A father named Bill
Crafton (George Kennedy) spends time with
his daughter Julie (Jill Marin) in an
isolated cabin out in the woods and are
terrorised by what seems to be a Bigfoot
type of alien creature who takes Julie
away.
Some days have passed and a group of
young friends go to the cabin for some
fun and relaxation which is owned by an
uncle of one of the friends named Jack
Bergman (David Michael O'Neill) but is
warned by Jack about the dangers the goes
on there.
Everyone ignores Bill's warning but
however due to a prank with one of the
friends named Fred Proctor (Hank
Stratton), he disguises himself in a
Bigfoot mask to scare one of the girls
named Cindy Ossman (Colleen McDermott)
after taking a shower and is taken away
by this monster along with killing
another one in their group named Tom
Phillips (Billy Jacoby) so the remaning
survivors plan to stick together and go
out in the woods to try and find help.
But this monster seems to be on their
tail as once it kills a person they turns
into zombie's or one of the monster's
people for their crashed spaceship to
perform gruesome sacrifices.
The film was
fairly slow during the beginning as well
as moments that were supposed to make you
jump out of your seat which is a complete
failure but yet it does pick up a bit and
while watching it all the way through can
be fun and entertaining.
Alot of the one liners seemed awfully
cheesy and the direction as well as the
odd performances were a bit unconvincing
too.
A corny beginning with
a Minister preaching while reading a
bible walking his horse near a deserted
area as well as a close up on his
expressions after he spots a spaceship
crash landing.
There's a corny discussion with Bill Crafton and his daughter playing
a trivia game in their cabin which
doesn't look convincing and too planned
out.
Along with cheesy camera shot with Bill by a doorway of the cabin and the alien
monster smashing through and grabbing his daughter. A good close
up shot on Bill lying there
looking shocked and passing out. There is
a nice shot on the alien dragging his daughter away unconcious with scratches on her
face.
We spot alot of campy discussions with the teenage characters driving along and having fun
which looked fun to watch.
There's a good stern and serious moment
with Bill getting demanding
towards the kids about the dangers of the
area and telling them to leave with a
good shot on Jack Bergman pointing a
gun at his head and getting very firm
with him.
There's a corny discussion between Fred Proctor and Tom Phillips by trying to fool one of the girls about a
monster coming to get them.
Nice shot on Fred Proctor outside peeking in a window wearing a
monster mask with a good camera shot on
the window with Cindy Ossman coming
out of a shower and a good shot on her running
away with Tom catching her
and calming her down telling her it was a
joke and to take a breath. This moment looked well
done with a boyfriend to his
girlfriend.
There's a shot on Fred spotting something outside and pounding
on the door that something is out there
which seemed way too obvious and
unconvincing in which the makers tried to give this moment a good horror
feel to it but failed.
There's many cheesy shots onthe alien's hand trying to pull a door open with
his hands and Jack trying to
shot this beast as well as a shot on him
holding back by pointing a gun along with
amateursih screams of the two main teenage girls. There's also a
cheesy shot on the alien grabbing Tom in the air as well
as close up shots on this monster trying to break his neck which really
lacked.
There's a good serious discussion with
all three of the characters Jack talking to Carrie Austin and Cindy on what
to do to try and get help as they try to
act brave without losing it which seemed
fairly well done and convincing.
There's many great shots on the three of
them trying to be cautious as they track
down beartraps without being caught in
them which looked convincing that they
were trying to survive this madness.
Cheesy discussion between
supporting characters Betsy and Tara drinking
beer and riding in their jeep having a
good time in which
seemed a bit wooden.
There's a nice shot on the alien peeking through some bushes while there's
a shot on Betsy and Tara having
a discussion realising their garden has
been dried up along with a good shot on Betsy taking off her top while she's getting
ready to sunbathe.
There's a good shot on Betsy lying down and looking up with her
screaming along with a good close up shot
on the alien grabbing Tara's head as well as a shot
looking up on the alien grabbing
her. There's also a good distance shot on Betsy running away topless
carrying her shirt.
A good serious discussion with Bill talking about what killed his daughter
along with a good shot on Jack pointing a gun towards him and getting
firm and aggressive ordering him to come
with him and his friends which looked
fairly strong.
There's a good shot on a hiker being trying
to run away with shots looking down on
his feet running away as well as the alien's bigfoot feet chasing after him.
There's also a good shot looking up on
the alien looking down monstrous and then a
nice shot on this hiker being
crushed and killed with a good shot on his eyes going wide and
paranoid.
There's a good shot with the alien smashing through a tent and grabbing Cindy with a good close up shot on her
stabbing him and acting vicious. There's
also a good shot on the alien going
towards Betsy and knocking her
unconcious.
There's good close up shot's on the alien's monstrous face as well as Bill's as he bashes his head against a rock
several times but yet the blocking on
this didn't look brutal at all like it
was supposed to be.
There's a good shot on Jack waking up trying to gain concious and
looking around realising he's by himself
with a good shot looking a bit back to
view the damaged tent and everything
else.
There's a nice shot on him spotting Cindy wobbling and
walking away with him calling to her as
well as trying to catch up to her with a
good close up shot on her head turning
with good gruesome results which looked
good and creepy.
There's a good moment with Jack shooting the bigfoot monster and then a
nice effects shot on the creature turning
into a person which reveals a friend with
him laughing and crying telling him he
didn't mean to hurt him which showed some
nice strong emotions.
There's many good camera takes and strong
lines with the Minster preparing to
do a sacrifice while holding up a dagger
as well as a nice camera shot rolling in
on his victim which happens to be Betsy.
There's a great moment with Jack shooting everyone in the room while trying to rescue Carrie with a shot on her lying tied down.
There's a great discussion with Jack telling Fred to come with
him and he insists Jack to
leave him in a good aggressive tone
showing his arm to them growing hair
which showed a great solid impression on
all of this. There's also a great close
up shot on Fred by showing
painful expressions while turning like he
was becoming a werewolf.
All in all mentioned with some of the corniness discussed there's something about this
film that makes it impressive. Let's see
here.
Ahh yes, a Bigfoot type of monstrous
alien which kills anything there and
turning them into zombie's which is a
nice highlight. We all hear about the
legends of Bigfoot in the forest
wondering if they are true or not and
some think that Bigfoot could be an alien
from another world which it very well
shows on here. But this character is NOT
something you'd want to encounter at all.
The outfit on this creature looked not
too bad but sometimes you can tell it's a
costume as it only looked half scary.
There's great prosthetics however on the
actors who are resurrected as zombie's in
which they looked gruesomely creepy and
had almost a George A. Romero zombie
feel to everything surrounding this. So
another good pointer here.
There's also lots of skin in this film to
anyone who'd love to get aroused while
being scared which it lacks but the
nudity didn't seem to cover the cheesy
plot as some of the plot was well done
too in certain spots of it.
Plus the film didn't look totally made
for video even if that's where it went
and reminded me of one of those made for
cable flicks in which I always had fun
watching those types.
There's some nice sacrifices inside an
alien ship stuck inside some sort of a
cave which looked exciting but then again
with the squishy looking aliens and
zombie's seemed a bit too much at times.
Yet there's alot of powerful heroic
moments with the lead character trying to
sacrifice his life while trying to rescue
his girlfriend or any other survivors
held here.
There's also an interesting ending
showing the two main character's having
nightmares after the incident and then
telling the audience it's not over yet
along with this character waking up
again. It makes you think "It's just
another dream. No!!!! It's really
happening!"
Bottom line is this is a film that's so
bad it's good and seems to be almost like
a tribute to those old fashioned
horror/sci fi alien monster movies but
with updated gore for the time it was
released. It's not really scary except
for the zombie's and sometimes with the
Bigfoot alien.
The acting is
fairly average but some of these cast
members tried their best even of most of
them remained virtual unknowns. Lead
actor David Michael O'Neill (Jack Bergman) showed
a good serious attitude towards his
character and knew how to pull alot off
with his performance. He does well acting
firm and aggressive too when necessary
during the horror moments that occur.
He's definetely suitable to be the leader
of his friends on the trip they all went
to.
Hank Stratton (Fred Proctor) seemed at times cheesy
as a goofy type who likes to pull pranks
but yet he stood out very well with what
he had to do in it. He was also perfect
with his performance close to the end of
the film by acting very out of it which
he makes it impressive that something is
very wrong with him as well as showing
great energy towards the end of his
performance. So although he seemed a bit
cheesy at first with his role in it he
proved himself to be a worthy character
actor during the end of it all.
Colleen McDermott (Cindy Ossman) seemed quite phony
with her screaming and crying but yet
looked good for her role in it and knew
how to behave very serious and tense
later on in which I was convonced she can
do the odd good job with certain parts of
her role in it and worked very hard while
doing this so I give her good credit
alltogether. A poor reaction on with
her screaming which looked a bit
amateurish when she gets out of a shower was a perfect example of her lack of efforts. There is a sobbing result on her after her onscreen boyfriend is killed which was not believeable at all.
Billy Jacoby (Tom Phillips) brought great spunk to
his part in the film as one of those
jokesters too along with a perfect charm
too bringing some nice wit and humor too.
I've always enjoyed his work in shows
since I spotted him in the cult classic
comedy film Just One of the Guys and
his semi regular role in the trashy
sitcom Silver Spoons. He
does great towards the end of his
performance here resurrected as a zombie
by being goofily scary. However some parts of his performance lacked like his cheesy results on him
screaming and trying to struggle from the onscreen alien monster.
George Kennedy (Bill Crafton) was credited as the
first cast member in the film because
he's a household name but his role was
really just a supporting one. He does his
best with his cheesy lines and pulls it
off well with his disturbed attitude by
what went on. Plus knew how to act brave
when necessary and heroic too. Tries his
best in a scene to try and grab and axe to get someone's
attention but he looked
cheesy doing this with the takes that he does. He truly
deserves to get better work and was in
alot of bad films during this time period
unlike he did during the beginning of his
stardom.
Of course we get about a 15 or 20 minute
performance by sex pot and trashy cult
b-film scream queen Michelle Bauer (Betsy) whom comes off as a bit phony in which I
was certain she tried to pull off a
southern accent during the beginning of
her performance which wasn't convincing
at all. She seemed to have fairly good
lung power with her screaming in which
this time she doesn't portray an evil one
like she has so often in other low budget
horror films. She also does an okay job
during an emotional time by getting
spooked out of her head. Does okay almost losing control of sobbing which
seemed almost energetically performed but
it needed a bit more. I never found
her to be a good actress though and was
chosen due to her looks. This is one of
her better film's since the rest were
pretty bad and full of skin covering a
bad plot and budget. She started her
career doing soft core pornography which explains
everything mentioned that was negative
about her.
Pamela Gilbert is bare breasted in bed having a
sexual orientation with her onscreen
boyfriend.
Colleen McDermott is bare breasted
as well after taking a shower as well as
a back window shot on her exposing her
butt.
Michelle Bauer takes off her top
full breasts exposed to sunbathe and of
course runs away topless carrying her
shirt after she spots the bigfoot monster
killing her friend. Later on she is lying
fully topless in a spaceship when a
sacrifice on her is about to occur.
Gilbert is barebreasted once
again too in the spaceship when a
sacrifice is about to happen.
Woman's head is
torn off by the bigfoot type monster.
Piece of a hand is thrown onto the
ground in a wooded area.
Zombie's mangled face is exposed.
Hiker is stabbed by the bigfoot monster
with his body starting to cut open.
Woman's side of a face is half torn
exposing her mangled eye after being
resurrected as a zombie.
Heart is torn out of a woman in a
spaceship when a sacrifice starts to
happen.
The music sounds cheesy
made for TV like but I enjoyed it as
there's light synthesizer outerspace
sci-fi sounds here and there around the
cabin and the forest. Plus there's some
light romantic piano playing for a
certain lustful scene. During when this
beast attack there's the typical made for
video synthesizer violin suspenseful
sounds with some drum beats and the odd screeching
sounds with some low cheesy gloomy music
too which seemed to work well on what was
going on. which was all done
by Dan Slider. Two years later,
he composed music for the reality TV
series America's Funniest Home
Video's.
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