'Alien Trespass' review

Or: 'Invasion of the Entertainment Snatchers'

By Matt Pais

Posted April 2, 2009

Metromix

Residents of a small town in late-'50s California refuse to believe there's an alien in their midst, even though the town doctor (Eric McCormack) talks strangely and claims to have had his body overtaken by something from another planet. He's also hunting a big, one-eyed beast with short tentacles that look like dreadlocks and a thick, cylindrical, vein-y body that makes the creature look like, well, you get the picture.

The buzz: "Knowing." "Race to Witch Mountain." "The Day the Earth Stood Still." What's with the current fixation on mysterious, outer space invaders? For what it's worth, "Alien Trespass" is the least serious (and potentially most fun) of the movies, though an intentionally lame, retro sci-fi flick from a first time feature director ("X-Files" producer R.W. Goodwin) doesn't really sound promising.

The verdict: A pale imitation of a drive-in movie, with nothing silly or sloppy enough to qualify as camp. Hell, even "Monsters vs. Aliens" had a few laughs, but "Alien Trespass" is so dry that it's nowhere near becoming so-bad-it's-amusing. This type of movie should be a blast for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew. Yet other than the actors (poorly playing generic types like a greaser, a square and a diner waitress) delivering tone-deaf readings of lines like, "If my father finds out we went to the Point he'll go ape!," there's precious little for the jokesters to work with.

Did you know? A bumbling officer is convinced that the thing turning townspeople into puddles isn't an alien but rather a psycho killer using really strong acid. Debate which of those possibilities is more sensible.