Without Warning - Alien Big Game Hunting

Without Warning
1980
Directed by Greydon Clark
Written by Lyn Freeman, Daniel Grodnik

Starring Jack Palance, Martin Landau & Cameron Mitchell

Rated R - Approx 89 Min
Heritage Enterprises Inc.

Filmways Pictures 


Taglines:

 - The Alien Terror Is Here On Earth.
 - It Preys On Human Fear. It Feeds On Human Flesh.

 - Earth Is The Hunting Ground. Man Is The Endangered Species.





Alternate Titles:
Alien Warning
It Came Without Warning
Alien Encounters
The Warning - UK
Llegan sin avisar (They Come Without Warning) Spain
Ilman varoitusta (Without Warning) Finland
Varoitus (Warning) Finland 
Utan varning (Without Warning) Sweden
Terreur extraterrestre (Alien Terror) France
Πλανήτης Γι: Παιγνίδι για εξωγήινους (For Planet: A Toy For Aliens) Greece
Fenyegetés (Threat) Hungary
Horror - Caccia ai terrestri (Horror - Hunt For Land) Italy
Ostrzezenie (Warning) Poland
Alien Shock - West Germany

Das Geheimnis der fliegenden Teufel (The Mystery of the Flying Devils) West Germany

"No chance....no help....no escape...."
                                                          -Sarge

I was going to wait until the fancy new Blu Ray from Shout Factory dropped to review this one, but damnit, I really wanted to watch it and after watching it, I decided...what the hell....why not review it now and add to the hype!

                                            

                                             

Palance, Mitchell & Landau!  It's like and early 80's extraterrestrial Expendables! 

Without Warning is another film that falls very nicely into the Campfire Tale Feeling™ brand of movies.  From the first frame, it drips with atmosphere and dread.  The plot is absolutely nothing new:  There's something in the woods and it's hunting humans.  It's how the plot is executed that really makes this one for me.  First of all, there's a who's-who of some of my favorite actors:  Jack Palance, Martin Landau and Cameron Mitchell all under one title?  Sold!  Secondly they save the monster for the end, like a classic should.  For the bulk of the movie we only see the strange little flying critters that it tosses at it's prey, which then attach to them, sucking their fluids out.

The Flying Frisbee Creatures™ in all their glory

These little critters are nasty looking.....they are slimy, brown little pentagon shaped things.  They fly through the air like a Frisbee until they attach to their intended prey.  Then they secure themselves on to said prey through tentacles that burrow into the flesh of the prey.  They have gnashing teeth in the center that look like they could give quite a hickey if given half the chance.

Don't mind the dead bobcat there....

Who the hell is Zorba????

The film opens with Cameron Mitchell's character taking his son on a hunting trip.  It's not very long into their morning excursion that they are both taken out by the Frisbee Critters.  Now you KNOW all bets are off when Cameron Mitchell is the first to go!  We then shift our attention to a teenage foursome on their way to "The Lake".  Isn't it funny how everyplace has "The Lake"?  It never has a name....it's always just...."The Lake".  Kinda like how when they need an expert on something in a flick, they'll just call "The University".  That's always amused me.  Anyway, I digress.

"The Lake"

The foursome, Sandy, Greg, Beth and Tom stop on their way to "The Lake" to get some gas at a little ramshackle gas station.  Right outside there's a dead bobcat hung from a tree.  Huh!  Looks like a friendly place, don't it?  The place appears to be abandoned, so naturally the girls seek out the bathroom while the guys fill up the van after realizing that there are no locks on the pumps.

Greg and Sandy search for their friends

Here we are introduced to two more characters that we'll be seeing more of down the road:  The Sarge (Landau) whom Sandy runs into while investigating the men's room (the women's room is locked) and Taylor, who owns the gas station and is apparently quite the avid hunter.  Hmmmm, foreshadowing much?  The gang pays for their gas and spills the beans that they are headed toward "The Lake".  Taylor warns them not to go there...stating that there are too many hunters around and there have already been accidents.  He makes the kids promise they won't go.  The kids promise (and I'm sure they each had their fingers crossed) and go on their merry way.

What could possibly go wrong with a Scoutmaster bringing a bunch of scouts into alien infested woods?

Naturally, the head start for "The Lake" where they swim and make out and what-not.  It's all downhill from there for the kids.  Tom and Beth vanish and after searching for them, Greg and Sandy come across a shed owned by the Water Dept.  Looking inside they find not only the bodies of Tom and Beth, but of Cameron Mitchell, his son and a Scout Master that was taken out earlier in the film as well.  They make a break for it, running back to the van.  On of the Flying Frisbee Critters lands on their windshield, where we get a good look at the freaky little thing.  Being a horror flick, the van won't start at first.....so we get a nice moment of tension as Greg desperately tries to start the van while SOMETHING is trying to get in the side door.  Oh the suspense!

Here's a fun gallery of dead bodies for ya!

Greg and Sandy drive off to find help, ending up at a bar full of country folk.....and Sarge.  Greg tells his tale of finding the bodies in the water shed, and about the Flying Frisbee Creature, which makes the locals think that perhaps the kid is in cahoots with Sarge, who's been babbling about alien invasion for years.  Unfortunately Sarge starts to become more and more unhinged as the night goes on.  The power goes out and as the Sheriff arrives, Sarge shoots him, thinking him to be an alien.  Taylor (remember our hunter friend from the gas station) takes Greg and Sandy and the threesome try to find a way to turn the tables on the extraterrestrial hunter....eventually ending in a western-ish showdown.  Would you have it any other way with Jack Palance?

The Bar Scene is SO Campfire, I felt like I needed s'mores!

I haven't watched this film in years.  It has never been available on DVD and I think the only VHS copies were only available overseas.  The Blu Ray edition from Shout Factory on August 5th is going to be the first time that this film is available on home video in the states.  I do remember seeing in on cable sometime in the late 80's....I have a very strong memory of watching this alone late one night in my family's sun-porch (where we had a nice little entertainment center setup) long after everyone else had gone to bed.  If I'm not mistaken, I had crept downstairs to watch it late one night.

Oh dear Jesus, what in the hell is THAT?

GORE
There is a fair amount of gore on display here.  The Flying Frisbee Critters make a bit of a mess when they attach themselves to a victim, with slimy tentacles and gnashing teeth tearing up human flesh.  There's also a good look at the dead bodies hanging in the water shed, with some good gore fx on them.

T&A
No nudity in this one.  Couple of girls in bikinis are all yer gonna get here, mister!

MONSTERS
Awwww yeah!  First of all there's the Flying Frisbee Critters.  Slimy little pentagon shaped critters with tentacles and teeth that fly through the air just waiting to burrow into your skin and gnaw on you!  Then there's The Hunter alien.  He's a tall, bald mofo that looks very similar to the standard description of aliens.  Only instead of short and grey, he's tall and blue.  Still, a disturbing sight, especially if you're like me and aliens freak you out!

Showdown by the Water Shed

Final Thoughts
Why this movie has never had a wide release before is beyond me.  It's got everything you could possibly want:  Aliens, gore, campy acting, great actors, and a palpable feeling of dread.  Truly one of the best scenes in all of B-movie cinema is the bar scene that takes place about at the midway point.  It oozes that Campfire Tale Feeling™.  I cannot wait until this comes out on Blu Ray.  I would love to see this film cleaned up and I can't wait to see it find a larger audience.  This is truly a classic and a gem.  Don't Miss It!

Final Rating 
FOUR OUT OF FIVE PIZZA ROLLS!

Childhood Trauma Flashback: Part V - Weekly World News

I've told you many times about my childhood Friday night tradition:  Shopping with Mom, then the video store to rent a flick, etc.  Well today I want to talk a little bit about a vital piece of the trip to the grocery store:  Weekly World News.  Being a Friday night, the store was quite busy usually which meant that it was a longer wait in the check out line.

Sometimes I would go and check out the quarter prize machines (which are a staple at every grocery store to this day) to scope out the groovy goods.  Other times I would just stay put in the line with Mom.  What was the determining factor?  The front page of the Weekly World News.  The headlines that adorned that magical bit o questionable journalism were quite often the stuff of legend.  THREE HEADED BIGFOOT FOUND IN NORTH DAKOTA!  SPACE ALIENS TAKE OVER ENTIRE TOWN IN VIRGINIA!  FISH FOUND WITH HUMAN LEGS!  

For a kid obsessed with Dinosaurs, Monsters and UFO's, this was quite often the highlight of my week.  However just as often as the front page would keep me in awe, it would scare the crap out of me.  Doomsday messages, "real" photographs of Satan in the smoke of an oil fire and various other frightening phenomena would be emblazoned across the front page.  Sometimes Mom would let me buy the paper so I could read all about Bat Boy's latest adventures or how the Hubble Telescope managed to take a photograph of heaven.  

There was one issue that scared me more than any other, and I've written about it before:  The Last Words of the Challenger Crew.  I'm not going to go into detail of that particular issue because I already did so here.  I'll tell you what though....that stayed with me for a long time.  I felt an icy pit in my stomach that I just couldn't shake.  To this day, if Weekly World News or The Challenger come up in conversation my first thought is immediately that horrifying transcript that I read that night....and it still sends a chill down my spine. 

Welcome to the Shadowlands - An Interview with Andrew Parietti

Issue #8

Recently I came across a new magazine at my local Barnes & Noble.  There in the ever shrinking film magazine section was a hand drawn Planet of the Apes cover (Issue #7).  Admittedly I'm not a huge fan of Planet of the Apes, but I AM a fan of The Evil Dead which, was also listed on the cover....not to mention there was just something about the magazine as a whole that appealed to me.  Needless to say, I bought it, read it and loved it.

I was even more thrilled when I came across Issue #8, which features a fantastic portrait of a Xenomorph on it's cover (you can bet that I'll be nominating that for a Rondo this year...it's FANTASTIC!)  The accompanying feature on the Alien series was also a fantastic read.  After devouring Issue #8, I knew that I had to find out more about this magazine, so I contacted creator/editor Andrew Parietti and he was kind enough to take some time out for an interview!


Tell us a bit about yourself!

I'm the editor and publisher of Shadowland Magazine, a quarterly print publication that covers the best in horror, sci-fi and fantasy entertainment. I'm an avid fan of each the aforementioned genres – an interest that began before I could even remember.

Issue #8 Back Cover

What was the genesis of Shadowland Magazine?

Shadowland was really an endeavor to recapture the glory days of publications like The Monster Times, Starlog and, to some degree, Comics Scene. I've had an interest in publishing my own magazine for some time, so when I finally had the opportunity to try my hand at it, it was a no-brainer. While there's a guide – or “For Dummies” instructional/reference book – for nearly everything nowadays, a step-by-step handbook on magazine
publishing has yet to see the light of day. Starting up the magazine was very much a trial-by-fire approach but, fortunately, most of the wrinkles were ironed out well before the first issue went to the printer. Though it's still an endless learning experience.

Within the span of nine issues, the magazine has already evolved considerably. The first three issues were around 52 pages and we've since increased our page count to 104 pages. And, since issue #7, our distribution numbers have increased considerably, hitting not only more comic/hobby shops than ever before, but newsstands and bookstores like Barnes & Noble.

Shadowland has a varied mix of horror, sci-fi & fantasy...covering movies, books, comics, video games, television and more. What criteria do you use when selecting material for Shadowland?

Issue #7

When selecting material to include in Shadowland I'm always looking to apply a mix of the mainstream and obscure. However, if an article is covering a mainstream topic, I would always rather that it take a unique approach to the subject. For example, Shadowland #3 (our 'Bat Issue') featured an excellent retrospective by Flynn Cook who defended the two heavily-criticized Schumacher Batman films (Batman Forever & Batman and Robin), and offered both credible and insightful reasons for their merit. While those two films are far from obscure, Cook's article was not only 'out of the box' but offered a fresh look at the material. Alternatively, in the same issue there was Frank Warden's Rondo Award-nominated article that analyzed the lesser known 1930 film, The Bat Whispers – a criminally underrated technical masterpiece that rarely gets a mention in any magazine.

At the end of the day, which material to include is a bit of a
balancing act, because articles on Planet of the Apes, Ghostbusters, Alien, The Phantom of the Opera, Batman and the Evil Dead will always draw in the mainstream readers and garner significant interest across the board. By including these we can also cover topics that are far from the norm, like the 1987 made-for-TV Bates Motel movie, the unreleased Hellraiser: Virtual Hell video game, and the 1990s Robocop live-action television series, to name but a few.

Issue #6

Another goal is to balance out the horror, sci-fi and fantasy articles without focusing too much on one genre. And Shadowland never settles on one set era to cover. We've included content from silent films to modern summer blockbusters. Ultimately, I use my own fan 'barometer' to gauge the content – is this issue something I would pick up in a store? Would I spend my money on this? Are these articles something I would care to read? If all the answers are yes, and so far they
have been for each issue and every included article, I know I'm on the right track.

So many current magazines focus on a single niche genre, that they really have their respective market cornered. For example, Scary Monsters is the preeminent source of classic horror, and G-Fan is the go-to publication for Godzilla films and giant Japanese monsters. HorrorHound touches upon multiple eras of horror films from classic to new, they also tend to pay special attention to the 1980s era of slashers. All of these are fantastic publications and have not only set the bar, but raised it.

Issue #5

I know of no one who's strictly into horror, yet hates all sci-fi (or fantasy). And vice versa. That applies to 'in-genre' appeal as well. Sure, someone may love the classic Universal horror films and hate the gory '80s slashers, but there's many more who can find enjoyment in both. I feel that the diverse blend that
Shadowland covers really sets it apart from the current line-up of publications on the shelves.

What/Who are your inspirations?

The 1980s/early '90s run of Starlog Magazine was a strong inspiration for Shadowland. That era was a great time for the horror, sci-fi and fantasy genres and quite possibly Starlog's finest hour. You take a look at those back issues and you find amazing articles on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the Star Trek films when they were starring the original crew, Tim Burton's Batman, Aliens, Robocop, James Bond, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Gremlins, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Terminator 2 – it was one heck of a time for movies. Plus with the advent of home video and the studios' newfound drive for tie-in merchandising, the medium exploded like never before. There were endless amounts of subjects to tackle, and Starlog did it
best.

Issue #4

Comics Scene, an offshoot of Starlog, was another influence. It was one of the first major magazines in the United States to not only be completely devoted to covering comic books, but was one of the first to explore the rising popularity of Japanese anime, including Akira and Lensman. This was also at a time pre-internet explosion, so both Comics Scene and Starlog were on the cutting edge. Nowadays, that's near impossible for any print publication; as soon as the ink dries after it comes off the printer the 'news' of an upcoming film, show, etc, is already outdated.

And lastly, The Monster Times stands as one of the all time greatest publications in the history of the genres and one of my main inspirations. It covered everything from horror to sci-fi to fantasy, including Godzilla films, comic book superheroes, Star Trek, the Hammer horror pictures, and everything in between.
As a kid I'd always be hunting down The Monster Times at horror conventions (alas, I wasn't around when it was being published in 1972).

Can you take us through the typical process of putting together an issue of Shadowland?

Putting together a typical issue of Shadowland begins with figuring out which articles will be included, their respective length, and then making sure that there will be enough pages to accommodate each one. Sometimes an article doesn't arrive on time, falls through at the last minute, or is postponed for whatever reason, which means quickly deciding on a replacement piece. Fortunately, I have no shortage of yet-to-be published articles on hand.

Once a decent number of the articles are decided on, I speak with Shadowland's cover artist – the immensely talented Dwayne Pinkney – about which ones he's interested in taking on for the front and back covers.

Issue #3

Next comes the task of designing the layout, followed by a final proofreading of the finished files. And then said files are sent off to the printer. And by that point, the next issue is already in the works. By the time issue #9 is on the shelves, I'll already be well underway working on issue #10 – and maybe even parts of #11. As of now, I'm already compiling content three issues ahead.

There seems to be a cycle that films (especially in the horror genre) follow.  Each decade, there seems to be a main theme.  For example, the 50's monster boom, the 80's slasher flicks, the 70's obsession with the devil and of course the first decade of the new millennium was the decade of torture porn.  Where do you see this decade going?

I think the theme will be more ambiguous this decade than previous ones. There's just so much content being turned out that I don't see us going into an all-inclusive theme of monsters, slashers or occult like the '50s - '80s. If I had to bet, I'd say that this decade we're going to see an overarching 'loss of control' theme play out across the genres, particularly in the fields of horror and sci-fi. The internet age has given society a virtual playground at our fingertips, and yet it's often a rift for dividing people as much as it connects them. While Facebook my be an outlet to catch-up with friends, check any message board and you'll have people at each others throats, whether it be over politics or favorite ice cream flavor, the topic is seemingly irrelevant. Yet, the internet exists on an entirely virtual arena, built and maintained on data collecting servers – servers that are out of the public's control. Not to mention that the internet, like television, is subject to media manipulation on so many levels. This coincides with the always reliable 'distrust of government' – which is nothing new, but recent security concerns over how our government 'watches' and 'listens' to us will no doubt fuel public fears and distrust. And of course, there's a disconnect between parents and children (something else that's nothing new), but now kids and teenagers are constantly 'plugged in' to countless online enabled devices ranging from their game consoles to computers to cell phones, and have more avenues to conceal their activities from parents. It all amounts to loss of control to different degrees.

Issue #2

All of this will provide ample themes for future genre films over the next decade. Already look at the multitude of horror films depicting children, either in danger or the cause of danger – like Dark Skies Mama, Haunting in Connecticut 2, Last Exorcism 2, and the upcoming Carrie remake. An outpouring of recent ghost films, along with the Evil Dead remake, seem to focus on possession – which equates to loss of control on a family/friends level. The onslaught of zombies in media like The Walking Dead, World War Z, Warm Bodies, shows not only personal loss of control (ie turning into a mindless zombie), but a much greater collapse of all societal control – which can be evidenced in the new wave of apocalypse cinema: John Dies at the End, the upcoming fourth Mad Max film, all the way to comedies like This is the End. As such, I see many more genre films adopting a far bleaker, grittier tone, for better or worse. That sense of 'realism' is even permeating the superhero genre with some of the darkest Batman films to be released, not to mention the recent Superman film, and focusing more on Iron Man's faults more than his heroics.
What direction would you like to see genre films go?

Issue #1

I would like to see genre films start to take far more risks and be developed with original storylines not based on prior films, novels, television shows, comics, video games, etc. Studios are hungry for profits but they're afraid to step out of established boundaries and, therefore, they play it safe. And it's hard to blame them, when it's not unheard of to spend $275 million on a single film. So remakes, reboots, sequels, and prequels have become commonplace. Don't get me wrong, some remakes have proven to be exceptionally good – and likewise, some sequels outperform their predecessors. But, in ten years, what will they do, start remaking the remakes or rebooting the successful franchises, like they did with the Amazing Spider-Man film? Unfortunately, we're on a path that will give us no new, innovative properties like Star Wars, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Friday the 13th, Mad Max, etc...all things that were not based on established comics, novels, video games, prior to their development.



What's your favorite film?

Most difficult question to answer, ever. It's a tough call, I can easily name favorite trilogy (Mad Max), favorite franchise (Toho's Godzilla series), but single favorite movie is one heck of a challenge. I'd have to go with an animated one – Transformers: The Movie (1986). Might sound like an odd choice, but it's a film I never get tired of watching. I'd say its appeal is partially nostalgia-based, but I also genuinely feel that it's a remarkably well done film in terms of story, voice-acting, soundtrack, and writing. Also, in an age where the average film drags on past the two-hour mark, it told an entertaining story in less than 90 minutes. Despite my appreciation for the animated movie, I'm not a fan of the recent live-action Transformer films.

What's your favorite movie snack?

I'll have to go with popcorn.

What scared you the most as a kid?

I was watching horror films before I could remember, so horror films never scared me. I was wisely taught at a very early age that all movies were 'make believe.' That was a concept I grasped very quickly and I never recall having a single nightmare from any horror film I ever watched. By the age of five or six I mush have already seen the majority of slasher films, particularly the Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Child's Play, etc. Not to mention all the Universal Monster flicks, and everything in between. I grew up in New York City, so I got to go to the horror conventions like Fangoria and Chiller Theatre when I was very young and met Kane Hodder (Jason), and saw Doug Bradley (Pinhead) and all the rest of the then-current 'movie monsters' in person. It was always the magic of filmmaking to me, and as a kid I never understood how someone could be afraid of things that were make believe. I was also a very level-headed kid and wasn't running around the house with a butcher knife pretending I was Chucky.

Ironically, what did scare me somewhat as a kid was ED-209 from Robocop. Between that monotone voice and its jerky, clumsy movements, it succeeded in freaking me out. While I knew it was just a movie, I couldn't figure out the way they made the robot move and I knew it wasn't a guy in a suit. I must've been five or so at the time, if not even four, and I finally found a bunch of photos in Starlog of ED-209 and how the filmmakers made it work with stop-motion miniatures and life-sized motion props. I wasn't scared of him after that and wanted the Kenner-produced toy.

Do you believe in the paranormal?

People have seen some strange things, and I certainly wouldn't rule anything out. Whether it's a UFO sighting to ghosts, even bigfoot, there are countless upon countless eyewitnesses that claim to have seen some evidence of the paranormal in one form or another. Certainly, not all witnesses accounts are entirely reliable and some may be dis-proven – but even if 1% can't be solved or dismissed, that says something extraordinary. And how many witnesses never step forward with their stories? I'd imagine that many more haven't and that it would be a case similar to Marco Polo on his deathbed, when he said of his travels, “I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed.”

If you had unlimited funds and unlimited access to any talent, IP's, etc in the world.  What would your dream project be?

I've actually thought about this one before, as filmmaking, in one form or another, is my genuine passion. Honestly, if I had unlimited funds, I would want to write, direct and produce a 26-episode computer-animated series based on my own plot and characters – or, alternatively, turn it into a 3D computer-animated feature film. Computer-animation has been relegated to typical Pixar fare, or films made to appeal to younger audiences, with few exceptions – one of which was the questionable Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which may have opted too much for photo realism in favor of the anime stylings of recent Final Fantasy and Resident Evil CG films. Computer-animation is a remarkable medium that has yet to be used to its full storytelling potential. While there's nothing wrong with Despicable Me 4, 5, and 6, I would like to see the format used for something truly groundbreaking in terms of visuals and story depth. The technology has evolved to the point where something remarkably different can now be achieved.


A huge thank you to Andrew for the fantastic interview!  Don't forget to check out Shadowland's website where you can order back issues and SUBSCRIBE immediately to this fantastic magazine!

Childhood Trauma Flashbacks Part II: VHS Cover Art

I've done it once, I've done it twice and I'll do it a million more times ad nauseam.   I will proclaim my love of the VHS format and the magic that was our local Mom & Pop video store.  That little slice of heaven, which stood at 179 Main St, in my hometown of Fitchburg, MA, is now nothing but a block of grass that belongs to Fitchburg State College.  Such is life.  The memories, however, will live forever.

I wanted to talk about something that was quite instrumental in my early love affair with horror.  Roaming the aisles of good ol' Video Paradise, I would wander the horror section, soaking in each and every movie box that came into eyesight.  The artwork was at once fascinating and horrifying to me.  I can distinctly remember  several boxes that scared the crap out of me and had my imagination running overtime.

Of course I already spoke about the poster/VHS box art for the original Alien in my piece about why aliens scare the crap out of me.  Goddamn if that doesn't still give me the friggin willies.  That ominous egg...all cracked and leaking glowing green mist......hovering above that horrible waffle knit surface from hell.  The tag line was what really got to me:  In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream.  I wanted to know what was in the damn egg....but at the same time, I knew that terrible knowledge might scare me to death.

Now, as for a while, the video shop was the only place to look at all this wonderful and horrifying artwork.  Then one of the grocery stores started to rent out videos from the Courtesy Desk.  The way it worked was there was a rack on the end-cap of one of the aisles (I wanna say it was the frozen food aisle....dunno why) and there were these flip cards which showed the front and back of the VHS box....they were mini versions.....and they were on a rotating rack.  I have this very distinct memory of flipping through the various cards and coming across the CBS-FOX release of David Cronenberg's The Fly.  Looking back at it, the cover is actually rather Alien-esque.  Instead of a giant egg emitting green glowing mist, we have a telepod emitting a bright white light (and mist of course).  We see a man's arm and a fly's leg emerging from the machine.  This absolutely drove me nuts.  I wanted to know what the monster looked like.  The back cover wasn't too much help.  All I got was a shot of a naked Jeff Goldblum and a shot of Jeff all kinda....melty lookin'.  I sitting in the back seat of the car on the way home.  It was dark and raining out.  I kept seeing the cover in my head....and the picture of the Incredible Melting Goldblum.  I had this feeling of dread and unease that I just couldn't shake and it stayed with me well past bedtime.

There was another cover that I would frequently stare at not only in the grocery store, but also at the video store.  The HBO Canon Video release of The Return of the Living Dead was a masterpiece of trash punk zombie goodness and I was completely enraptured by it.  I wasn't so much scared by this one as morbidly fascinated.  I had seen Night of the Living Dead and I knew that somehow this was connected to it (maybe a friend told me or something...I'm not sure) but I could only imagine how horrifying punk zombies would be.  To a lesser extent, I was also fascinated by by the Lorimar release of The Return of the Living Dead Part II....which had the great evil face in the cloud above the town.  Again, neither of these covers scared me, per se, but what they represented creeped me out and kept me awake at night, wondering if zombie punks were going to come up my street and devour my family.  

There are hundreds of VHS tapes that haunt my memory.....perhaps more will pop up........but when I think of VHS cover art that really affected me as a kid, these were the three (ROTLDptII not really counting) that immediately come to mind.  I hope you enjoyed our little stroll down Big Box & Clam Shell Lane.  We'll see ya'll next time!

Aliens: They Scare The Crap Out of Me

Alien.  That one simple word holds more horror for me than an entire Stephen King novel.  I've always had this love/hate fascination with aliens.  As a child, I would constantly take out books about UFO's from the library.  I would read the cases and study the photographs and I would quietly freak out that I might get abducted and experimented on.  It's silly, but that irrational fear still lingers in the back of my mind.  I hear a strange noise in the house at night and my first thought isn't "GHOST!".  Nope....my first thought is "AW FUCK.....ALIENS!"

I remember when I was about 7 or 8, my Dad bought me a copy of the Alien video game for the Commodore 64.  I had never seen the movie, but I was VERY familiar with the VHS box art that graced the copy that sat on the shelf at Video Paradise as well as my new game.   Oh....that strange awful egg....cracked and leaking green stuff.....that strange alien lattice work beneath it.  That tag line....In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream......I couldn't even begin to imagine what horrors awaited.  We got it at K-Mart.  I don't know why I remember that exactly.....I just have an image in my head of me and my Dad at the game counter.  Thought I would share that with you.

The Alien game had quite an effect of me.  Loading up the game (yes, back in those days, you had to actually load the game yourself!) for the first time, I had no idea what to expect.  When  the title screen appeared, it was incredible.....and frightening.  The music that plays during the title sequence of the game is absolutely evil.  The SID tune used a series of filters to create a sound that was literally out of this world.  It FELT alien.  The music immediately burned itself into my brain.....joining the ranks of the Forbbiden Forest (and Beyond The Forbidden Forest)  as my all time favorite video game music.

The game itself was quite hard and I never completed it, but I still had a lot of fun trying my best to get rid of the alien on my ship.  When a crew member was killed, it switched to an animation of the alien attacking.  The 8-Bit incarnation of the Alien was my first exposure to the titular beast.  I remember asking my Dad if it looked in the movie as it did in the game.  He said "Yeah...sorta."  And that was that.   A few years later, I finally watched the film and decided he was right.

I had a nightmare about that damned egg on the poster.  In my dream, my sister and I were walking home from the bus stop.  When we rounded the corner of our street and our house came into view, that egg was hovering in the air very close to our house.  It was pulsating.  We rushed inside and into the kitchen.  The house was empty.  My sister opened the cabinet where my mother kept all our canned goods.  There was a room back there behind the cans!  We climbed into this secret room and we watched from a tiny window that egg.....pulsating and starting to crack.  We didn't know where our parents were.  We sat and waited....and watched.  It pulsated more.  It cracked more.  Finally my mother's Plymouth Valiant rolled around the corner and she pulled up to the house.  She started to get out of the car and the Egg suddenly dropped and broke open in front of the car.  My mother screamed and I woke up.  I'll never forget that nightmare.  It terrified me beyond reason.  I stopped playing the game for quite a while after that.  It's probably got a lot to do with the fact that it took me a long time for finally watch the movie too!

As scary as Alien was.....as I grew older it was still the "real" aliens that I read about in Time Life's Mysteries of the Unknown books that scared me.  Greys.  I started to read about Roswell and the Government's alleged cover-up of the crashed saucer.  I read about the Travis Walton case.  And then I watched the most terrifying film about aliens ever made:  Fire in the Sky.  I still can't watch that movie by myself.  I watched it with my Mom one Saturday night in my room.  I had just gotten a VCR in my room and my Dad had wanted to watch something else on TV....so
we took our rented copy of Fire in the Sky....and a bag of microwave popcorn and 90 minutes later, we were both terrified.

Oh yeah....don't get me started on Communion.  Aliens.  Abduction....AND Christopher Walken?!?   Holy crap.  I caught an edited version of it on TV once....I think it might have been on FOX.....back when they showed an 8 o'clock movie.  Remember the good ol' days?

The odd part has always been the fact that despite the fact that aliens scare the crap out of me, I can't seem to get enough.  I can't stop reading about them or watching movies like The Fourth Kind.  That movie wigged me out too.  Since I'm confessing here, I might as well go ahead and tell you that I went to see M. Night Shyamalan's Signs.....and I did not sleep well that night.  Go ahead, call me a pussy.  I won't stop you.  It's not my fault that this shit scares me, I'm just wired that way.

I'm beyond obsessed with Ancient Aliens, UFO Hunters and the slew of bizarre alien and UFO programming that you find on a multitude of channels these days.  I firmly believe that there is life on other planets.  I don't know if they've visited us yet, but I have a feeling they have.  I think that I may just see the day that the world discovers once and for all that we are not alone in the universe in my lifetime.  I will then promptly arm myself to the teeth and get ready to kick E.T's ugly ass.  I've seen enough movies to know how this ends.

Fangoria Poster #3

Oh yeah!  It's time once again to check out another fantastic old school Fangoria quad poster.  Issue #3's poster is a fantastic piece.  Ridley Scott's seminal horror shocker, Alien takes poster honor this month and it's another fantastic quad-paged poster.

Alien, incidentally celebrated it's 33rd anniversary on May 25th.  Look at that.....Fangoria, Alien AND The Midnight Cinephile himself are all turning 33 this year!  Damn, 1979 sure was a great year!

Prometheus Teaser Trailer

The rumors started quite some time ago that Ridley Scott was planning a prequel to his gothic sci-fi opus, Alien.  Since then there have been  many rumors and such stating that the prequel had become something different all together.

Well, the teaser dropped just before Christmas and it looks absolutely amazing.  It has the same distinct look inspired by H.R. Giger that Scott used in the original 1979 film.  There are some definite direct connections that I spotted as well, such as the seat/telescope thing-a-majig doo-dad that the Space Jockey was seated in the horse shoe shaped space ship that the crew of the Nostromo explored in the original film. 

Speaking of the Horse Shoe Ship (We'll call it the HSS from now on), that mammoth seems to figure rather promenantly into the new film.  In one spectacular shot, we see the HSS crashing onto a planets surface and various people scrambling to get the hell out of dodge.

During the span of the one minute teaser, the films title slowly appears on the screen a few pieces at a time, the same as the alien films, which got me pretty damn excited.

From what I understand, the film is about a group of explorers searching for Mankind's origin's in the cold reaches of space.....perhaps we are connected with the Space Jockey's?  This might make sense because in the teaser if you look carfully, when you see the seat/telescope thing-a-majig doo-dad, it looks like there is a humanoid (looks pretty close to human to me) standing bye, waiting to sit down.  If you remember the size and scope of the thing from the first film, then looks like the Space Jockey's may be 13 foot tall people.   Guess we'll have to wait and see!

So hopefully you're pretty psyched up to watch the trailer (either for the first time or for the 50th).  Enjoy!

Looks pretty bad ass, don't it?  Yep.   Yep it does!

Prometheus is slated for a June 8th, 2012 release.

While we're in a festive Giger mood, why don't we take a look at the trailers for the first four films!

Alien (1979)  The movie that started it all!  I wanted to see this movie in the worst way when I was a kid.  I had an Alien video game for the Commodore 64 and I wanted to be able to see how the movie compared.  It would be quite a few years before I was able to see it, but when I finally did.....I understood why my parents refused to let me watch it when I was 8.

Aliens (1986)  I actually saw this film before the original.  I was about 13 and I rented this bad monkey one Friday with my best friend.  He had already seen an edited for TV version of it and kept telling me how awesome it was.  I will never forget the feeling that night.  I can remember it like it was yesterday.  It was spring, and it was raining like a mofo out, with intermittent thunder and lightening.  My mother and sisters went out shopping that night.  My bud and I stayed home and popped in Aliens.  I was completely blown away.  Never before had I seen such insane violence.  Never had I seen such a horrible creature in all my short life.  I watched that tape (yes tape....this was in the days of VHS) about 3 more times before I had to bring it back to the video shop. 

Alien 3 (1992)  Not long after veiwing Aliens, I stumbled across my first issue of Fangoria (#113), which featured Alien 3 on it's cover.  While in the same bookshop, I also came across the novelization of Alien 3.  That was a pretty fantastic find to me that day.  I wanted to see Alien 3 in the theater badly.  Unfortunately, neither of my parents were very interested in seeing the movie and I was only 13.....so that didn't happen.  I finally rented it when it released on video and was extremely disappointed with it.  It was long and plodding and you saw the alien even less than in the first movie.  A total snooze-fest.  About 13 years later, I found out about the directors cut special edition.  I was hesitant, but heard that the directors cut was a  totally different film.  It is.  Do yourself a favor and watch the masterpiece of gothic horror that is Alien 3.

Alien: Ressurection (1997)   Fresh out of high school, I caught wind of a 4th Alien film.  At least my dreams of watching an Alien film in a theater would be realized.  It was with great antici...................pation, that I wated for the film to be released.  I read all the coverage in Fangoria and anything I could find on the internet.  Finally I went to go see it opening weekend in November.  What I got was the weakest entry in the original Alien franchise.  I warmed up to the film more after it's release on video, but I am really hoping that Prometheus will be the epic big screen Alien film that I've been yearning for!

Being the completist that I am, we'll sling in the two Alien vs Predator films as well:

Alien vs Predator aka AvP (2004)  The long awaited mash-up with two of the most fearsome creatures in the science fiction filmi universe.  This movie could have been SO much more than it was, but despite what a lot of people say about it, I still like the film quite a bit.  It's quirky and it's got a certain B-Movie charm to it.   Where else are you gonna see a Predator and a Human fight a giant Alien Queen in the Arctic????

AVPR:  Aliens vs Predator - Reqium (2007)   I can't really comment too much on this film because I've only seen it once.  It did have two things that really stood out to me though:  First off, we got a glimpse of the Predator's home planet, which is almost worth the price of admission alone.  Second, we get the Preylien.  As you most likely know if you are reading this, when the Xenomorphs are incubating inside their host they take on some of thier characteristics.  Well if you remember at the end of AVP, a Xenomorph bursts from the last fallen Predator aboard thier ship.  Said Xenomorph grows into a hybrid Alien/Predator.....hence the Preylien.  It is pretty badass.  Other than that, I don't remember too much about the film.....perhaps I should go back and watch it again.

Well, that's it kids!  Let's hope that Prometheus delivers on the goods.  If it is even half as good as the teaser is, then I think we're in for a pretty fantastic ride.

Remember...........In Space No One Can Hear You Scream!