Xtro (1983)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Nice effects though.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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.

Abducted by aliens, a family man returns home to the delight of his doting son, but his time in space seems to have changed him in this gloriously uncanny horror movie. Underwhelming at first, the film stands up slightly better upon revision when viewed as more of a mood piece than a narrative. Largely shot in the dead of night with imaginative creature effects and a sound design that creatively fuses music and sound effects, the film simply drips with atmosphere. There are also several unsettling moments that impressively do not rely on effects, lighting or music, such as lead actor Philip Sayer swallowing snake eggs (just one of the many strange things he does upon returning). Creepy as it may be, 'Xtro' does not exactly spin an airtight narrative and as the boy's toys randomly come to life and as he turns homicidal, one gets the distinct feeling that the project exists as mainly an excuse for director Harry Bromley Davenport to experiment and be as creative as he can when it comes to shocks and horror. That said, the film does play with some very tangible themes and issues - most notably, the void a parent leaves when away for a long time and the uncertainty of whether someone is still the same after being away for so long. Indeed, were it not for all the deaths, the whole film could be read as a manifestation of the boy's anxieties after being separated from his father.

This movie is as bad as it gets in 80s sci-fi horror, and that is exactly why I liked it. The acting is terrible, the story is bland, the characters are lame, and the special effects are cheesy. These are all what make this movie great. Because even though these points all shine through, its still a watchable movie. I was hooked as soon as I pushed play. Even my girlfriend laughed the whole way through, and she hates Sci-Fi, let alone 80s movies. The big redeeming quality though is the artistry. The alien in the beginning, the cacoon in the bathroom, etc. Just great.

"When Steve grows up, he's going to watch all the movies his daddy said no to."I've told this story many times before, so I'll be brief: When I was a kid, I wasn't allowed to watch horror (or any rated-R without my parent's consent) movies, so the closest I could get would be the Fry's Food Store's horror video section and the empty video boxes. One movie that I "fantasized" about watching one day was Xtro. It would be 25 years later before I saw it.Worth the wait? Eh. I'm glad at least I can cross it off the list.I'm guessing, this 1983 (FOREIGN) movie was in response to the enormous success of 1982's E.T. especially with the movie poster's tag line "Some extra-terrestrials aren't friendly." Uhhh, I think that was proved a lot more clearly 4 years prior in that little indie Ridley Scott flick.Well, the movie might have started as an alien/sci-fi film with bright lights, bad special effects and a creature stalking innocents. Then it metamorphosis into Plot B: a family story with a lost father from Plot A and then further into Plot C when the kid gets mysterious powers and becomes a deranged killer who uses his toys as his minions. Well, most of them are toys. One's a midget with clown makeup. Finally, it comes full circle with Plot D as the "x-tro'ials" and Close Encounters, I suppose.Even though the movie's all over the place, it's actually a step above most of the horror theatrical release-of-the-week in the early 1980s. Plot C(lown) is probably the creepiest part – including a boy and his first menstrual period? – and perhaps would've made the whole movie scarier if that was the main and only focus. Of course, this would leave Plot A's birth of a man-child. Literally.It's only recommended to die-hard horror fans of the early 1980s.