Late night TV as a kid, I would stay up in the hopes of coming across something so outrageously fun, or trashy, and that's how I initially came across this Full Moon production. This and "CRASH AND BURN" seemed to be on a loop every couple of months, becoming a staple of my late-night TV habits. Actually it's been quite awhile since I've last watched "SHADOWZONE", maybe around 15 years. My memory was rather fuzzy, but watching this little b-film again, after all these years. It remained a diverting, down-pat viewing. Mainly it reminded me of those plethora cheap Alien rip-offs, and boy, this film lifts some set-ups from "ALIEN". I must admit, it wasn't as exciting as I remembered; nonetheless it was actually efficiently made by J.S Cardone, for such a limited looking production.
When it's not simply splashing blood against walls as the victims get attacked for most part off-screen, there are a few effective moments of suitably grotesque make-up FX and a touch of splatter. You can't fail with a head explosion. Even the creature design, and we do get a good look at it, provides solid enough practical effects despite the stiff movements. The script's theory behind its origin, structural metabolism and how it adapts to survive is rather creative, yet it's hodgepodge, as the science behind all of this commotion is nonsensical and poorly expanded on, sometimes even stalling and taking away from the simple-minded fun.
The mystery of what's going on in this underground facility slowly builds up to the danger that will unfold. Now that's when stupidity comes into play, to keep the story moving and to cause some deaths. Don't you just love it when our heroine needs something to destroy the computers, so he heads out the corridor to find an emergency axe in a glass case. Um, just wait a minute -- It's been there all this time, untouched, no one thought of using it when you got a hostile creature from a parallel dimension lurking about. Things don't start off that seriously though, with the script providing moments of morbid humor, but once the creature hits the scene, that changes and the cheap, tight surroundings gets claustrophobic trapping the occupants inside.
The turning point is when James Hong (who was appearing in nearly everything that was low-budget horror related in the late 80s to early 90s) decides to get himself knocked off. I was disappointed by that, but Louise Fletcher, Miguel A. Nunez Jr and Cardone regular Frederick Flynn do make something of their characters, even providing quirky shades, as our heroine played by David Beecroft, whose character is sent there by NASA to investigate the death of one the researchers' subjects, had all the personality of a wooden plank.
