Alien Predator Reviews

Filmed in Spain in 1984 and then shelved when its distributor, Film Ventures International, folded, ALIEN PREDATOR was finally given a limited release in 1987 by video-firm-turned-theatrical-distributor, TWE. This is one film that should have stayed on the shelf. Poorly scripted, directed, and acted, ALIEN PREDATOR is a tedious excuse for a science fiction film that even the most undiscriminating fans of the genre will find pointless. The story begins in 1979 when a chunk of Skylab lands in Spain. Five years later three obnoxious American youths, Christopher, Hewitt, and Johnson, are touring Spain in a huge recreational vehicle with a dune-buggy in tow. They wander into a small village where an alien microbe which attached itself to Skylab has spread among the residents and driven them mad. Meanwhile, a NASA scientist (Prendes) arrives at the space administration's secret location beneath an old Spanish castle. There he meets Capt. Bosso, the only surviving member of a NASA team which was wiped out by the microbes. Bosso shows Prendes the mutated corpse of one of his men, and while Prendes examines the body, contaminated blood splashes Bosso, infecting him. Prendes plans to make a serum, but Bosso panics and shoots himself rather than let the microbe destroy him. Eventually, Prendes enlists the aid of the young American tourists and makes himself the guinea pig. By this time, the entire town has gone mad and blocked all the exits. Knowing he cannot let the microbe spread any further, Prendes orders an American napalm strike on the town. Just before the F-14s zoom overhead, Prendes inoculates the youths. Unfortunately, he is too late to cure himself. The three Americans crash the flaming barriers and escape the town just as the napalm is dropped. At an outlying gas station, a fully evolved alien monster bursts from the chest of the attendant and tries to climb up the windshield of their RV. Christopher simply turns on the windshield wipers and knocks the creature to the ground. He then squashes it beneath the tires of the huge RV. As the relieved Hewitt and Johnson celebrate in the back, Christopher's nose begins to bleed--a sure sign that he is infected. The concept is a rip-off of ALIEN, the title is an amalgamation of the aforementioned film and Arnold Schwarzenegger's then yet-to-be released PREDATOR, and the whole film comes disturbingly close to a distasteful mockery of the AIDS disease. There is so little creative inspiration here that writer-director Sarafian pads the story with several lengthy and unexciting car chases. Most of the film is nothing but talk, punctuated by occasional bloody special effects scenes. Christopher, Hewitt and Johnson are simply awful, with much of the blame going to Sarafian's incredibly lame dialog. Prendes fares no better, and the scientific mumbo-jumbo he is supposed to be obsessed with is simply laughable. When the alien is finally revealed after more than an hour, it is nothing more than a small spindly puppet covered with red slime and is dispatched in less than a minute. (Violence, gore effects, profanity.)