Xtro (1983)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

At one point a... Kid somehow manifests into being (via his dad who's come back as an alien through a way I won't get into right now) a... Human-sized toy soldier that attacks an old woman who lives one floor below them and... What?On the one hand this movie looks ugly - it has the film stock of a porno - but it's also so genuinely bat***t that I almost admire it's incompetence to get to the weird. I should put this all down more for lacking logic or just a simple explanation now and then - how does the alien or aliens work, how does stuff happen, why do they need to latch on to others to suck human essence, what's with the clown and the panther and I could go on - but I never doubt that the filmmakers are going for something truly demented. It's not Humanoids from the Deep, for example, trying to be a real movie and then have a bunch of carp effects and monsters and graphic rape. As a ripoff of Alien with some ET and The Thing allusions (intentionally or not), it's a true WTF artifact of the 80s, and the effects are creatively gross and morbid.

Alien is a haunted house movie in space that has begat a slew of imitators, copycats and outright rip-offs. 1982s Xtro, on the other hand, is truly a movie that has something for everyone: if everyone includes folks who want to see movie about a father reconnecting with his son, as well as a film where Maryam d'Abo is repeatedly naked, a kid discovers his psychic powers with a weird clown, an Alien-style birth scene of a fully-grown man being born out of a pregnant woman ("What is it with all the alien birth scenes in these movies? What is wrong with people?" asked my wife), toys coming to life, a child hunting down people like The Omen…truly Xtro is about ten movies worth of ideas in one scuzzy, scummy exploitation fever dream.I'll do my best to summarize the plot, but at any point, you may declare, "You're just making this up now." I assure you that what follows is as close to the filmed truth as possible. It truly is that weird film that even surprised a jaded viewer such as myself.Tony and his dad Sam (Phillip Sayer, The Hunger) are playing fetch with their dog. On the last stick through, much like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Sam tossed the stick high into the air and the screen goes white as he gets abducted.Three years later, the light appears in the sky again and an alien creature scurries across a British countryside road. It gets hit by a car, yet survives to kill the driver and his passenger, then find his way to a cottage where it impregnates the lady who resides there. Moments later, Sam is reborn, clawing his way out of the woman, even biting into a bloody umbilical cord before he leaves. This is ten minutes into the movie. And if you think this is the end of the craziness, read on….Sam wants to find his son, who lives with his mother Rachel (Bernice Stegers, Macabre), her new boyfriend Joe (Sinon Nash, Brazil) and a French babysitter named Analise (the aforementioned d'Abo, The Living Daylights) whose sole job seems to be getting naked every time she is on screen. Sam has nightmares about his dad every single night, waking up soaked in blood. Oddly, it turns out that the blood isn't his.READ MORE AT http://www.thatsnotcurrent.com/xeroxenomorphs-xtro-1982/

When first seeing this enthusiastic effort back in 85, I fully appreciated this film for it's originality, sick gore, and just being such an entertaining flick. I still do, but not just as much, but I still hold this movie experience deep to my heart. The scene which still stays in my mind to this day, which I find scary, was the soldier, tank scene, and too the bedspread blood scene. I fully appreciated, maid (Maryam d'Abo-The Living Daylights) fully naked and free. Walking a much similar path of plot to later alien films, the story revolves around the return of a father, gone three years, without a word, who can't remember what happened, as being overtaken by an alien, so we notice certain changes in his behavior, wonderfully played by actor, Phillip Sayer. Not at all pleased by this intrusion, by the new, common looking boyfriend (Brainin) certain conflict arises between the two, but the wife, of course gets sucked back in by hubby, who has now got to the little boy, who starts becoming murderous, starting with the killing of an old bat neighbor. Xtro is such a commercial treat, with 80's unrealistic gore, the last scene, quite graphic (don't touch pods in the bath) nudity, humor, conflict, good acting, and special effects. The film somehow has an enigma, or something that makes it come off better than it should. But really, the problem, I found with the movie, was there was just too little, to make it easy to follow, as if this part was really neglected. This was the real fault with this British. The film too has a nastiness about it, which just enhances it. Not for everyone's taste, Xtro, is a sci fi horror lover's delight, less violent than Inseminoid.

I am sure that back in 1983 when this movie was released that it was indeed a very ghastly movie, given its storyline and special effects. But by today's standards, well it wasn't particularly outstanding, so it didn't really handle the passing of ages all that well.The story is about how Tony's father Sam mysteriously disappeared in the countryside at the appearance of a strange light in the sky. Then three years later Sam reappears back into the lives of his son and former wife. But Sam's memory is gone and strange things occur around him.The acting was actually adequate all throughout the movie, but don't expect anything extraordinary.As for the special effects, well, considering this being from 1983, then it was actually adequate for its time. But by today's standards, not so much."X-Tro" isn't a memorable movie, and once it has been viewed once, chances are very low that you will actually sit down to watch it a second time. The movie just doesn't have enough contents to support multiple viewings.