Alien Raiders takes cues from Alien and John Carpenters The Thing
Alien Raiders seizes unique ownership of an alien infection scenario complete with trapped grocery patrons and obsessed monster hunters.
Written by The Horror Czar
May 21, 2009
Release: February 17, 2009 (U.S. DVD)
Directed by: Ben Rock
Written by: Julia Fair and David Simkins
Starring:
Carlos Bernard as Aaron Ritter
Mathew St. Patrick as Seth Steadman
Rockmond Dunbar as Kane
Courtney Ford as Sterling
Jeffrey Licon as Benny
Samantha Streets as Whitney
Derek Basco as Manny
It is closing time at the local grocery market and after making the final announcement on the P.A. system and slipping a bundle of “extra” cash in the back of his pants, the store manager (Joel McCrary) gives the sign to lock the front doors and call it a night. Before the key can hit the latch, however, a band of robbers rushes in, guns blazing. This is a stick up.
There is something strange about these robbers though. The head henchman Aaron Ritter (Carlos Bernard) is leading one of the criminal clan, Spooky (Philip Newby), to each of the stragglers in the grocery store to grab onto their heads and somehow scan their brains. Those who are “clean” are let go, and when Spooky gets shot by an undercover cop the remaining patrons must be “manually tested”.
When the local police arrive a stand-off ensues while the alien hunters begin their gruesome manual test to determine which one of the remaining people in the store is the one that showed up on a detection device as harboring an alien parasite - kind of like a cross between those found in Alien, The Thing and perhaps even Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Oh yes, there will be much carnage here.
Alien Raiders is fast paced and exciting with good acting, good monsters and viable heroes. The action starts immediately after a short bit of character development and continues from the time that it slowly becomes clear that the “robbers” are actually on a mission to save the world to the final bloody showdown.
One of the most surprising performances is that of Mathew St. Patrick as Seth, the big city cop stuck in a small town. Most known for his role in the HBO series Six Feet Under as a gay cop, St. Patrick is able to transfer his persona to the big screen with no trouble at all. Granted, except for the gay part, St. Patrick plays pretty much the same character he played in the series, but I never thought he made a convincing gay man anyway…
It has been reported that Alien Raiders was “the first feature film to be shot on Panasonic's flagship HD camera, the HPX3000”. I have not verified that this is indeed the FIRST film shot with this particular camera but the quality of the film suggests some highly effective methods. The production is visually crisp with the depth that normally is seen is very large budget theatrical productions. Without knowing what this films budget actually was, I suspect that it was relatively low considering the minimal U.S. release and lack of the typical big-name stars.
Overall Alien Raiders is an excellent horror thriller with a good alien theme, strong performances and impressive visuals. As long as somebody teaches me the “finger grow-back trick”, I just may enter a grocery store again at some point. Questions or comments about Alien Raiders? Discuss it on The Ossuary Forums!
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