Retro Film Review: The Alien Within (Unknown Origin, 1995)

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(source: imdb.com)

Today's major wars might be fought for land, but in very near future that is not going to be the case, at least according to the authors of The Alien Within a.k.a. Unknown Origin, 1995 science fiction horror directed by Scott P. Levy. In 2020 the mineral resources on land are exhausted and big corporations are turning their attention to the sea, establishing undersea research facilities. One of such facilities receives the distress call from nearby Russian platform. Rescue team is sent, only to find nothing but corpses. Soon it turns out that the rescuers got infected by mysterious parasite that accelerates human metabolism. To make things even worse, parasite is able to affect human minds so identifying the infected becomes difficult.

Low budget of The Alien Within is matched by the low levels of originality in the script by Rob Kerchner and Alex Simon. Even those viewers who aren't so familiar with the world of science fiction would probably sense that they have seen similar characters and plots before, particularly in Scott's Alien and Carpenter's The Thing. Of course, any kind of comparison between those classics and this film is going to make The Alien Within look very bad. However, there are some things that are making this film look good. Scott P. Levy's direction is competent and special effevts, despite low budget, look better than in most of 1990s films produced by Roger Corman. The acting is also passable, especially in the case of Roddy McDowall, who seemed to be motivated with the desire to redeem himself for Star Hunter. But most of the viewers would have plenty of reason to miss this one - in 75 minutes of running time they would be often reminded that there are much better films.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on February 1st 2003)