NOctoberween #15 (The Week of Gutter Trash 6): Alien from the Abyss (1989)
(8/10): So here we have one of many ripoffs/cash-ins on the Alien Films, and this is one that is worth checking out, but you might want to exercise patience with it as it takes a bit of time to get the titular alien.
Alien from the Abyss is about a group of people who are trying to get footage of a corporation that is disposing high amounts of waste into a volcano causing high amounts of pollution.
They end up being spotted and one hides the tape but gets caught, two of them get killed and one escapes and is rescued by a man who is living in the jungle in isolation studying snake venom to cure infections and diseases.
She manages to convince him to help her attempt to rescue her cameraman, meanwhile while the corporation is doing studying underwater a diver finds something, that something ends up killing him and then destroying a boat and the dock.
The scientist who works for the company finds a strange object on the shoreline and takes it in for studying as there's a strong possibility that it came from whatever killed those people. He finds that it's otherworldly and that it is nearly indestructible with their technology.
Our two protagonists are venturing through the jungle towards the facility when they feel a huge quake and see that something big is moving underground. They manage to get out and continue towards the building where they rescue the cameraman who has now been a subject of heavy interrogation through torturous means.
They attempt to go back for the tape but the cameraman is attacked by a giant slimy black arm with a huge pincer and then after feeling like the slime from the arm is able to be passed on like an infection he ends up killing himself.
Now it's just our protagonists trying to escape the island alive and shut down the shady corporation, but they have not just the entire company out there but an enormous unidentified creature that leaves nothing but destruction in its wake.
Directed by Antonio Margheriti, this film honestly feels like it's two different movies smashed together; A Corrupt company that has a group of people attempting to expose it and then you have your Alien Ripoff.
The acting and dubbing isn't great and the pace can be an issue, trust me I was even questioning where the alien is and when it's going to get interesting, but when the alien first comes into the picture the wait is actually pretty worth it in my opinion.
The crew finally gets to demonstrate some of their effects, and while the cameraman falling to his death is low key pretty funny as it looks so fake the rest of the effects are, well I don't know how to say it without saying what really made the movie for me.
The gore effects are okay but not the greatest, it looks best when it is more like a pulsating infectious tumour on a character's body, however the effect that stole the show was the alien.
Firstly the alien actually has a pretty cool and unique design, it's somewhat of a mix between a crustacean, a UFO and a giant robot and it's pretty big, possibly even a bit bigger than the Alien Queen. To be quite frank, even though it moves around a bit clunky, which you could just say is the robotic parts of it, it's heavily detailed and I think it just looks sick.
To be honest if you want to watch it, I'm not really one to say skip until the last so and so minutes but exercise patience and maybe even just have it going in the background so you can still watch it but you don't have to put your full attention on it until the last half hour, either way I thought that it was pretty cool once it got going but that's just it, it needs time to get interesting.
(8/10): So here we have one of many ripoffs/cash-ins on the Alien Films, and this is one that is worth checking out, but you might want to exercise patience with it as it takes a bit of time to get the titular alien.
Alien from the Abyss is about a group of people who are trying to get footage of a corporation that is disposing high amounts of waste into a volcano causing high amounts of pollution.
They end up being spotted and one hides the tape but gets caught, two of them get killed and one escapes and is rescued by a man who is living in the jungle in isolation studying snake venom to cure infections and diseases.
She manages to convince him to help her attempt to rescue her cameraman, meanwhile while the corporation is doing studying underwater a diver finds something, that something ends up killing him and then destroying a boat and the dock.
The scientist who works for the company finds a strange object on the shoreline and takes it in for studying as there's a strong possibility that it came from whatever killed those people. He finds that it's otherworldly and that it is nearly indestructible with their technology.
Our two protagonists are venturing through the jungle towards the facility when they feel a huge quake and see that something big is moving underground. They manage to get out and continue towards the building where they rescue the cameraman who has now been a subject of heavy interrogation through torturous means.
They attempt to go back for the tape but the cameraman is attacked by a giant slimy black arm with a huge pincer and then after feeling like the slime from the arm is able to be passed on like an infection he ends up killing himself.
Now it's just our protagonists trying to escape the island alive and shut down the shady corporation, but they have not just the entire company out there but an enormous unidentified creature that leaves nothing but destruction in its wake.
Directed by Antonio Margheriti, this film honestly feels like it's two different movies smashed together; A Corrupt company that has a group of people attempting to expose it and then you have your Alien Ripoff.
The acting and dubbing isn't great and the pace can be an issue, trust me I was even questioning where the alien is and when it's going to get interesting, but when the alien first comes into the picture the wait is actually pretty worth it in my opinion.
The crew finally gets to demonstrate some of their effects, and while the cameraman falling to his death is low key pretty funny as it looks so fake the rest of the effects are, well I don't know how to say it without saying what really made the movie for me.
The gore effects are okay but not the greatest, it looks best when it is more like a pulsating infectious tumour on a character's body, however the effect that stole the show was the alien.
Firstly the alien actually has a pretty cool and unique design, it's somewhat of a mix between a crustacean, a UFO and a giant robot and it's pretty big, possibly even a bit bigger than the Alien Queen. To be quite frank, even though it moves around a bit clunky, which you could just say is the robotic parts of it, it's heavily detailed and I think it just looks sick.
To be honest if you want to watch it, I'm not really one to say skip until the last so and so minutes but exercise patience and maybe even just have it going in the background so you can still watch it but you don't have to put your full attention on it until the last half hour, either way I thought that it was pretty cool once it got going but that's just it, it needs time to get interesting.