DVD Reviews

Alien Trespass

As corny as they can be sometimes, the sci-fi films from the 60s are some of my favs. Many people have tried to pay homage or imitate the style but it is harder than you’d think.  Alien Trespass is yet another homage to those crazy sci-fi films from the period.  They go as far as having some of the best settings and costumes for this type of film but I’d say they don’t quite end up with the best finished product.

Beware, earthlings. From The X-Files’ R.W. Goodwin comes a new cult classic in the tradition of The Blob and It Came from Outer Space. It’s 1957, a spaceship has just landed in a quiet small town, and Earth is suddenly threatened by an unknown evil. But fear not, hope has also arrived. Will & Grace’s Eric McCormack stars as an astronomer possessed by an alien bent on saving our humble planet. Yet even with the help of a plucky diner waitress, is he any match for the Ghota, a rogue alien on a murderous rampage?

The audio is presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital surround and does a good job of presenting the dialogue, score and retro sound FX.  The surrounds could have been used a lot more as much of this film takes place outside.  Low ends are decent when they are called for.  My biggest beef is that the audio is actually a lot better than it should be.  If you want to do a retro scifi film, it should have a mono soundtrack to truly complete the illusion.

The video is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen and looks quite nice.  While there is some minor grain, the old style costumes and sets pop off the screen. The detail is very good and the colours are beautifully shown.  And much like the audio, the quality of the video is its biggest problem.  The film opens with old black and white footage and it looks great but the picture soon switches to colour. This would be fine but my problem comes from the fact that it looks too good.  The colours should have been muted or washed out in order to simulate old film and continue the illusion that was created from the film’s opening scene.

In the supplemental materials department we get quite a few interesting pieces mostly revolving around trying to stay within the concept that Alien Tresspass is a “real” lost film.  First off is the ability to watch the film with or without an introduction.  This “introduction” explains how the movie was found 50 years after it was made and thought to have been destroyed.  It’s a cute piece that’s actually more entertaining once you’ve started into the other extras. “Watch the Skies” runs about 8.5 minutes and is a “behind the scenes” featurette. This fake piece has the cast pretending to be relatives of the cast in the film instead of being themselves. Eric McCormack plays his “grandfather”, Robert Patrick plays his “uncle” and Dan Lauria plays his “father.” They even try to explain the amazing look of the film as being possible due to an amazing new technology the makers of the film had discovered..  Instead of making an extra about how this new patented process made the film look good they should have just made the film look bad.  The featurette also has a trailer for the film built into it.  It’s nice to see them trying to keep up the illusion through the extras like this. “Meet the Person with Edwin R. Burroughs” is even longer at 10.5 minutes and looks to be the entire interviews with Eric McCormick (playing his grandfather M. Eric McCormick), Robert Patrick (playing his uncle ) and Dan Lauria (playing his father Daniel Lauria) as well as a few others (such as Jenni Baird) that were shown partially in the “Watch the Skies” featurette. There’s repetition from the featurette but that’s to be expected. Not quite as entertaining due to the repetition but I like the fact that the DVD is still sticking to the found footage story. “Breaking News” is a “news” story that has late breaking news of the footage of the film being found and the reporter just happens to be able to find Eric McCormick standing on the side of the street.  The extra is nothing spectacular or even really entertaining at this point. “Live News Update” is yet another news story from the same reporter (he must have had an exclusive) where he introduces the film’s trailer. “New Interviews with… R.W. Goodwin/ Eric McCormack” are exactly what they sound like, two interviews, one with each person mentioned. Technically they are completely separate extras but because of the way the menu is set up they seem like one.  These interviews are the first that break from the illusion of the found footage. It’s nice to finally hear some information about the real film but I really would have liked a full behind the scenes featurette and the interview with McCormack is quite short.  The final extras are two trailers for the film.  Not a bad set of supplemental material but could have been much, much better I’m sure.

Alien Trespass is definitely worth a rental if you’re in the mood for something a little light hearted with a sci-fi bent.  I wouldn’t recommend owning it to anyone short of those who are big time fans of those 60s schlock sci-fi flicks.  It is for you that this film was made.  Casual film goers probably aren’t going to enjoy this film and will likely think it’s just lame.  I’m somewhat in between.  I think the story was good, the acting was up to the challenge but the overall film was just too “shiny” and “new” to make it work for me.

Review By Robert Harding