss Me Deadly whose own glowing box would be homaged in both Repo Man and Pulp Fiction. At the same time the film taps into the paranoia of the era of a secret communist invasion aswell as the McCarthy witch hunt

Shot on a small budget this adaptation of the Jack Finney novel was ignored by critics upon it’s originally release, only years later being recognised and given the credit it deserved with many critics quick to draw the comparisons to the political climate of the time despite no one on the production thinking they were making anything other than a thriller.

Subtle in it’s portrayal of this secret invasion there are no major set pieces with Siegel instead choosing to focus on a small group consisting of the doctor, his ex-girlfriend Becky, best friend Jack and his wife Teddy as they uncover the mysterious pods which turn into identical clones of the humans they are slowly replacing. The tension slowly cranked up as the number of people they can trust continues to dwindle and with connections outside of the town disconnected Siegel really does a great job of closely closing in the walls as paranoia and fear about whose actually still human runs rampant.

Thanks to the meddling of the studio who turned out to be their own group of mindless pod people with their demands for changes meaning that the film does loose some of it’s power thanks to Siegel being forced to add a prologue / epilogue to remove some of the films hopelessness and sheer pessimism which when edited out only makes the film stronger as we close on a broken and paranoid Miles running down the highway attempting to warn the rest of humanity of the alien theat which lurks in their midst all the while being seen as some kind of mad man. However despite these enforced changes the film still manages to be effective while also featuring some great special effects for the hatching (or should that be popping) pod sequence in the greenhouse.

Even if you think you know the story this is a film still well worth giving a look even if I didn’t vibe with it as much other people it would seem looking at Letterboxd.