Alien Within, or also known as Unknown Origin (1995)
I had first watched this movie back in 2003, while it aired on the Action Channel I believe. I caught the second half of it, and was interested on seeing the whole thing. Once I did, the movie became an instant cheesy classic. I hate using the phrase ?So bad it?s
good?, but it actually works here for this title. Basically every scene has some comedic element to it. Where else can you find all of this in one movie?
- A plot that copies (or if you want to be rude, steals) three other films. That being Alien, The Thing, and Leviathan.
- Actors who go into over the top mode at the drop of a hat with certain scenes.
- Editing mistakes that show you a stuntman being shot with a fire extinguisher, a crewman destroying a medicine cabinet, and the top of the waterline when the underwater base explodes.
- The story is set in 2020 (the movie was made in 1995), and yet nothing gives you that ?you?re in the future? feel. Hell, some of the stuff used makes you think that you?re in the 1980?s.
If you can go into MST3K mode, then you will definitely enjoy this movie. None of the characters were annoying, and some of them are quite interesting. Besides going by the name ?The Alien Within?, this movie is also known as ?Unknown Origin??which was a pain for me to find the DVD on Ebay, since another Horror movie with a very similar title (Of Unknown Origin) would show up in the listings. If you can find the DVD, I would recommend at least a rental. Just don?t expect anything close to average, and you?ll be fine. Another note is that the Cable airing is a few minutes shorter than the DVD?since for some reason they cut out the introduction meeting that starts off the movie. Finally, I?ll be commenting on the borrowing that this movie does with ?Alien? and ?The Thing?, but since I haven?t watched ?Leviathan? in years?I?ll leave that one alone.
The movie opens with all eight of our cast together. We get a quick idea of who is who, and what type of person they are. The leader of the group is Jedidiah Picket (Alex Hyde-White). The visitor to the base is Catherine Harding (Melanie Shatner?yeah, that Shatner). Our next two members of the crew would be the ?Jocks?. Louis (Don Stroud) and Fife (Sha-Ri Pendleton). The next two crew members would be your ?Cool guys?. Hawkes (Richard Biggs) and Wyatt (Rodger Halston). Which brings us to the final two, and they are the Medical staff. Dr. Henry Lazarus (Roddy McDowall) and Brill (Emile Levisetti). You might recognize about half of the cast, since they?ve been in other projects (film or TV). I knew six of the eight from something else that I had watched.
Roddy McDowall is the obvious star here, and his performance is never topped by someone else. Alex Hyde-White was very weird to watch in his calm-then very angry-and back to calm exchanges with various characters. I?m not sure if the Director wanted it this way, or if that?s how Alex acts. Sha-Ri was below average, but she wasn?t known for acting, but for being in ?American Gladiators? as Blaze. The rest range from not to bad to sort of decent. My favorites were Louis and Wyatt, since you can tell that they were acting in certain scenes.
Picket lets the crew know that they are behind schedule, so they have to work double shifts in order to make up for the lost time. The underwater base is there to mine for ore from the bottom of the ocean. Dr. Lazarus teams up with Louis to work in the mines?and since Lazarus isn?t usually in the mine, a laser drill injures Louis. The outfits that they wear in the mines are very funny. When you see their weapons later, it?s even worse. Louis is taken to the base medical lab, and Picket gets upset with the Doctor. At least the Doc isn?t in the mine anymore. The exchanges that Picket and Lazarus have happen very often in the movie, and that?s where some comedic moments show up. Plus, I think that?s a boom mic handle that you see over Picket?s head! Also, when Wyatt comes through that door?I was expecting to see one of the red guards for the Emperor that were in ?Return of the Jedi?, since that door looks just like the one used for the Star Wars film.
A Russian base needs some assistance, and they are the closest base to them. Picket needs volunteers, but Hawkes and Wyatt are not interested since it isn?t in their contract. Harding starts spitting out some mumbo-jumbo about a clause in their contract that basically says that they have to help out anyone who needs assistance. You know?sort of like that scene in ?Alien?, when the ship is taken off course to answer the alien beacon and two of the crew don?t want to help but have to.
So Picket, Harding, and Brill take the baking powder sub to the Russian base. Okay, it really isn?t a toy sub, but if they used one?I wouldn?t be surprised. Picket is packing heat, since he?s expecting trouble, or maybe he just want to shoot a crazy Russian twice. We?ll have to wait and see. Our next scene might seem familiar to you, if you?ve seen ?The Thing?. The search team finds a dead Russian in a chair, that used a shotgun to kill himself with. Yet, there is no damage to the head. In ?The Thing?, MacReady and Copper search the Norwegian base and find a man who cut his wrists and throat, and bled to death. The angle that was used to film the approach to the dead body is very similar.
The trio search the Russian mines, and we have another comparison to ?The Thing?. You know when the research team cuts a block of ice out to study the alien that left the ship? Well, in this movie, a small ship is removed from the mine wall, and then the small alien is removed. Leaving the mines, the team searches around other rooms and Picket finds some ?Video discs? or what we would call laserdiscs. It?s funny how huge those things were, and how small DVD?s are now.
Staying with ?The Thing?, when the Dog runs to the U.S. base and the crazy Norwegian is shooting at it, just to get a bullet in his head. Well, for our movie you have a scared Russian kid being chased by a crazy Russian with an automatic gun. Picket shoots the Russian in the head, and then AGAIN in the chest. Wasn?t the headshot enough?! As the Russian dies and falls to the ground, his weapon goes off?hitting Brill in the chest a few times. Brill gets up, and he?s an android! I doubt that anyone would be shocked to discover this, since it?s clear from his first scene that he isn?t human. Brill is clearly a Data copy from Star Trek. Oh wait, I mean a copy of Ash from ?Alien?.
Picket and Harding are quarantined, and Lazarus runs some tests on the Russian kid. His metabolism is very high, and probably won?t live very long since the body will burn itself out. Hawkes and Wyatt are discussing what happened at the Russian base while some bizarre movie is being shown here and there. Wyatt is enjoying the movie, which shows some chick (topless, and in underwear) fighting a few people. I have no idea what movie this is, or if it is footage from a real movie, but it looks even worse than what we?re watching now.
Lazarus runs some tests on the Russian that Picket killed, and notes that nothing was wrong with him. Lazarus wants to run more tests on the bodies to see what they died from, but Picket is more concerned with getting him back into the mine. Remember those laserdiscs that Picket found at the Russian base? Well, Lazarus plays them back and it looks like a VHS recording instead. It?s 2020 all right! The video shows a small alien that is in a state of suspended animation to preserve itself. We then get a glimpse of the Russian kid and it looks like he is either trying to belly dance, or he has an alien inside of him?not sure which.
Lazarus wants Wyatt to contact home base, but since there is a bad storm near them he can?t. So that means no one can communicate to or from the base. Fife visits Louis and they joke around a bit?then the Russian kid starts to spaz out. Now Brill checks on Louis, then walks away when Fife shows up. After being told not to enter the quarantine room three times, she does it anyways. Was Brill running away after he left the med bay? Since you see him and Lazarus running towards the room after Fife tries to save the kid. How could Brill be so far away from the medical room since his departure and the kids spaz attack happen in mere seconds. The kid died, and we have our first new host via a crew member.
Fife is eating everything in sight, and Hawkes is paranoid about her behavior. After her pigout, Fife is lying down in her room and is in some sort of pain. I do have to admit that Fife does a really good David Hedison impersonation from ?The Fly? with her ?Help Me!? yells. Wyatt hears her call for help, and tells the medical team that she needs their help. Fife is now in the med bay, under a plastic tent to quarantine her, and Louis wants to get out of bed, but Lazarus won?t let him. Oh, Louis is also strapped into the bed since his infection might have caused delirium.
Picket and Lazarus have another classic chat, and this one is full of bizarre dialog?coming from Picket. He is basically blaming Lazarus for the possibility of an infection that has entered the base. Let?s recap the events. While at the Russian base, Harding makes it clear that the bodies need to stay put, while Picket decides to take them to their base. Now, this isn?t important at the moment, but it will be later on. Next, after Fife ignores her friend?s advice twice, and also ignores her boss about staying out of the room, she gets herself infected?yet this is the Doctor?s fault? Also, just to throw this in to make Picket look even worse?he also killed a non-infected Russian.
To quote Picket in his conversation with Lazarus:
?If any of my people get hurt on this Doctor, in the name of Science I will take it personally.?
Priceless. I love how Picket messes up, or how other crew members mess up?and it?s all on the Doctor?s shoulders. Lazarus shuts down Brill to fix the damage that was given to him on the Russian base. While that is going on, Fife is going into a seizure of some sort, and Lazarus tries to administer some glow stick (medicine of the future) to Fife?s neck, but it won?t work. An alien then comes out through her mouth and the Doc freaks out and runs out of the medical room. Now, the little alien is on top of Louis and it?s clear to anyone that he is the next host for the alien?unless you left to use the bathroom during this scene. While the scene doesn?t copy how a Facehugger would infect a human in ?Alien?, it does have some similarities. When the rest of the crew shows up, we see Louis out of bed, with a steel pipe in hand looking for the creature?but we all know where it is don?t we.
We have another crew meeting that starts out with Brill and Lazarus surmising that the alien can only live in a human host for a few days, since the body won?t last longer than that. Hawkes is now paranoid about Louis now, and we get a taste of the paranoia that we saw in ?The Thing?. Wyatt also joins up with Hawkes and questions Louis. Even Harding begins to question Louis. Picket has some awesome calm speaking, then going into screaming, then back to his calm voice dialog that you should enjoy. Brill?s motion detector is a riot, since when he does the test?apparently no one in front of him moved the whole time. It also looks like some old antenna that you would use for a small black and white TV.
The flamethrower is so funny to look at. More like a small propane tank and tube weapon. It did look better than the ?Cryo-Rifle? that was used in the mines. I can probably find the same thing at Home Depot in the plumbing department. When Lazarus checks over one of the dead bodies from the Russian base that is under a blanket?the viewer will probably get déjà vu since it happened in ?The Thing? as well.
Lazarus and Harding chat while searching for the alien and we find out that Lazarus was betrayed by his Country for doing tests on biological weapons to find a cure. Instead of spending the rest of his life in prison, he was sent to the underwater base. The scene isn?t really that bad, even though Harding doesn?t help it much.
Our remaining group is split into two groups while searching the mines. Picket is with Louis, while Hawkes and Wyatt are together. Brill tries to keep contact with them, but after a while can?t. Can you guess what happens? If you said, that they think that the other movement in the mines is the alien and they try to kill each other, then you?re right. So, when all four finally meet up and argue?they have more movement. The alien gets by them and into a small dark part of the mine. When it?s all said and done, we see that the alien isn?t an alien, but the Doc?s parakeet. At least the plot up to this part made sense since the birdcage was damaged during the Louis takeover, yet how did the bird breathe while in the mines?
Picket and Lazarus yell at each other once again, and Picket brings up that line that I commented and quoted on earlier. The Doc explains to Picket that once an alien leaves a human body, a baby (or seed) is left behind. It apparently hatches itself out of the body at one point, since the Russian bodies that Picket brought back with him were carrying babies with them. So Picket was responsible for bringing four aliens into the base?yet it?s still Lazarus? fault.
Picket and Hawkes have a quick chat that only tries to move more paranoia around?but the part that I found very funny was this line from Picket:
?Wyatt is a space cadet Hawkes, he can?t find his feet half the time. Smokes too damn much of that catnip if you ask me.?
Okay, during the movie you?ll see Wyatt smoking a lot. Now, since it is 2020?you have to wonder if in the future, people were smoking actual catnip to get high?or the writers had a problem with saying ?Marijuana? and used catnip instead. Either way, it?s funny when you wonder just what was going on.
Another group meeting for us to listen too. Picket puts Brill in charge (and gives the android his gun), since the alien cannot infect him. This scene made me thirsty for Kool-Aid, since we see it in tubes behind Picket in this scene. Lazarus also tells the group that he?s thought of a test to find the alien, using lab equipment?but it never gets done since someone destroys the equipment. (This scene shows a mysterious masked and goggled person destroying the cabinet if you pause it just right) Sound familiar? Sort of like the blood test that they were going to do in ?The Thing?, before the blood was destroyed.
Picket thinks up another test to do for revealing where the alien is, and it involves suffocation. At least it wasn?t going to deal with petri dishes with blood in it and a hot piece of wire. We do have an almost exact copy from ?The Thing? though, with Picket talking into a recorder about the events happening at the base. His line ?Everyone is very tired?nobody trusts anyone else? is very similar to what MacReady said.
Since this was Picket?s idea, he?s the first one to be tested. The test consists of the individual being placed in a quarantine room, and having the air removed from the room. After the person passes out, twenty seconds pass and then Brill and Lazarus come in and revive the person. The theory is that the alien will show itself since it will think that the body is dead. Picket passes the test (gets his gun back, and is in charge again), as does Lazarus. Once Hawkes is tested, he begins to have a seizure. The door malfunctions for that extra dramatic effect, and Picket has to shoot it open. Lazarus tries to revive him but it?s too late. The alien shows itself and enters the Doctor. Lazarus begs Picket to shoot him in the head (How can Picket resist? It?s like the Russian all over again!), but waits until the Doc is running away to finally shoot him in the shoulder.
The attempt at drama is next to none for these tests. It?s so close to comedic that you?d think that something funny would happen on purpose during the tests, but it never does. It?s a shame that all of the actors (the ones still alive) couldn?t get together and do a commentary track for the DVD. I?d love to hear all the stories about this or that during the scenes.
After Lazarus leaves we see that Louis is infected. Picket shoots the alien that tries to leave Louis? mouth and kills it. Lazarus begins to make things interesting. He jettisons both escape pods, sets the base to explode (the password for making the base explode is NOSTROMO. Yeah, the name of the ship from ?ALIEN?), and a rescue sub is heading their way in a few hours, that Lazarus will meet up with by using the mini-sub. When he?s all done, The Doc does his Lizzy Borden impression and destroys the equipment with an ax.
Wyatt, Harding, and Picket split up and search for Lazarus, while Brill tries to stop the self-destruct. Lazarus finds Brill in the medical bay. Brill reports to Picket that Lazarus is there. Once Picket and Harding show up, we see the double cross?which is the only real shocker moment in the movie. Lazarus had re-programmed Brill while he was shut down for repairs. The Doc wanted to keep the alien alive so he could claim it as his own to show the rest of the world?not knowing that he himself would end up getting infected.
As badly as the special effects look for the alien?at least it isn?t computer generated garbage. I have more respect for the real object that someone made with his or her hands, than something that a computer nerd typed out in some computer program. Every effect is real, be it cheesy or somewhat cool. So you have to give a little bit of respect for that. Of course, I find the effects in older B movies good, since they did what they could with what they had.
Brill tries to impersonate Picket over the headset and bring Wyatt in from the mines, but Wyatt has his hands full with an alien. Lazarus gives Brill the task of killing Picket and Harding, but Wyatt shows up and torches the android. While he?s being flamed to death, Brill shoots Picket in the stomach. Also, we have Brill screaming in pain for some reason. When he was shot at the Russian base, no sounds were given, yet fire apparently gives the robot pain?.okaaaaay.
Lazarus tries to escape from the base via the mini-sub but can?t?since the eye scan will only allow Picket to use the vehicle. It?s a nice and sort of cheesy way to keep Lazarus from winning. After taking Lazarus out of the sub and into another room to finish him off, Picket and the Doc fight it out some before Wyatt and Harding torch Lazarus. This scene has the poorly edited section where you see the fire extinguishers putting the stunt man out who was on fire. It almost makes the scene better?well, funnier anyways.
Wyatt is infected, and takes Harding hostage. Picket is attacked by another alien while getting the mini-sub ready but he kills it. Picket and Wyatt fight some before Harding torches Wyatt. All these fire kills?does it remind you of ?The Thing? in how they killed off their infected? It should. So our final two survivors (Picket and Harding) leave the base and this scene has the poorly shot explosion that reveals the top of the waterline that is just inches above the base. To add something that I really can?t explain or put into words?we find out that Picket and Harding are infected somehow. At least the others had some type of scene setting up their infection?yet these two are infected apparently by magic. Time to roll the ending credits, and we see that whoever was in charge of them misspelled Richard Biggs last name as ?Briggs?. How embarrassing.
You will be hard pressed to find those who can enjoy this movie, but a select few will find it entertaining. Like the old saying goes ?One man?s trash is another man?s treasure?. I?m sure that people can find movies that I personally dislike, and see them as good movies, and in turn I could find movies that they dislike and find them worthy of some praise. If it weren?t for MST3K?s influence on my viewing tastes/patience level, then this movie wouldn?t have had a snowball?s chance in Hell with me. Fans of the three movies that they reference should view this movie at least once just to see the comparisons.
August 7, 2009
