XTRO (1983)

DIRECTED by Harry Bromley Davenport 

SCREENPLAY by Harry Bromley Davenport,  Michel Perry,  Iain Cassie &  Robert Smith

STARRING  -  Phillip Sayer as Sam Phillips,  Bernice Steggers as Rachel Phillips,  Danny Branin as Joe Daniels,  Maryam D'Arbo as Analise Mercier,  Simon Nash as Tony Phillips, Peter Mandell as The Clown,  Sean Crawford as The Commando,  Tim Dry as The Monster.

PLOT - One dark night three years ago, Young Tony Phillips and his father Sam witnessed a UFO hovering above thier home. An unearthly light filled the sky and Sam was seemingly abducted by the craft's alien occupants. He was never returned.

For the past three years little Tony has been telling the tale of what happened to his father on that fateful night. His story was dismissed as the rantings of an emotionally disturbed child. Tony's mother, Rachel, believes that Sam merely walked out on her and thier son and moved on with her life, settling down with a new partner, Joe, in the intervening years.

Life moves on at a steady pace, until one day Sam mysteriously reappears in Rachel and Tony's lives. Sam claims to have no memories of his whereabouts for the past three years and quickly tries to pick up his relationship with his son where it was left off years ago.

However, it soon becomes obvious that something is not right with the newly returned Sam. Who or what has Sam become ? What does he want with Tony ? Most chilling of all - what does his sudden return have to do with a UFO sighting a few nights previously, the mysterious death of a young couple and the hideous alien creature that lurks in the nearby woods ?...

TAGLINE  - Some Extra-Terrestrials aren't friendly. (This film was released a year after the massive commercial success of Speilberg's E.T - The Extra-Terrestrial and seems to be setting itself up as a more "X rated" horror version of that family friendly favourite).

PERFORMANCES  - I think the main problem with Xtro as a story is that none of it's human characters are particularly interesting...there - I said it. It's not the actor's performances that are at fault (they're all pretty much decent enough), its just that there's not a lot for them to work with.

Case in point - Bernice Steggers as Rachel. Steggers is a pretty good actress but Rachel is a pretty dull character. She's just a middle-class, middle England wife and mum who thinks that her husband walked out on her three years ago. 

Rachel is rebuilding her life with her equally dull new poodle haired American boyfriend Joe (Danny Branin playing an understandably pissed off but overly territorial and never likeable character), and her traumatised son, Tony (Simon Nash - who's just as wooden as you'd expect a child actor to be in an early 80's low budget film. For some reason Tony also speaks with a broad working class Cockney accent when both his parents are shown to be speaking in a slightly posh middle-class accent. He honestly sounds more like the Artful Dodger than a kid from a relatively privileged background).

As the film progresses Rachel wrestles with her feelings - does she really love Joe or does she still carry a torch for estranged alien abductee hubby Sam ? (she ends up sleeping with Sam, so I guess that answers that particular question). It's all pretty standard soap opera stuff if I'm being honest (if your average soap happened to include extra-terrestrial doppelgangers) and not that engaging really.

The story is saved though by Phillip Sayer's performance as Sam. True, we don't get to see a lot of Sam prior to his alien abduction (so we don't really get to know what type of person he was - presumably just a normal bloke, I'm guessing), but post abduction we get to see Sam being reborn (basically an alien impregnates an earth woman, she has a full nine months worth of pregnancy in about three minutes and out pops a fully grown adult sized Sam). Sam later explains that he was absorbed and "changed" by the aliens. So are we dealing with the real Sam mutated or is he just an alien that's taken on his shape ? The answer is never clearly given but its undoubtedly interesting to watch all the same.

As the film continues Sam's behaviour gets odder and creepier, eventually crossing the line when he infects Tony with his alien D.N.A which then causes Tony to mutate (and gain bizzare telekinetic/reality warping powers in the process), again whether this is due to some "alien invasion" agenda to replace humans or just a mutated Sam wanting his long lost little boy to be like him, is never made explicitly clear.

Either way Sayer gives a suitably unsettling and cold performance which is definitely the highlight of the movie from a character perspective at least.

SFX - Lots of great 80's practical make-up effects in this one, particularly the alien that first arrives on Earth with its twisted "backwards crab walking" body...

The scene where the woman is impregnated and gives birth to "Sam mark 2" is also pretty impressive, especially the way her stomach bloats to giant size in a matter of minutes - it looks bloody painful (and turns out to be both bloody and painful).

As the film progresses Sam eventually cocoons the sexy French aupair that looks after young Tony, turning her into a not quite alive/not quite dead alien egg producing "factory".

In the final scenes Sam mutates further, going from looking like a more vampire/zombie version of his usual self into a full-on alien "Skeletor" mode...

Tony also transforms (but to a much less drastic extent).

SEX & VIOLENCE  - Did I mention there's a sexy French aupair in this film ? Well, there is. Her name's Analise and she's played by future Bond girl Maryam D'Arbo.

Analise seems to be a total nymphomaniac and spends large chunks of the movie completely naked, shagging her boyfriend (when she should be looking after Tony). Literally all her character does is have sex and complain about her job. Needless to say she promptly gets turned into an alien cocoon thus causing her to fullfill both aspects of her character in one go, ie -to have sex (this time with aliens) and to look after thier offspring (in a purely non-consenual way this time).

Upon arriving on Earth, the alien casually murders a young couple who are unlucky enough to be out in the woods at night for reasons known only to itself...

The birth scene is just as bloody as you'd expect a scene featuring a full sized adult male climbing out of a  dead woman's ruptured womb to be. Especially when "newborn" Sam bites his own umbilical chord off.

When Tony gains alien powers he seems to have the ability to make his toys come to life (don't even try asking why, this bit's even weirder than anything else thats been seen in this film so far). 

Tony makes his Action Man toy come to life as a full sized being that then kills the nosy old lady who lives next door by bayonetting her to death (she had it coming. She killed Tony's pet snake with a mallet).

Tony also makes his toy clown come to life as a creepy midget who then kills a helpless caretaker with a spinning top (did I mention this film was weird ?).

Rounding out this toy related homicide spree, Tony later makes his toy Panther come to life. Analise's boyfriend is "mauled" to death by the (now real) black Panther (which is quite possibly the most tame and playful looking big cat I've ever seen).

Sam kills Joe by making his brains run out of his ears via telekinesis. Thus settling that particular "love triangle" once and for all.

After Sam and Tony bugger off home in thier handy spaceship, a traumatised Rachel returns home only to be killed horribly by something that has emerged from the alien eggs in her bathroom.

The end.

RATING  - What an utterly bizarre movie this is. It's one part body horror, one part a quasi-remake of 'I Married A Monster From Outer Space', one part an 'Alien' rip-off and one part a weird Lynchian arthouse film.

The story is largely nonsensical, the human characters are bland and I'm not totally sure that it all hangs together but its definitely interesting. Its also very atmospheric and has some classic 80's practical effects.

I'm giving it 4 alien dads out of 5. Its let down only by it's dull human characters but makes up for it with it's wonderful gross-out effects and unsettling moments of body horror. Definitely one for fans of VHS era sci-fi/horror sleaze.

ART - 

The above cover is great, but alas there ISN'T a scene where the randy alien "bum-sexes" a "porn star" looking woman to death. Not even Maryam D'Arbo's character would go THAT far.