Editor’s Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on April 3, 2009, and we’re proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
Alien Trespass is a somewhat misleading title, in that it suggests a type of transgression when the film itself is, for want of a better word, as polite as a movie can be. It means to be a homage to B-monster flicks of the ’50s, a time when low-budget genre fare was far kinder and gentler than it is today. And in that it succeeds—but that’s all it succeeds at.
There’s no spin here, no suggestion of any point of view about science fiction or horror cinema, no edge, no ambition to do anything but replicate the sort of cheap and simple creature features that played drive-ins back in the day. But to what end? It’s pleasant enough to watch and professionally made, but it’s certainly not scary and the situations and characters aren’t exaggerated or clever enough to be truly funny, nor are they given enough twists for the film to engage on a narrative level. It simply goes through a series of paces that will be overly familiar to those with a knowledge of its screen inspirations, and won’t interest anybody else.
The plot most closely resembles that of 1953’s It Came from Outer Space, with a side order of those Roger Corman flicks where bizarre-looking creatures created by Paul Blaisdell threatened the cast. Astronomer Ted (Eric McCormack) is having a backyard barbecue with his sultry wife Lana (Jody Thompson) when his attention is distracted by a meteor shower. One shooting star crashes nearby, and when Ted goes to investigate, he discovers a downed flying saucer wedged into a butte. When he goes in for a closer look, he is overtaken by a silvery alien called Urp, whose mission, now in Ted’s body, is to recapture a monster called the Ghota that he had been transporting, and which has been freed by the forced landing. (Does that story wrinkle also make this a homage to the recent bigger-budget flick Outlander?)
All the usual suspects for this type of story show up: an ol’ timer who’s one of the beast’s first victims; two innocent teen lovebirds and their rebel pal, who says things like, “Cool it, Dickie, it’s his job to suck eggs”; disbelieving lawmen, including an unpleasant one played by Robert Patrick; and a lovely young woman, in this case a waitress named Tammy (Jenni Baird), who awakens strange hormonal feelings in Urp-in-Ted. And then there’s the Ghota, which can appear and disappear at will and resembles an upright blue phallus with a single giant red eye, topped by tentacles that reduce its victims to puddles of goo.
Apparently, those tentacles were added to the creature design lest it appear too phallic—and there’s the rub. Any attempt at subtext has been washed clean by director R.W. Goodwin and scriptwriter Steven Fisher (working from a story by Fisher and James Swift), who seem too devoted to exactly replicating the movies that inspired them to add any touches that might set it apart. Even the direct attempts at homage are too mild. Anyone familiar with 1958’s The Blob will know exactly what’s coming when some of the Trespass characters go to see it: They watch the scene where the Blob invades a theater, sending the audience into a fleeing panic, and then the Ghota invades their theater, sending them into a screaming panic. Even the Blob remake had more fun with this scene, siccing the slimy menace on an annoying talker in the back row.
And yet, Alien Trespass doesn’t really work as a true stylistic replication of ’50s sci-fiers either. Sure, there are plenty of artificial-looking sets and obvious rear-screen projection, but those cheapies would never have been able to afford David Moxness’ glittering widescreen color photography, and he and Goodwin employ a cinematic grammar that’s too mobile and cutty to suggest the simple aesthetics of five decades ago. (Larry Blamire’s black-and-white The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra recaptured them much more persuasively.) The most fitting craft contribution here is Louis Febre’s evocatively theremin-inflected score, and while McCormack has fun as the quizzically possessed Ted, the rest of the cast is allowed little but to go through the prescribed motions.
The film does hold some promise in its opening minutes, a collection of extraterrestrial-themed newsreels ending with a report on Alien Trespass, which supposedly, back in the day, was buried following a contract dispute between its star and producer and is only now being unearthed. A mockumentary about the processes and personalities that created this sort of vintage B-fare, with clips from Trespass illustrating the result, might have had something fresh to say about the genre, and established its own entertaining identity. The complete feature could’ve even been included in the special-edition home release. On its own, Alien Trespass leaves the impression of a DVD extra being sold as the whole show.
