THE ALIEN FACTOR! FINALLY!

Bout freakin time is all I am saying.  It only took me like 22 years to find out what this movie was.  I saw it on SuperStation TBS back when I was like ten.  To me, back then it was a pretty scary movie.  There were scenes from this movie that stuck with me throughout my childhood.  When the Internet became available I spent hours researching trying to figure out the title of this freakin film.  Then I found a horror website that you can write movie questions to and find out if anyone knows the answer.  I asked not thinking anyone would know and lo and behold someone responded with THE ALIEN FACTOR.  I got on AMAZON and bought a used copy for almost a hundred bucks.  (I found a few on EBay for like fifteen bucks.  Yea, I know.  F@#K  my life.)  Finally, I came to the end of my long treacherous (and sometimes erotic) journey.  THE ALIEN FACTOR was the answer.  Is it any good?  Well, let me put it this way.  Its better than AVATAR but that's not saying much..........................Yes,  THE ALIEN FACTOR is great!

THE ALIEN FACTOR is a late seventies sci-fi movie about three different aliens that escape a crashed U.F.O.  They roam around killing people and the sheriff isn't sure what to do.  Then this guy Ben Zachary (I think) shows up and starts talking about aliens and everyone believes him, of course.  He knows how to kill them.  Each one has a certain weakness which he is able to exploit to kill them.  After killing them it is revealed that Ben Zachary is an alien too but the good kind.  Doesn't matter though because he looks like left over lasagna that has been left out on the street for days and  baked under the hot unforgiving sun but with eyes.  At least he is wearing pants.  So because he is scary looking the Sheriff shows up out of nowhere and guns him down.  How was he suppose to know he was a good guy?  I can't rightfully fault the sheriff for that.  He didn't look like a good alien like those good looking blue aliens from AVATAR.  Yes, I know the aliens in that film where the humans but so what?  I don't live on Pandora so they are aliens to me. 

I knew this movie wasn't going to be as scary as it was back in the day.  However, I was shocked on how amateurish the film is overall.  THE ALIEN FACTOR has that "some friends got together to film a scary movie in their backyard" feel to it.  Most of the actors are not real actors but friends that are available.  The dialogue is terrible and tries too hard to sound smart and is delivered as awkwardly as possible.  But everyone is trying to be good though.  There is also a lot of filler in this movie.  In fact at one point there is a band playing in a bar and the whole movie stops just so they can sing the entire song.  Not a bad song either by the way.  This movie was on t.v. so I expected better in those departments.  But in no way shape or form is this a bad movie.

THE ALIEN FACTOR has two things that make it better than AVATAR.  Heart and originality.  THE ALIEN FACTOR has a simple story but it's original.  AVATAR is a remake of DANCES WITH WOLVES.  The monsters are the real highlight of this film.  Great care is applied to the look of each of the four or five aliens you see in this movie.  They are somewhat believable and not just actors colored over with blue computer graphics to look like cartoons.  The aliens are each unique and are quite good for a low budget movie. There is a crab monster, a chewbacca on stilts with an ant face monster, and a stop-motion invisible lizard monster that shows up at the end.  (Now that I think about it I don't know how that one died.  It just dropped dead for no reason.) You can see the love for sci-fi.  In fact THE ALIEN FACTOR feels like a love letter to the old 1950's sci-fi films only with better monsters.  The wooden acting and that stop-motion monster at the end really add to the retro style.

I love THE ALIEN FACTOR.  I have watched it three times already since I bought it last month.  This is a great monster movie that has a lot to forgive but it is never dull even with all the filler.  Its kind of cool to compare the real movie to what my memory was of the film.  Its neat-o.


Jason