Alien Raiders, a low-budget horror flick revolving around paranormal mystery, is a key example of the genre's most common faults. Despite starting off in a strong vein, building momentum and establishing character, the movie doesn't take long to reach a point of stagnancy. The second half, which succumbs to the now cliché structural devices of having characters be popped off one by one whilst running around the dark, belittles what promise is shown in earlier moments. What results from this is a disappointing experience that titillates but never fulfils. Horror die-hards may want to give it a shot simply because it does have its fair share of scares and tense atmospheres, but for everyone else, this is simply a case of too little stretched out for too long; a tired exploitation of a strong premise.
Taking place during the holiday season, Alien Raiders centres around a supermarket which is promptly taken under siege with all people inside as hostages. From here the movie divulges into a series of intrigue-building scenes which prompt us to believe that this simply isn't a robbery; in fact, it might just be from out of this world, literally speaking. At this point the feature is fluid, interesting and engaging, not just from its expertly paced structure, but through its construction of characters. Sure enough, these aren't the most compelling of personalities to spend ninety minutes with, but they at least show promise of going somewhere. Disappointingly however, it isn't long before we realise that no, this really isn't going anywhere at all.
The remainder of the movie's runtime is devoted largely to killing off the main cast, very slowly. All the while, we are given overt hints as to special plot twists and turns to come later on- not only are they made too obvious to the point that when they happen we feel underwhelmed, but the twists themselves are largely inconsequential. So what the movie essentially boils down to during its middle and later acts is a lazy excuse for delivering drawn-out scares. Granted, there are moments when Alien Raiders achieves a real sense of foreboding atmosphere and horror, but such moments are so far and few between long, inane dialogue scenes that they irrevocably lose much of their visceral impact. A contrasting of the movie's opening shots and those that end it reveal obvious differences in tension and pacing- Alien Raiders is a movie that relies on its audience members being confused, so when things begin unravel, a distinct lack of development from there on in hurts its ability to grasp the attention of the viewer.
Aesthetically speaking however, the feature is remarkably solid for such a small production. Performances from the main cast are strong; even if their characters are too often found spouting cliché lines from the book of scares and thrills 101. Visual effects and production values too are impressive in their concise simplicity that do well not to draw attention to themselves. In this sense Alien Raiders often reminded me of this year's similarly shot (and located) Stephen King adaptation The Mist, combining simple photography and effects with interesting ideas and passable performances. Yet burdened with the fact that a lot of the characters inevitably meet their demise in untimely fashions, a distinct lack of interesting qualities outside of its aesthetics too often means that such elements go to waste.
By the time you inevitably reach the end of Alien Raiders (that is, if you indeed make it that far), you will no doubt be left with a sour and bitter aftertaste. Despite starting off on extremely good footing, the movie deteriorates into a sloppy mess, wasting characters, performers and a solid premise in favour of trying to be like every other Hollywood horror out there. Rather fittingly, the movie's final note is one of bewildering inconsequentiality- it's one of those twists that are more or less pointed out fifteen minutes into the movie and then restated every other ten; the only mystery then is guessing just when in the third act the proverbial carpet will be pulled. If there's any reason to put yourself through the experience, it's simply to see the promise that those involved so obviously have. Perhaps with a little more focus and development, a project such as this could have been made into something of much greater value but this sadly isn't the case. In conclusion I must reiterate that Alien Raiders isn't a horrible movie; it's just a really disappointing one.
- A review by Jamie Robert Ward (http://www.invocus.net)
