Alien Trespass - A Modern Day '50s B-movie

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There is no shortage of bad movies in this world.  What is rare are bad movies so bad, they’re good.  Ed Wood was legendary for these sorts of films.  The 1950s was the golden age of bad movies.  Studios, both major and independent, were cranking out product at a feverish pace.  Many of these films would become fodder for Mystery Science Theater 3000.  But, as bad as many of these movies were, they were loved.  Perhaps it was because the passion of the filmmakers shone through, even when their talent did not.  Or maybe it was because we saw them when we were too young to know better.  Either way, the ‘50s was a heyday for B-movies.

Alien Trespass attempts to hearken back to those days.  Set in 1957, it’s a low-budget affair but deliberately so.  Eric McCormack plays astronomer Ted Lewis.  Living in a small town in California's Mojave Desert, Lewis is up late preparing to watch a meteor shower with his wife (my second favorite type of shower to enjoy with the wife).  However, mixed in with the meteors is an alien spaceship that crashes to Earth.  The crash is witnessed (mid-petting) by two teenagers who barely escape the attack of Ghota, a one-eyed alien bent on destroying any planet it lands on.  However, Ghota was a prisoner on this ship.  Another alien, robot-like in nature, named Urp was piloting the ship.  He is out to capture Ghota before he replicates and overtakes Earth.  In order to blend in, Urp inhabits the body of Lewis while he hunts for Ghota. 

Alien Trespass is a campy thing.  It’s part parody, part homage to ‘50s sci-fi flicks such as Plan 9 From Outer Space.  The effects are substandard, the plot is silly and the acting is sketchy…but that’s a good thing.  Unfortunately, the effects are substandard, the plot is silly and the acting is sketchy…and that’s a bad thing.  For all of its good intentions, it can’t overcome the fact that it’s just not a very good movie.  It clocks in at 90 minutes but feels closer to two hours.

It fails to become a full on parody like The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra.  Instead, it falls into its own trap of B-movie schlock.  Far too much of the movie feels as if it’s being played straight.  Granted, its source materials played it straight but they thought they were making good movies.  That was part of, no, much of their charm.  While the cheap effects and wooden dialogue can be mildly amusing, it’s much more difficult to overlook the fact that the movie is boring.  If you parody a bad movie but leave out the “parody”, all you’re left with is a bad movie.  A recreation does not a parody make.  The movie wants to be the “Weird Al” Yankovic of ‘50s sci-fi movies.  It ends up being a substandard tribute band.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being Iron Giant and 1 being Invaders From Mars, Alien Trespass gets a 5.

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