Movie Review: Alien Species

Alien Species

Starring: Charles Napier, Hoke Howell, David Homb, Jodi Seronick, Marc Robinson, Robert Thompson, Kurt Paul, Ashley Semrick, Aaron Jettleson, Barbara Fierentino, Master Dave Johnson, Roger Glugston, Lisa Donette May, Michael Tremont, Michael Reed, Paul Limebrook, Diane Hay, Jill Blevins, Douglas Dearing, Ron Lawson

Director: Peter Maris

American Interactive Pictures, USA, 1996.

This movie is published as a part of Nightmare Worlds 50 movie pack box published by Mill Creek Entertainment.

In 1999 Mighty Armada will dominate the Earth. Max Poindexter (Aaron Jettleson) and Holly Capers (Barbara Fierentino) are astronomers. They notice approaching spaceships. The UFOs abduct a cow (funniest scene in the movie). Meanwhile Sheriff Nate Culver (Charles Napier) supervises the transportation of two convicts: bad dude Aaron Doyle (David Homb) and good dude Paul Towers (Marc Robinson).

Max Poindexter

Holly Capers

Alien mothership

Two teens Denise (Lisa Donette May) and Tommy (Michael Tremont) are smooching. UFO kidnaps Denise and his daddy attacks it with a shotgun. UFO responds with death ray. The prison truck is stopped by a woman who had a car accident.

Cows

Bad criminal Aaron Doyle

Good criminal Paul Towers

UFO destroys other police cars, so Culver asks idiot & coward Deputy Banks (Kurt Paul) and smart & brave Larsen (Robert Thompson) to take the injured people in the prisoner transport truck. They are Professor Edgar Chambers (Hoke Howell), his granddaughter Stacy Chambers (Ashley Semrick) and Carol Nelson (Jodi Seronick).

Sheriff Nate Culver

Professor Edgar Chambers and Stacy

Carol Nelson

The UFOs destroy communication systems. They also tip over the prisoner transport truck. The passengers wander to a nearby cavern, but incidentally there is also an alien base. There are two kinds of aliens: small gray humanoids and bigger goblins. Then UFOs destroy the city.

Deputy Banks

City under attack

Holly saves her cat just before her house is blown up. Paul inherits a shotgun with infinite ammo from Deputy Larsen. The aliens have a zombie factory. Paul, Carol and Stacy barely survive out. Then the cave explodes. Then an UFO crash lands for no particular reason. Maybe the pilot drank too much space beer or something. Looks like the spaceship was full of New Year's fireworks.

Goblin alien

Gray aliens

Alien death effect

Conveniently Max arrives to give the trio a lift. The astronomers explain that they tried to warn the government about the UFOs but no one listened. Typical government. “Why do I suddenly feel like I’m in a bad episode of The X-Files?” asks Paul. The UFOs have an "Independence Day"- style force shield. Luckily Paul got a remote control for it from the cave. Max tries to hack its code. For some reason geeky Max has also a bazooka in his car. Paul, Max and Karen bring down the shield. After one spaceship is destroyed, the rest retreat. The end. Everything is left open for a sequel that was never realized.

Spaceships and fireworks do not mix

Epic hacking scene

Slightly better CGI

CGI effects are terrible. Also everything is made of Explonium. The dum-du-dum music tries to sound menacing but instead gets annoying. I had to check if any of the film crew has any ties to Syfy or The Asylum, but they have one have. Well, even Syfy's and Asylum's weakest movies look better than this. Charles Napier has nothing to do in this movie, mostly he phones someone or watches things go boom. Then he vanishes from the rest of the movie as also does Holly. Some of the crew have been involved in video game business (quite classic games such as "Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out!", "Phantasmagoria", "Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.") They should have stayed in that business.

Rating: Very Bad