AlienDead

Alien Dead (1980)

Basically the plot here is that a houseboat full of ‘70s hipsters gets hit by a meteor or something like that. Instead of dying the partygoers become bloodsucking zombies that sneak around the swamp picking off the locals. You have the local newspaperman, a nice looking lady from the swamps, and the game warden running about trying to figure out the mystery. The local sheriff, played by the legendary Buster Crabbe, is pretty much useless and spends most of the movie yelling at his inept deputy. The movie ends rather abruptly and doesn’t at all explain how the movie opens. It starts with the newspaperman typing up the story and giving the audience a setup, which really doesn’t match with the ending.

And that is exactly the sort of ending that I should expect from Alien Dead. This movie has all the hallmarks of a bad “B” made for the drive-in market flick. The story is loosely tied together by our 3 main characters, but feels like a series of random attacks cut together. Seriously again and again the movie cuts to a random person or couple as they are introduced, many times without even being given names, and killed off in the same quick sequence. This gives the movie a very “choppy” feel to it and didn’t allow me to get into the story at all. Also the acting at times is pretty dreadful, including an elderly Buster Crabbe that seems to be stumbling over his lines more then once. And I’m not sure if it is the actors fault or if the dialogue was written that bad, but there are some really awkward stuff here. Like instead of saying “in broad daylight” the character says “in the broad of daylight”. It just sounds odd.

Speaking of sounding odd the movie has one of the worst dubbing jobs I’ve ever heard. At times what the actor is saying clearly doesn’t match the dialogue on screen. Also when they are in the swamp they couldn’t have been recording sound. There isn’t a single bit of ambient sound in the movie at all. They are in the swamp and all you hear is the same looped bit of random “animal” sounds. My favorite is when you see a scene with horses and don’t hear them, but the damn dog keeps barking… in the same 5-second loop! The editing is pretty bad as well. You have one scene that ends with the actor still speaking, another where the swamp “sounds” bleed into another scene that is in a building nowhere near the swamp. This is also one of those fun movies that totally ignores day and night. Step out of the truck in the dark and get attack in the broad daylight. Another time a character is complaining about having to walk home in the dark and steps outside into the sunlight.

So of course after just trashing the movie I have to admit something. In spite of how badly Alien Dead is made or maybe because of it, I sort of enjoyed it a little bit. I suppose that it has that inept made for the drive-in feel that appeals to me when I’m in the right mood. That said I can’t give it a recommendation. This one is only for the fans of director Fred Olen Ray and the hard-core drive-in movie fanatics. Everyone else might want to steer clear.

1 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer