It’s sort of a creature double feature, but in both cases, the filler far outweighs the freakozoids….
ALIEN HUNGER (2014)
Alien Hunger is a SyFy caliber film about aliens terrorizing people in a house in the woods. So basically, it’s a zombie movie with aliens. Actually, it’s more like a zombie movie with aliens that look and act pretty much like zombies.
The film opens strong, with a spaceship landing and a couple in a tent being attacked by a freaky humanoid with a tail and long tongue. Not to mention, the throwback to 1950s/1960s sci-fi films is perfect. Soon, the aliens begin morphing, and end up looking like some sort of cool, mutated zombies you’d see in Resident Evil.
They’re fast, vicious, and can jump and leap through trees. However, while the practical makeup effects rock, there is some awful CGI that causes the jumping aliens to at times look like they belong in a video game, circa 2003.
Richard Hatch of the original Battlestar Galactica and veteran actor Vernon Wells have fun with their roles as local law enforcement in this silly b-flick, and there are some playful in-jokes about other movies, but unfortunately, the film slows down drastically after the initial alien assault.
Once the survivors end up trapped in a house, they spend a majority of the film just peering out windows and talking about how they’re going to get out! The saving grace is that one guy who loses his leg adds some fun comic relief.
The creature action picks up briefly, but I just wish there had been more monster encounters throughout. Finally while there’s an abrupt, anti-climactic ending, a tag delivers a cheesy midnight movie delight that promises an Alien Hunger sequel!
ANTIBIRTH (2016)
Natasha Lyonne and Chloë Sevigny play white trash druggy sluts, roles they were made to play…TWENTY years ago. But somehow, they still pull it off.
Anyway, after a night of partying, Natasha realizes she’s pregnant, gets zapped in the belly by a microwave, and begins having trippy horror dreams and hallucinations.
Mark Webber (Green Room, Jessabelle) is the local drug dealer cooking up some serious shit that causes grotesque deformities. And Meg Tilly is the mysterious woman who comes to town and…acts mysterious.
Antibirth is body horror with a bun in the oven, and it’s slow as hell. After 40 minutes, Natasha shows some signs of morphing, then after another 40 minutes, just when I was about to start sobbing from boredom, it’s time for the birth.
This artsy, edgy indie film turns into a total piece of monster garbage for the last ten minutes…and it is heaven. It’s like something right out of the 80s. Had I known what I was in for, I would have just fast forwarded to the last scene…
