The Alien Within

If you have never heard of John Carpenter then you might enjoy this. This is a near shameless, word for word ripoff of his 1982 remake of The Thing. Those of you who have seen the 1950 version of this movie might consider yourselves purists, but Carpenter remains most true to the original story by John w Cambell Jr, "Who Goes There"(1938).

While John Carpenter has admittedly put out a lot of crap, "The Thing" remains one of my top 10 horror movies and still stands the test of time. Enjoy this remake for it's schlock, but appreciate the truest version of this story. Sleep should come hard to those that watch "The Thing" alone.

OK this movie does borrow from The Thing, heavily. In fact it is more like a cross-breed between Alien and The Thing. Despite Its un-orginality and a bit of wooden acting overall it is a good B-Movie and well worth a watch if you are into this sort of thing, mind the pun.

I'll give it a *** out of 5

Lots of fun in this underwater thriller as a team of scientists and miners battle a mind-controlling alien parasite that takes over their bodies. The thrills and the laughs never quit in this nifty micro-budget flick, that harkens back to the best of Roger Corman's drive-in classics from the 1960's. Clever writing and direction that overcome the low budget make this one a sure-fire bet for a fun evening in front of the TV.

I accidentally stumbled on this pile of manure one evening and I caught maybe the last 45 minutes to an hour of it. It was like driving by a car wreck on the highway- you don't want to look, but somehow you are forced to by the horror of it all. Some people say that Ishtar is the worst movie ever made. These people should be forced to endure the mind-bending stupidity of this film. They'd change their tune about 20 seconds into it. I cannot believe films like this actually get funding. There are many great independent film directors/screenwriters out there who can't get a studio to fund a project, yet films like this get made. What is this world coming to?

In the process of recovering from a heavy cold I have had trouble sleeping, haha! I thought lets catch up with some cable movies. So in the early hours I stumble across 'Origin Unknown' ('The Alien Within' US Title). Ah, Roddy McDowell nice surprise, NOT. This is a cheap made for TV pile of alien vomit. Why is the picture so dark? I ask, to enable a spooky atmospheric setting? NO, because the budget did not stretch to any set.

Have I not seen some of these plot lines before? Yes the entire Alien series is ripped apart by this shoddy waste of time and effort.

Avoid like the plague. 0.5/10